June 4, 2025 • 15 mins
Hey friend!
In last week’s episode, I talked about the importance of adaptability and in true confession, I didn’t start working on flexing my adaptability muscles until I was in my 40’s when I started traveling outside of the U.S.
In today’s episode, I explore what happens when we are not adaptable. If you see yourself in some of the characteristics I describe, here’s the good news: the ability to adapt is not a personality trait, it is a skill that you develop with practice. It is a muscle you flex.
Next week’s episode will be your call to action for developing adaptability. I you like this series on adaptability, please consider leaving a review. It really helps others find the podcast.
I pray this blesses you!
Becky
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
In last week's episode, I shared my motto for adaptability.
(00:06):
Make a plan, work the plan, don't fall in love with the plan.
And once I adopted that motto several years ago, I've made it a practice to come up with
a plan A, and then a plan B, and then a plan C, preparing to be adaptable.
This week's episode was entitled, Are You Adaptable?
(00:29):
Today we're going to talk about what happens when we're not adaptable.
Ready to hear more?
Let's dive in to today's episode.
Hey friend, are you a people pleasing conflict avoiding leader?
Is your secret relationship with fear affecting your leadership decisions?
(00:50):
Do you want to learn how to build credibility and confidence or to navigate difficult conversations?
Do you long to manage your time without sacrificing your family or self-care?
Welcome to Leadership Becomes Her.
I'm Becky Burroughs, your host and a minister and life and leadership coach with over 50 years
(01:10):
experience in leadership.
I firmly believe God has given you everything you need to lead well.
You have the toolbox.
You just need to learn how to use the tools.
So get comfy or start a mindless task.
You know how to pause or rewind if you need to.
Let's get started.
(01:36):
So let's begin with what happens when we're not adaptable in ministry.
Well, here's how you can tell that a minister or even a staff is not particularly
adaptable.
It's when they cling to outdated programs even when the engagement drops.
(01:58):
Sometimes on our ministry staff we say, "Hey, remember when we were kids?"
And it was common practice to knock on doors, cold calling people to offer to do a Bible
study with them.
Remember when our parents used to show film strips to people in order to convert them?
Well, even something such as a gospel meeting, I grew up where it was a common place for
(02:22):
a church to have a week long gospel meeting.
And when my parents were young, those week long gospel meetings were always took place in
a tent.
And yet over time as society changes, as needs change, we have to adapt as churches.
We have to adapt our programs when the internet came out and people started developing websites,
(02:47):
churches that were able to adapt also developed websites.
Some church websites are pretty sad looking.
And what some churches don't realize is that nowadays before people even darken your doorstep,
they've already thoroughly researched you on the internet.
They've already made all kinds of decisions about your church based on what they're seeing
(03:12):
on your website.
And so when we cling to outdated programs even when it's the engagement drops, that's a sign
that we're not being adaptable.
When a church refuses to use digital tools or social media because we do this other thing
because it's the way we've always done it.
(03:33):
We pass out flyers in the neighborhood because that's the way we've always done it.
We're not going to get on social media even though again, a lot of people, the first thing
they do is look for your organization on social media.
It's a, it gives you some kind of instant credibility to an extent when they go there.
Or there are churches that dismiss younger voices.
(03:56):
They dismiss new ideas.
So when a church is not adaptable, they don't bring in the younger voices to hear their
thoughts, their opinions, their ideas.
They cling to what the older ones have decided in the way we've always done it.
So a ministry example would be when let's say there's a woman who's over women's ministry
(04:20):
and she continues to have Tuesday morning ladie’s Bible class even though the majority
of the women in that church work full time.
So as the attendance dwindles as the older people are dying off or moving into nursing homes,
she blames it on a lack of commitment, not realizing that it's her format that is no longer
(04:41):
serving the people in the church.
She's remembering a time when most of the women were stay at home moms and their ladies'
Bible class had a huge attendance.
But we live in different times now.
It is so important that our ministries are relevant to the people that we serve.
And when we fail to be adaptable, then our ministries often fail to be relevant.
(05:06):
How about in small business?
A way that a small business can show a lack of adaptability is when they ignore customer feedback.
Customer feedback is so important in business and nonprofit in churches.
But it's not just getting the feedback, it's paying attention to what the feedback is
so that we can adapt and make changes as needed.
(05:31):
Or if a business refuses to embrace e-commerce or digital marketing or any kind of automation
system in the payment or if they micro manage instead of adjusting leadership as the team
grows.
