While most people tend to rely on proven solutions when they encounter "unfamiliar, high-stakes situations," new problems often require new solutions. Writing for the Harvard Business Review, Jacqueline Brassey and Aaron De Smet outline three skills to help you adapt to "better overcome the obstacles posed by our old habits."

Jacqueline Brassey is a co-leader at the McKinsey Health Institute and a senior knowledge expert in the Luxembourg office. Aaron De Smet is a senior partner in McKinsey & Company's New Jersey office.

What is 'deliberate calm'?

In unfamiliar, high-stakes situations, many people experience high levels of anxiety, which often suppresses innovation. "This is the adaptability paradox," Brassey and De Smet write. "When we most need to learn, change, and adapt, we are most likely to react with old approaches that aren't suited to our new situation, leading to poorer decisions and ineffective solutions."

To successfully navigate challenges, leaders must adopt a refined form of self-mastery the authors call "Deliberate Calm." According to Brassey and De Smet, "Deliberate" refers to the awareness that you can decide how you experience and respond to a situation, and "Calm" refers to rationally determining the best response without deferring to old habits.

The practice of "Deliberate Calm" provides a solution to the adaptability paradox by altering our relationship with uncertainty.

"It enables leaders to act with intention, creativity, and objectivity, even in the most challenging circumstances, and it helps us to learn and adapt to novel challenges when the stakes are highest," Brassey and De Smet write.

3 skills to help you adapt to and overcome new challenges

According to Brassey and De Smet, three major skills that allow people to cultivate "Deliberate Calm," include:

1. Fostering learning agility 

It is important to be able to learn from previous experiences, experiment with new strategies, approach new situations with a growth mindset, seek and learn from feedback, and be ready to apply these lessons to new situations in real time, the authors note.

"The principle is that leaders need to be learners even in the most challenging circumstances," they add. A meta-analysis of dozens of empirical studies found that adaptability and learning agility were the key indicators of a leader's performance and potential.

To develop this skill, the authors suggest planning how you want to address challenging situations. This could sound something like: "Instead of trying to have an answer ready for all difficult, unexpected challenges today, I will approach them with curiosity and an open mind, inviting multiple perspectives," they write. "Doing this helps you remain open to feedback, learn, and adjust your response that otherwise may have been an unhelpful default reaction."

2. Learning to regulate your emotions

Brassey and De Smet note the importance of being able to recognize, understand, and manage your emotions while channeling them into productive ways to think and act.

According to research, leaders with greater emotional self-regulation typically exhibit significantly better performance, both individually and as a team.

However, "[b]efore you can regulate your emotional responses, you first need to become aware of what triggers them and what these responses tell you, because they can provide very valuable information," the authors note.

To understand your triggers and responses, the authors suggest keeping a diary for several days, tracking moments where you feel emotionally triggered, then describing your thoughts, bodily sensations, and actions.

Once you identify a pattern, "you can start regulating, learning not only to process the unhelpful emotions but also to become comfortable with the discomfort they bring," Brassey and De Smet write.

3. Being aware of internal and external circumstances

Brassey and De Smet also emphasize the importance of dual awareness, which is the integration of internal circumstances — including experiences, thoughts, emotions, and responses — and external ones — an objective understanding of a situation and what it requires.

"We are integrating two important things — the awareness of our own emotions, assumptions, and reactive habits, especially under pressure, and the nature of the situation we are facing," they write.

When we step back and take stock of ourselves and the situation, we are better equipped to understand our underlying motivations and intentions, as well as what the situation requires, and how our old habits can serve us in each situation.

"This makes it possible to observe yourself while in action — and then match your responses to the demands of the moment," Brassey and De Smet note. (Brassey/De Smet, Harvard Business Review, 3/3)