Adaptive Leadership program

Context

A federal government department sought to strengthen its senior leadership capability to navigate complexity, uncertainty, and systemic change. With transformation underway across policy, workforce, and service delivery, leaders were increasingly required to shift from operational management to adaptive, people-focused leadership.

Mariana was the lead facilitator and executive coach to deliver a tailored leadership development program for its executive-level leaders.

Program overview

The Adaptive leadership program was a three-month hybrid learning experience designed for 20 senior leaders. It combined assessment, experiential learning, group and three-way coaching, and practical challenges to develop both individual leadership capability and collective leadership mindset.

Program components:

• Five facilitated learning modules delivered in-person and virtually
• Adaptability assessment and group debrief
• Group coaching sessions to deepen reflection and peer learning
• Three-way coaching sessions involving participants and supervisors to embed insight and accountability
• A leadership hackathon to apply concepts through real-world experimentation
• Experiential activities and systems thinking exercises
• Individual reflections and leadership commitments to reinforce application

Key focus areas 

• Adaptive leadership in complex environments
• Leading across systems and silos
• Cultivating high-performing, values-aligned teams
• Unlearning default behaviours and developing emotional agility
• Shaping culture through intentional presence and communication
• Building psychological safety and resilience through experimentation

Participant shifts and reflections 

The depth of participant reflections throughout the program underscored not just technical leadership growth, but meaningful personal transformation. When asked to share their individual highlights and learnings, participants articulated clear shifts in mindset, behaviour, and self-awareness.

Key growth areas included:

• More intentional communication: Participants reported becoming more thoughtful and strategic in how they communicate, actively listening to understand context before offering solutions.
• Embracing adaptability and reflection: Many described a shift from reactive leadership to a more reflective, adaptive approach – slowing down, considering the bigger picture, and creating space for growth rather than rushing to answers.
• Empowering others: Several leaders shared that they now intentionally seek to empower their teams – fostering contribution, trust, and collaboration, rather than defaulting to giving advice or asserting control.
• Personal leadership transformation: Leaders acknowledged changes in their leadership identity, including being less authoritarian, letting go of the need to be right, and focusing on relationship-building and human connection.
• Strengthening purpose and authenticity: Participants highlighted a clearer connection to their leadership purpose, greater self-awareness, and a stronger commitment to leading authentically – including navigating introversion and extroversion more intentionally. 

In their own words, participants shared that they had:

“…become more thoughtful in how I communicate…”
“…allowed myself more time to reflect before acting…”
“…let go of needing to be right, focusing instead on taking my team on the journey…”
“…intentionally built more human connection and created space for others to contribute…”
“…recognised that adaptability starts with personal choice and mindset.”

These reflections demonstrate a powerful evolution: from seeing leadership as a role to be performed, to embracing leadership as a purposeful, human-centred journey of continuous growth.

Participant experience and impact

Formal participant feedback reinforced several important themes:

• Networking and collaboration emerged as major highlights, with participants valuing the opportunity to build relationships across teams, hear diverse perspectives, and stay accountable through group learning activities like the hackathon and bonsai leadership experience.
• The majority of participants recognised their own contributions to the learning experience, though a smaller group reflected on opportunities to engage more actively – a natural reflection in leadership development where growing ownership is itself part of the learning journey.
• Critically, nearly 80% of participants reported that the program helped them realise more of their leadership potential, signalling a strong impact not only on skills and knowledge, but on leadership identity and confidence.
• Participants shifted their leadership focus from technical problem-solving to curiosity, system awareness, purposeful influence, and adaptability – key indicators of leadership growth in complex environments.

Through experiential learning, coaching, and peer dialogue, the program fostered continuous learning, emotional agility, and practical leadership experimentation – key ingredients for building sustainable, adaptive leadership cultures within government contexts.

Facilitator reflections

“I'm really proud of what I witnessed as a facilitator and coach. What truly fulfilled my purpose was seeing participants commit to tangible actions that transformed their day-to-day leadership. This was not just a theoretical program – it was continuous, experimental learning where real transformations took place. The ripple effect was clear: participants grew themselves, grew their teams, and influenced upwards across the system.

This program deeply aligned with my values. As an employee change management and leadership development consultant, I believe adaptability is key in everything we do. Throughout the program, I learned from the participants too – seeing how they adapted through change, how they reimagined challenges as opportunities for growth. One of the most powerful lessons was watching the collective shift in how change is viewed: not as a threat, but as a catalyst for learning, connection, and positive evolution.”

— Mariana Marcano, Lead Facilitator & Executive Coach

"It was a fantastic experience being linked with Mariana—her immense capacity for insight, perceptiveness, and mentoring was gratefully received and highly appreciated. Mariana has encouraged me to grow as a leader and be more confident and self-reflective in my leadership style and interactions. I really enjoyed my time with Mariana and would highly recommend her to any public or private sector”.