So for example, a small business owner refusing to set up an online store because, well, we've
(05:51):
always relied on word of mouth.
So sales decline because foot traffic has declined.
Because the competitors have gone digital.
So when a business refuses to be adaptable, the business becomes stagnant and it falls
behind their competitors.
How about a nonprofit?
(06:13):
For example, continuing the same annual fundraiser even though every year it is producing smaller
and smaller and smaller donations.
That shows a lack of adaptability or refusing to adjust programming.
Again, you're getting community feedback.
You're receiving data on the events that you offer but you're not making any changes
(06:38):
as a result of that information.
Or holding tight to roles or structures that are no longer serving the mission of the
nonprofit.
So here's an example.
A nonprofit founder, let's say, resists delegating responsibilities.
Here she feels like, I need to do this all myself to make sure it's done the way that I want
(07:02):
to.
Or they refuse to modernize their processes.
Volunteers might feel overworked and underutilized.
Donor engagement might drop due to lack of innovation.
There's a lot of competition out there right now for nonprofit donations.
And so it's extremely important that nonprofit businesses practice adaptability and stay
(07:26):
relevant.
What happens as a result?
Burnout?
The mission could drift away from what it originally was.
Donors disengage.
Unfortunately, the nonprofit could even fold.
We saw a lot of nonprofits folding after the pandemic.
And a lot of it, there were a lot of reasons for that.
(07:46):
But one of the reasons was inability to adapt to our current circumstances, things changed
in this world after the pandemic.
And not all of us have been able to adapt to that.
So what are some signs that you or your organization is not adaptable?
One sign is when you view feedback as criticism instead of a growth opportunity.
(08:13):
Now we all love positive feedback.
I am a words of affirmation person.
And when I receive positive feedback in writing, I will read it over and over and over.
It absolutely fills my soul.
But I don't learn anything from the positive feedback.
(08:33):
I don't get better.
I don't grow.
Unfortunately, it is the feedback that is less than positive.
It provides an opportunity for me to grow and to develop as a leader.
And so when we're not adaptable, we don't take negative feedback and use it as a springboard
(08:56):
to growth.
We stew on it, get mad about it, and then finally shove it in a drawer when we're not adaptable.
Another sign that we're not adaptable is when we react emotionally to change instead of
prayerfully and strategically.
One of the biggest changes that we see in churches post-pandemic is the number of our members
(09:19):
who are choosing to watch it streamed online rather than coming back to the building.
And we've seen that particularly with our elderly and with some young families.
It's just easier to watch it on TV than to engage with it in person.
And so those of us in church leadership, to be perfectly honest, we take it personally.
(09:44):
We're like, "Hey, we're back.
We love you.
We need you to come back if they can."
Now, there are some people whose life circumstances have changed, such as the elderly have
gotten even older.
And so they love having the streaming option.
But for the people that are quite capable of coming back, the ones who go to work and
go to the store and go, go, go places.
(10:04):
But for some reason, they can't go to church on Sunday.
It's very easy to react emotionally to that instead of prayerfully and strategically,
which is what adaptability calls for.
Also, you can tell you're not adaptable if you feel threatened by new ideas or younger
(10:26):
leaders.
You know, one of the major responsibilities of leadership is to develop those under your
leadership.
And some, I've seen some leaders who struggle to delegate, they leave all the big tasks
for themselves, telling themselves, "Well, I'm the leader.
I should have the most tasks."
(10:47):
Or, "I'm the only one that knows how to do this, so I'm going to do it."
Feeling some kind of weird job security, if they're the only one that knows how to do something.
But the truth is, if you're going to be a real leader and effective leader, you are actively
thinking about your replacement.
It's not your literal who your literal replacement is going to be, but you are training people
(11:10):
in a variety of tasks so that should you get hit by that proverbial bus, it's not going
to be catastrophic because you, as the leader, have put systems in place.
But part of that is accepting, even embracing new ideas and training younger leaders and
not feeling threatened by it.
(11:30):
So here's an example, let's say that a leader is offered coaching to improve team communication,
but says, "Yeah, that's not my personality.
That's not me, instead of being willing to grow and to step outside of their comfort zone."
And what's the result?
The leadership hits a ceiling and the team feels stuck or they react by leaving.
(11:58):
So do any of those examples that I've given sound a little too familiar?
