Adaptability is the capacity to react appropriately to changing circumstances. If you have adaptability skills, you can modify your attitude or adjust your behavior to different situations and different people. 

Adaptability Skills and Adaptability as a Trait

If you include adaptability as a soft skill on our resume, you show that you can embrace innovation, quickly respond to industry trends, and handle destabilizing scenarios with confidence. Certain people have an inherent ability to be more adaptable; they were lucky to be born with this trait. Change comes naturally to them. 

For example, managing an office day-to-day requires a highly flexible attitude. There is no way to handle all the curveballs an office environment throws at you successfully if you aren’t willing to shift your approach or deal with people in resourceful ways.

However, there is no need to panic if you lack this virtue: you can train your adaptability skills. Before we dig deeper into how to become more conformable, let’s find out more about the importance of adaptability skills in the workplace. 

Why is Adaptability an Important Skill?

Adaptability is a critical strength for business leadership. It is also crucial for managing high-performing teams. 

When hiring new employees, recruiters are interested in adaptability as a competency. To rank high on the adaptability competency, you need to show that you can reach your goals through various trajectories. You don’t quit when facing obstacles; you innovate to circumvent them and try a new approach. 

Hopefully, it is more apparent now how important it is to develop your adaptability skills to thrive in the rocky world of running a digital business. 

Are you interested in broadening your leadership skills? Read an inspiring story about successfully managing remote agile teams.

An Example of Adaptability Competency

To be adaptable is desirable because it shows a richness of character and an evolving mindset. Such a mental attitude will help you:

• Easily switch between tasks.
• Handle multiple demands thrown at you.
• Find the right people for the right job.
• Work in an office, from home, or when traveling the world.
• Maintain energy and pace when things get rough.

Therefore, developing adaptability starts with a mindset shift. Openness to new ideas and changing strategies are two essential elements of an adaptable character. 

It is next to impossible to work ardently unless you gather and incorporate feedback from the environment. Handling the short feedback loops in agile methodology is a prime example of adaptability competency. In an agile team, projects will fail unless you are highly attuned to the environment and you act promptly upon every stakeholders’ feedback.    

How to Demonstrate Adaptability in the Workplace?

To show that you are open to change, you have to handle a certain level of discomfort. When things run smoothly, it is easy to be a great team player and even a better leader. But when it’s not business as usual, your adaptability skills must shine. Having an open mindset won’t be enough. You’ll have to demonstrate that you possess adaptability skills through your behavior.

Examples of behavioral indicators that show you are an adaptable employee include:  

• Find ways to adopt changes that work rather than focusing on changes that fail.
• Implement new ways of working quickly and easily.
• Make suggestions about how to implement change.
• Adjust strategy to changes in the situation.
• Present willingness to learn new methods, techniques, and procedures.
• Prioritize according to the needs of the case.
• Retain a can-do attitude when facing setbacks.

If you find yourself high on the scale of each of these actions, you are most likely an adaptable person. However, experience shows that you can never be too prepared – everything we do has to do with “life”. Excellent adaptability in the workplace will help you set an example for your team. Furthermore, it will allow you to navigate across shifting career priorities and change is bound to happen. 

How to Become Adaptable at Work

Adaptability skills incorporate learning and taking risks. In other words, you have to be ready to frequently leave your comfort zone. Here are five ways to help you become more adaptable in life and at work:

1. Develop in interdisciplinary areas. 

Lifelong learning is nothing new. In a technologically disruptive world, there is no other way to grow in business. However, learning additional skills that go out of your usual training scope is a bonus. For example, a recruiter can get an extra perk on your resume if they can show they are highly skilled in technical recruitment and know how to assemble a software development team. 

Another example is software specializations. With so many new software development tools on the market, becoming an expert on Shopify, for example, will help you reach out to hundreds of potential new clients who are looking for a lucrative web platform.

Have an exciting new idea about selling online? Let us help you create your dream team and generate substantial revenue with e-commerce.

2. Become a risk-taker.

It is impossible to make any kind of progress without taking risks. Think about it: if you remain stuck in the same place, you will be comfortable. But at the same time, you won’t grow. Forcing yourself to take risks is among the most desired adaptability skills you can have because risks create new opportunities. Creating new opportunities, such as identifying potential in emerging trends, is the essence of business growth. 

3. Build resilience.

Sometimes, new situations and new people will inevitably test you. Experimenting, learning, and taking risks may end up in rejection and failure. Therefore, one of the vital adaptability skills you can have is the capacity to quickly bounce back from adverse outcomes. 

