... is a combination of flexibility, your attitude and willingness to adapt, and versatility, your ability to adapt. The effectively adaptable person meets the other person’s needs and his own by treating others as they would like to be treated.Adaptability changes with context and most people think they are more adaptable than they actually are.

Adaptability

<ul><li>Confidence: belief in oneself and one’s own judgement and resourcefulness.</li><li>Tolerance: acceptance of opinions and practices different from one’s own.</li><li>Empathy: ability to understand and somewhat share the feelings and thoughts of others.</li><li>Positiveness: having a positive attitude.</li><li>Respect for others: sincere desire to understand and consider other people’s choices, commitments and needs in relation to yours.</li></ul>

Traits Of The Highly-Flexible

<ul><li>Subjectiveness: “This is the way it looks to ME.”</li><li>Bluntness: “That’s a stupid idea!”</li><li>Resistance: “This is the way we’ve always done it.”</li><li>Single-mindedness: “It’s my goal and nothing else matters.”</li><li>Unreasonable risk-taking: “I’m going to jump; won’t you come with me?”</li></ul>

Traits Of Negative Versatility

<ul><li>Rigidity: “It’s my way or the highway.”</li><li>Competition with others: “I’m smarter, prettier, etc., than you.”</li><li>Discontent: “No, I don’t like it this way. Why can’t we…”</li><li>Unapproachable: “Don’t bother me unless it’s worth my time and you agree with me.”</li><li>Difficulty with ambiguity: “Let’s nail this down right now.”</li></ul>

Traits That Undermine Flexibility

<ul><li>Resilience: having the emotional strength and knowledge to overcome challenges.</li><li>Vision: the power to imagine and to be creative.</li><li>Attentiveness: awareness of elements in the environment. It’s knowing when to act and when not to. It means paying attention to more than your own needs.</li><li>Competence: having an expertise and knowing when it isn’t enough to a given problem.</li><li>Self-correction: ability to absorb feedback and incorporate it into new and enhanced ways.</li></ul>

The Five High-Versatility Traits

Being willing and able to adapt your behavior increases your ability to communicate and build relationships with other people. The concept of adaptability, as developed by Dr. Michael O'Connor, my co-author of The Platinum Rule (Warner Books, August 1996), is a two-part process. It combines flexibility with versatility.

Adaptability

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