If so, good news.
Adaptability is in a personality trait.
It is a muscle you can strengthen.
So when you are faced with a situation that is going to require adaptability, do you freeze
(12:19):
or do you flex?
And the cool thing is, if you have listened to this episode and you've identified something
that sounds just uncomfortably like you, you think, "Wow, maybe I'm not as adaptable as
I thought."
Here's the good news.
(12:39):
It's not something you're born with.
It's not a personality trait.
It's not a talent that either you have or you don't.
It's a muscle.
And you think about all the muscles in your body when you don't use them, how they get soft
and weak and flaccid and yet you start lifting weights.
Or doing some kind of exercise and those muscles get bigger and stronger and more developed
(13:04):
and it's the same way with adaptability.
You want to be adaptable?
Start practicing the skill of adaptability.
It's going to be hard at first, especially if you're not accustomed to it.
I can attest to that.
Because as I said in the previous episode, I didn't even start really trying to be adaptable
until I saw my daughter doing it so well.
(13:25):
She spent a year living in Italy.
She spent the summer in Africa and she would come and tell these stories of adaptability.
And I thought, "I was so impressed that she could do it at such a young age and I felt like
I had never been challenged to do it."
And of course I had.
There's all kinds of ways to be adaptable in the U.S., which means to adjust to change
(13:47):
and I think it involves with a good attitude.
If you're complaining about it the whole time, you're not really being adaptable.
And so I made it my mission to learn how to do what she was already doing so well.
And for me, practicing adaptability came in the form of travel.
But you don't have to travel outside of this country to learn to be adaptable.
(14:09):
There are things we can adapt to in everyday life.
And one of those ways is to when you're making a plan and you decide how you're going to
do something, make a plan A, then make a plan B, that's your adaptability plan.
And then make a plan C, that is if all else fails, here's how I'm going to adapt.
(14:29):
And over time you will see that you have flexed and grown that adaptability muscle.
Hey, I hope this has been helpful to you.
Let's do this again next week.
It is my prayer that this podcast inspired you, blessed you, or made you think.
If so, please share it with a friend, subscribe, and please leave a review.
(14:53):
Hey, I want to connect with you.
Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Send me a DM or email me at hello@beckyburroughs.com.
If you are a Christian woman who leads and you are interested in one of my Leadership Bootcamps
for Women in Ministry, this is a four week workshop.
Or becoming part of a Kairos Cohort, year-long group coaching.
(15:17):
Send me a DM or an email for more information.
We'll talk soon.
[music]
In last week's episode, I shared my motto for adaptability.
(00:06):
Make a plan, work the plan, don't fall in love with the plan.
And once I adopted that motto several years ago, I've made it a practice to come up with
a plan A, and then a plan B, and then a plan C, preparing to be adaptable.
This week's episode was entitled, Are You Adaptable?
(00:29):
Today we're going to talk about what happens when we're not adaptable.
Ready to hear more?
Let's dive in to today's episode.
Hey friend, are you a people pleasing conflict avoiding leader?
Is your secret relationship with fear affecting your leadership decisions?
(00:50):
Do you want to learn how to build credibility and confidence or to navigate difficult conversations?
Do you long to manage your time without sacrificing your family or self-care?
Welcome to Leadership Becomes Her.
I'm Becky Burroughs, your host and a minister and life and leadership coach with over 50 years
(01:10):
experience in leadership.
I firmly believe God has given you everything you need to lead well.
You have the toolbox.
You just need to learn how to use the tools.
So get comfy or start a mindless task.
You know how to pause or rewind if you need to.
Let's get started.
(01:36):
So let's begin with what happens when we're not adaptable in ministry.
Well, here's how you can tell that a minister or even a staff is not particularly
adaptable.
It's when they cling to outdated programs even when the engagement drops.
(01:58):
Sometimes on our ministry staff we say, "Hey, remember when we were kids?"
And it was common practice to knock on doors, cold calling people to offer to do a Bible
study with them.
Remember when our parents used to show film strips to people in order to convert them?
Well, even something such as a gospel meeting, I grew up where it was a common place for
(02:22):
a church to have a week long gospel meeting.
And when my parents were young, those week long gospel meetings were always took place in
a tent.
And yet over time as society changes, as needs change, we have to adapt as churches.
We have to adapt our programs when the internet came out and people started developing websites,
(02:47):
churches that were able to adapt also developed websites.
