I’ve often felt I’m great at flexing to my context and adapting to new challenges, but if I’m honest with myself, I am great at being flexible and adapting to anything, if it’s something I want to do. Recently, I’ve been exploring what more is required of me as a leader in this changing world and what I can learn to apply to my business and my work.

Our world is now defined by uncertainty and complexity, and, as a result, flexibility in leaders has rapidly become one of the most valuable human skills required. It is critical for all organisations navigating constant change on multiple levels.

Psychological flexibility is the ability to remain present, adapt to a shift in circumstances and take purposeful action that is aligned with personal values, even in the face of discomfort. It’s more than just being mentally fit, tough or resilient; it’s about being a leader who can hold multiple perspectives, regulate emotions and respond rather than react.

To develop greater flex, we need to focus on building skills in five core areas:

• Accepting emotions without trying to avoid or fix them
• Distancing ourselves and taking a step back for perspective to look at what’s true
• Remaining present rather than reliving the past or worrying about the future
• Anchoring in our values, where we know what matters to us and balance it with organisational needs
• And taking action with small positive steps, even when stepping into the unknown.

I often hear that leaders are constantly firefighting, and I’ve certainly experienced significant challenges in my leadership journey, owning my own business over the years, but the increased pace of change, along with the increased number of major changes we are experiencing at once, has left leaders feeling frazzled.

Building greater flexibility is a key prevention of burnout, particularly when leaders suppress their emotions to appear strong to others. By acknowledging how we feel when a challenge or change occurs, we are able to listen to what this emotion is indicating to us, and this can help us use our experience to respond appropriately in the moment. Leaders who have greater flexibility experience lower stress and greater wellbeing.

Being more flexible in our thinking enhances decision-making under pressure, where leaders are more able to pause, reflect, and choose actions that serve longer-term goals.

Flexibility helps us create safety and trust in our teams by role-modelling agility and openness, which means people feel safer to speak up, take risks and learn from mistakes. This trust and safety is also critical for a culture of innovation and growth.

This approach helps us anchor to what matters most to us amid the chaos by reflecting on our values, which are deeply rooted in life experiences, and can help guide us if we align them to the organisational needs.

Businesses of all sizes need to remain adaptable in their strategies to innovate continuously. Flexible leaders are better able to pivot at pace, reframe setbacks, and experiment with new opportunities.

When focusing on developing this skill for myself, I felt like so much of it referred to techniques I recognised and felt familiar with. After all, “flexibility” has been in our vocabulary for a long time and is nothing new.  However, much of what helps me and other leaders improve is about bringing our subconscious to the forefront of our attention, intentionally recognising when we can use particular skills and then taking the steps to deploy them in the moment, at pace. And it’s the pace here that matters; the rapid acceptance of new scenarios, shifts in outcomes and expectations that really create agility in leaders, teams and organisations.

The great aspect of this is that it is trainable.

We can work on developing our flexibility in many ways, including:

1. Asking what our emotions are telling us about any given situation. The more we practice this continually, the more likely we are able to tap into our intuition when most required.

2. Stepping back when a challenge occurs and reflecting on whether our thoughts about the situation are indeed factual, or a narrative we are carrying from something else.

3. Focusing on what’s within our control right now to remain present.

4. Reflecting on what is most important to you in your role, ask, “What truly matters to me as a leader?” Use this as a compass during difficult decisions.

5. Breaking challenges into the smallest next step, then taking it.

Developing psychological flexibility isn’t just important for us as leaders, it creates a culture that develops intergenerational respect and bridges cultural divides by supporting open conversations where everyone feels seen, heard and valued.