To deal with disappointment and failure, you need to:

• Develop your coping skills via emotional self-regulation. Simply put, welcome your emotions.
• Practice healthy habits to deal with stress. This means no late-night pizza and burgers!
• Accept responsibility for the wrong actions that led to the failure. Learn the lesson — what went wrong? How could you have overturned the outcome?
• Get inspired by famous failure stories. Even Jeff Bezos and Ariana Huffington had it hard at specific points in their careers.
• Create a plan for moving forward. Adaptability at its best showcases at the moment you choose a new path to move on from failed projects.   

Furthermore, by making time in your daily schedules, you can strengthen adaptability through these practices to impress your clients.

4. Accept that adaptability is a team effort.

We don’t live in a vacuum. Even if you work by yourself at home, you are still a part of an office. Your clients and teammates play a crucial role in how adaptable you become under trying circumstances. Clients will shift priorities. People will leave. Understand what your part is within the team and take accountability for your actions. You can’t change everyone else. However, you can change yourself.

In fact, the people you surround yourself with will be the greatest challenge to your adaptability since they come from very different places. Understanding the difference between what you can (your thoughts and actions) and what you can not control (other people’s thoughts and actions) is crucial to becoming a great leader and an inspiring colleague.

Are you looking to rewrite your business rulebook with new talent? We can help you build a winning team for your next project. 

5. Deliberately practice adaptability skills.

You can always undertake formal adaptability training. But short courses are usually limited in their effectiveness and more appropriate for hard skills. Soft skills often require deliberate practice.

You can tweak your adaptability with exercises, including individual and team exercises with the following activities:

1. Analyze and share insights about the difference in perspective and opinions about situations.
2. Acknowledge the possibility of other perspectives and ask questions to better understand the difference.
3. Think about your ingrained habits. Do you always go out to the same place? Do you use the same project management apps? Are you stuck in the same process workflow?
4. Question the expectations you have from people. Often, things do not turn out as expected. Distinguish between expectations and clearly defined project outcomes. Increase clarity by being bold and transparent in communication.
5. Write down an honest list of your own limiting beliefs and attitudes set in stone. How your fixed mindset limits your adaptability skills?

As long as you are willing to work on these limitations, you won’t lack opportunities in your career and business. By reflecting on a stale mindset, changing actions, and modifying courses, you are a visible representation of adaptability skills in the workplace. 

Adaptable employees make flexibility work like a charm and can handle challenges that arise out of the blue. If you want a dedicated team for your business, contact us today.

The post How to Train Your Adaptability Skills and Create New Opportunities appeared first on Cosmic Development.

If you think communication skills aren’t very important for the IT pro, think again. While IT professionals would gladly spend all day “talking” to computers in various languages, holding vast programs and datasets in their heads and solving interesting problems, today’s IT jobs require good communication skills in addition to the mandatory excellent tech skills.

Take a look at any job posting – excellent communication skills are likely to be among the qualifications that employers highly value. Even if the job requires limited interaction with the public, these interpersonal skills help you relate, persuade, lead, negotiate and express yourself when speaking and writing. They help you build strong collaborative relationships with your coworkers. 

Regardless of whether you are working in the software development department or your interest tends more to digital marketing, here are eight tips on how to improve your communication skills beyond the level of bits and bytes:

• Learn to listen
• What about writing?
• Get up and talk
• Make it clear
• Provide feedback
• Receive feedback
• Practice, practice, practice
• Get excited to learn

Learn to Listen

If you want to give the correct answer, you have to give the correct attention to the question. Listening doesn’t just happen. Do not mix the act of listening with the act of hearing. Listening is the action that leads to understanding, while hearing is one of our senses. Listening is an active process in which you consciously make a decision to listen and understand the messages of the speaker.

There is some multitasking work here. Try to focus on listening to the speaker first, then on preparing your answer. Don’t comment or bombard the speaker with questions every time there are a few seconds of silence. While listening, ask for a moment to write down your ideas so you don’t forget them and focus back to listening. This will ensure a healthier, more fruitful discussion later on.

What about writing?

In today’s electronic age most professional communication is done via the written word.  This means that people will form their opinions about you based on it, so it’s essential that your writing skills are on par. 

When determining the tone of your writing, think about why you’re writing the document, who are you writing to and what do you want them to understand. Aim for a confident, kind, and sincere overall tone. Ensure that your writing contains nondiscriminatory language, stresses the “you” attitude and the benefit for the reader. Think about who is on the other side of the screen and make sure that it is written at an appropriate level of difficulty. 