Some church websites are pretty sad looking.
And what some churches don't realize is that nowadays before people even darken your doorstep,
they've already thoroughly researched you on the internet.
They've already made all kinds of decisions about your church based on what they're seeing
(03:12):
on your website.
And so when we cling to outdated programs even when it's the engagement drops, that's a sign
that we're not being adaptable.
When a church refuses to use digital tools or social media because we do this other thing
because it's the way we've always done it.
(03:33):
We pass out flyers in the neighborhood because that's the way we've always done it.
We're not going to get on social media even though again, a lot of people, the first thing
they do is look for your organization on social media.
It's a, it gives you some kind of instant credibility to an extent when they go there.
Or there are churches that dismiss younger voices.
(03:56):
They dismiss new ideas.
So when a church is not adaptable, they don't bring in the younger voices to hear their
thoughts, their opinions, their ideas.
They cling to what the older ones have decided in the way we've always done it.
So a ministry example would be when let's say there's a woman who's over women's ministry
(04:20):
and she continues to have Tuesday morning ladie’s Bible class even though the majority
of the women in that church work full time.
So as the attendance dwindles as the older people are dying off or moving into nursing homes,
she blames it on a lack of commitment, not realizing that it's her format that is no longer
(04:41):
serving the people in the church.
She's remembering a time when most of the women were stay at home moms and their ladies'
Bible class had a huge attendance.
But we live in different times now.
It is so important that our ministries are relevant to the people that we serve.
And when we fail to be adaptable, then our ministries often fail to be relevant.
(05:06):
How about in small business?
A way that a small business can show a lack of adaptability is when they ignore customer feedback.
Customer feedback is so important in business and nonprofit in churches.
But it's not just getting the feedback, it's paying attention to what the feedback is
so that we can adapt and make changes as needed.
(05:31):
Or if a business refuses to embrace e-commerce or digital marketing or any kind of automation
system in the payment or if they micro manage instead of adjusting leadership as the team
grows.
So for example, a small business owner refusing to set up an online store because, well, we've
(05:51):
always relied on word of mouth.
So sales decline because foot traffic has declined.
Because the competitors have gone digital.
So when a business refuses to be adaptable, the business becomes stagnant and it falls
behind their competitors.
How about a nonprofit?
(06:13):
For example, continuing the same annual fundraiser even though every year it is producing smaller
and smaller and smaller donations.
That shows a lack of adaptability or refusing to adjust programming.
Again, you're getting community feedback.
You're receiving data on the events that you offer but you're not making any changes
(06:38):
as a result of that information.
Or holding tight to roles or structures that are no longer serving the mission of the
nonprofit.
So here's an example.
A nonprofit founder, let's say, resists delegating responsibilities.
Here she feels like, I need to do this all myself to make sure it's done the way that I want
(07:02):
to.
Or they refuse to modernize their processes.
Volunteers might feel overworked and underutilized.
Donor engagement might drop due to lack of innovation.
There's a lot of competition out there right now for nonprofit donations.
And so it's extremely important that nonprofit businesses practice adaptability and stay
(07:26):
relevant.
What happens as a result?
Burnout?
The mission could drift away from what it originally was.
Donors disengage.
Unfortunately, the nonprofit could even fold.
We saw a lot of nonprofits folding after the pandemic.
And a lot of it, there were a lot of reasons for that.
(07:46):
But one of the reasons was inability to adapt to our current circumstances, things changed
in this world after the pandemic.
And not all of us have been able to adapt to that.
So what are some signs that you or your organization is not adaptable?
One sign is when you view feedback as criticism instead of a growth opportunity.
(08:13):
Now we all love positive feedback.
I am a words of affirmation person.
And when I receive positive feedback in writing, I will read it over and over and over.
It absolutely fills my soul.
But I don't learn anything from the positive feedback.
(08:33):
I don't get better.
I don't grow.
Unfortunately, it is the feedback that is less than positive.
It provides an opportunity for me to grow and to develop as a leader.
And so when we're not adaptable, we don't take negative feedback and use it as a springboard
(08:56):
to growth.
We stew on it, get mad about it, and then finally shove it in a drawer when we're not adaptable.
Another sign that we're not adaptable is when we react emotionally to change instead of
prayerfully and strategically.
One of the biggest changes that we see in churches post-pandemic is the number of our members
(09:19):
who are choosing to watch it streamed online rather than coming back to the building.
