Let’s get real – your business will never outgrow the limits of its leadership. Full stop.
You can hire the best people, invest in shiny tech, or throw millions into marketing. But if you, as the leader, don’t change your lens, your behaviour, and your relationship with uncertainty – you’ll stay stuck.
Brittle. Hesitant. Reckless.
And brittle, hesitant or reckless won’t cut it in this market – just ask the one in three SMEs telling NAB they’re already turning down business because they can’t move with confidence.
The only way forward is Adaptive. And that starts with YOU.
The Mirror moment
Every leader I work with hits the same point – the old playbook stops working. Growth slows. Competition surges. The exit looks shaky. The board wants answers.
And the temptation is often the same: look to others.
The team. The market. The next hire. The economy.
But here’s the uncomfortable truth: the only change you can control is the change you make. For yourself. To yourself.
This isn’t about wholesale reinvention or pretending to be someone you’re not. It’s about catching yourself in the shadows of your own habits, choosing differently, and leaning into deliberate behaviours that change outcomes.
Because you can’t build an adaptive business if you’re not becoming adaptive yourself.
You can’t demand curiosity, accountability and resilience from your team if you’re not modelling it yourself.
You can’t design a bold future if you’re still recycling the strategies of the past.
Right now, 45% of Australian SMEs are delaying investment altogether because they can’t see a path through the fog. That’s the cost of hesitation. The only way to cut through the paralysis is to start with you.
Brittle. Hesitant. Reckless. Adaptive.
This is where new ways to look at what’s in front of you (i.e. models & frameworks) come in handy. This is where my Adaptiveness Model holds up the mirror:
Brittle businesses cling to certainty, relying on last year’s data to solve tomorrow’s problems – just as inflation and consumer spending rewrite the rules.
Hesitant businesses see the signals but freeze when it’s time to act – and in today’s environment, survival is drowning out growth for too many SMEs.
Reckless businesses chase every scenario without insight, mistaking busyness for strategy – like job-hoppers chasing “greener pastures” only to discover, as AFR recently reported, that one-third regret their move.
Sound familiar? There’s a reason it does. NAB’s latest SME Survey shows confidence slipping, capacity shrinking, and too many leaders stuck in brittle, hesitant, or reckless cycles.
Adaptive leaders flip the script. They leverage uncertainty, not fear it. They design scenarios that act as both blueprints and guardrails – creating confidence for teams, boards and investors in equal measure.
“Leadership strengths can add, or erode, enterprise value faster than market conditions.”
Here’s where many leaders underestimate themselves.
Your strengths aren’t “soft skills” – they are the engine of your Adaptive Core.
Gallup research shows that teams who focus on strengths every day have:
12.5% greater productivity
8.9% greater profitability
and 15% higher employee engagement.
Think about that in the frame of performance and outcomes for a moment. Leadership strengths can add, or erode, enterprise value faster than market conditions. Wow, that hits, right?
Your Strategic may see patterns others miss.
Your Activator may create momentum when markets stall.
Your Relator may build trust that turns a collection of individuals into a true leadership team.
But here’s the catch: strengths left on autopilot can just as easily trip you up.
Focus becomes tunnel vision.
Harmony becomes avoidance.
Responsibility becomes overreach.
Communication becomes noise.
And right now, with 33% of SMEs reporting reduced consumer spending and 26% battling to recruit, strengths aren’t optional – they’re your most undervalued asset.
Adaptive leaders know their strengths, own their blind spots, and build teams whose collective power is greater than any one individual. That’s the Adaptive Engine at work – people, strategy and commercial outcomes working together, compounding opportunity and value.
the market isn’t waiting
The market is shifting under your feet.
McKinsey estimates that by 2030, AI will automate 30% of tasks currently done by humans.
PwC says that 39% of CEOs are not confident in their business model surviving the next decade without reinvention.
The World Economic Forum ranks adaptability as the #1 leadership skill for the next 10 years.
And recent AFR reporting shows larger businesses stabilising while SMEs stall, delaying growth initiatives and watching the gap widen.
So, the questions are simple:
Are you brittle, hesitant, reckless – or adaptive?
Are you modelling the adaptability you expect from your team?
Are you leading change – or waiting for someone else to move first?
Because the reality is this: your business won’t become adaptive until you do.
A final word
I work with CEOs, founders and boards who know that what got them here won’t take them to what’s next. Together, we design adaptive strategies, build strengths-powered leadership teams, and create scenarios that drive growth, resilience and extraordinary outcomes.
If you’re serious about leading what’s next – when costs are biting, confidence is slipping, and survival is drowning out strategy – it starts with YOU.
And if you’re ready to take that step, let’s talk about how we design the future you want – not just survive the one you’ve been given.