Get up and Talk

Are you all set talking to computers, engaging in digital conversation and would take that over the dreaded presentation any day? Instead of dreading public speaking and perceiving it as an uncomfortable experience, think of it as an opportunity to share your knowledge and engage with people.

Gather your courage, get up — and talk to people.

Think about what you want to say, and how important it will be for your audience to know it. How this information can help them in their daily programmer life, (or interaction with it.)

Make it Clear

The impact of your communication skills (verbal and written) depends on its clarity. Be concise, but specific. When doing presentations, for example, try to keep just the essential ideas in your slides. It helps both the audience and yourself to focus on the important things. 

Choosing your words is especially important when it comes to communicating information to non-techies. As an IT professional, you have a solid reputation for speaking a language that is largely unfamiliar to the general public. Many non-techies don’t have a clue about most of the IT jargon you use. 

Like writing code, you want the information you’re presenting to be clear and understandable. Don’t immediately assume your audience has previous knowledge of the topic at hand. What may seem obvious to you may not necessarily be obvious to them. Try to use simple language, and present your knowledge in a way that others understand and benefit from it.

Is that clear?

Provide Feedback

Historically, the IT culture is a culture that prioritizes direct communication and provides honest blunt feedback on the work. The Linux Foundation makes it clear “Your code and ideas behind it will be carefully reviewed, often resulting in critique and criticism.” Make your comments constructive, not corrosive. 

Inevitably you will get upset about a performed task at work at times. In those moments check your nerves and wait until you’re calm enough to deliver measured feedback. Address the problem, not your frustrations. Be kind yet candid; say what you mean in a tactful yet straightforward way. But don’t sugarcoat it either- remember you have one end goal: to make sure that the issue at hand is promptly resolved. 

You can achieve a number of things when you give quality feedback. It helps the receiver improve performance, helps motivation,  boosts confidence, develops interpersonal skills and understanding, and shows people you value them. Balance giving negative feedback with praise – give positive feedback to your team members when they are performing well. This will increase their confidence to keep up at that level of performance and encourage them to do even better. 

Offering kudos to your colleagues for a job well done is an excellent way to boost morale and reinforce positive behavior. A good team player is capable of giving both praise and constructive criticism. 

Receive Feedback

A good team player is also capable of receiving feedback. It feels nice to be recognized by your peers, doesn’t it? Certainly. Positive feedback undoubtedly fuels you to do more, it motivates you to do better. But so does constructive criticism. It helps you improve skills, work product, and interpersonal relationships, paving the way for more positive feedback in the future. 

When colleagues share feedback with you, let them share their complete thoughts. Focus on understanding their comments and standpoints. Giving feedback is difficult, thank them to acknowledge their effort. Process the feedback you received, ask questions to get to the root of the issue and think about the possible solution.

Constructive criticism gives you important insight for improvement. It is not easy to give and it’s certainly not easy to receive, but with enough time, patience, and planning, you’ll set yourself and your colleagues up for success. 

Practice, Practice, Practice

Do you want to improve your interpersonal skills? No magic shortcut here, only practice. Joining a technical meetup? Attending a Soft-Skills Seminar? The more you practice, the better you become.

And it is okay to fail as long as you try. Many programmers are introverted enough to know how difficult it can be to communicate sometimes. They won’t blame you or judge you. (Most of them at least.)

Communication is an art, and like any other art form – with a welcoming attitude and enough perseverance – it can be mastered to perfection.

Get Excited to Learn

Good communication makes you more open to other people. Boosting your interpersonal skills will get you a significant competitive advantage in just about all aspects of your personal and professional lives. There is always something to learn from someone, no matter the level of expertise you possess. Show interest in the people you meet and you will be surprised by what will come out of it. There will always be a domain in which you can improve. 

These eight tips for improvement will make you a better communicator, team member and (even more) skilled IT professional. Being able to give and receive efficient feedback is crucial when it comes to effective communication. What is the most important tip for improving your communication skills as an IT pro? Let us know in the comment section!

Sources:

ukessays.com/essays/information-technology/communication-skills-are-important-for-it-professionals-information-technology-essay.php

techrepublic.com/blog/tech-decision-maker/the-7-most-important-communication-skills-an-it-leader-should-have/

roberthalf.com/blog/management-tips/7-tips-on-giving-feedback-to-employees

themuse.com/advice/taking-constructive-criticism-like-a-champ

owl.purdue.edu/owl/subject_specific_writing/professional_technical_writing/tone_in_business_writing.html

kernel.org/doc/html/v4.10/process/code-of-conflict.html

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