And we've seen that particularly with our elderly and with some young families.
It's just easier to watch it on TV than to engage with it in person.
And so those of us in church leadership, to be perfectly honest, we take it personally.
(09:44):
We're like, "Hey, we're back.
We love you.
We need you to come back if they can."
Now, there are some people whose life circumstances have changed, such as the elderly have
gotten even older.
And so they love having the streaming option.
But for the people that are quite capable of coming back, the ones who go to work and
go to the store and go, go, go places.
(10:04):
But for some reason, they can't go to church on Sunday.
It's very easy to react emotionally to that instead of prayerfully and strategically,
which is what adaptability calls for.
Also, you can tell you're not adaptable if you feel threatened by new ideas or younger
(10:26):
leaders.
You know, one of the major responsibilities of leadership is to develop those under your
leadership.
And some, I've seen some leaders who struggle to delegate, they leave all the big tasks
for themselves, telling themselves, "Well, I'm the leader.
I should have the most tasks."
(10:47):
Or, "I'm the only one that knows how to do this, so I'm going to do it."
Feeling some kind of weird job security, if they're the only one that knows how to do something.
But the truth is, if you're going to be a real leader and effective leader, you are actively
thinking about your replacement.
It's not your literal who your literal replacement is going to be, but you are training people
(11:10):
in a variety of tasks so that should you get hit by that proverbial bus, it's not going
to be catastrophic because you, as the leader, have put systems in place.
But part of that is accepting, even embracing new ideas and training younger leaders and
not feeling threatened by it.
(11:30):
So here's an example, let's say that a leader is offered coaching to improve team communication,
but says, "Yeah, that's not my personality.
That's not me, instead of being willing to grow and to step outside of their comfort zone."
And what's the result?
The leadership hits a ceiling and the team feels stuck or they react by leaving.
(11:58):
So do any of those examples that I've given sound a little too familiar?
If so, good news.
Adaptability is in a personality trait.
It is a muscle you can strengthen.
So when you are faced with a situation that is going to require adaptability, do you freeze
(12:19):
or do you flex?
And the cool thing is, if you have listened to this episode and you've identified something
that sounds just uncomfortably like you, you think, "Wow, maybe I'm not as adaptable as
I thought."
Here's the good news.
(12:39):
It's not something you're born with.
It's not a personality trait.
It's not a talent that either you have or you don't.
It's a muscle.
And you think about all the muscles in your body when you don't use them, how they get soft
and weak and flaccid and yet you start lifting weights.
Or doing some kind of exercise and those muscles get bigger and stronger and more developed
(13:04):
and it's the same way with adaptability.
You want to be adaptable?
Start practicing the skill of adaptability.
It's going to be hard at first, especially if you're not accustomed to it.
I can attest to that.
Because as I said in the previous episode, I didn't even start really trying to be adaptable
until I saw my daughter doing it so well.
(13:25):
She spent a year living in Italy.
She spent the summer in Africa and she would come and tell these stories of adaptability.
And I thought, "I was so impressed that she could do it at such a young age and I felt like
I had never been challenged to do it."
And of course I had.
There's all kinds of ways to be adaptable in the U.S., which means to adjust to change
(13:47):
and I think it involves with a good attitude.
If you're complaining about it the whole time, you're not really being adaptable.
And so I made it my mission to learn how to do what she was already doing so well.
And for me, practicing adaptability came in the form of travel.
But you don't have to travel outside of this country to learn to be adaptable.
(14:09):
There are things we can adapt to in everyday life.
And one of those ways is to when you're making a plan and you decide how you're going to
do something, make a plan A, then make a plan B, that's your adaptability plan.
And then make a plan C, that is if all else fails, here's how I'm going to adapt.
(14:29):
And over time you will see that you have flexed and grown that adaptability muscle.
Hey, I hope this has been helpful to you.
Let's do this again next week.
It is my prayer that this podcast inspired you, blessed you, or made you think.
If so, please share it with a friend, subscribe, and please leave a review.
(14:53):
Hey, I want to connect with you.
Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Send me a DM or email me at hello@beckyburroughs.com.
If you are a Christian woman who leads and you are interested in one of my Leadership Bootcamps
for Women in Ministry, this is a four week workshop.
Or becoming part of a Kairos Cohort, year-long group coaching.
(15:17):
Send me a DM or an email for more information.
We'll talk soon.
[music]
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