Adaptive leadership encourages leaders to adapt to changing environments by being flexible, innovative, and responsive. It focuses on mobilizing people to tackle challenges and thrive in complex situations. The main strategy is distinguishing between technical and adaptive challenges and addressing them appropriately. Technical challenges use existing knowledge, while adaptive challenges require new learning, innovation, and shifts in values and behaviors.
Ronald Heifetz, a leading authority in adaptive leadership, explains that adaptive leadership involves diagnosing the system, mobilizing people, and intervening skillfully. He advocates for leaders to “get on the balcony,” stepping back to gain a broader perspective on complex dynamics. Research supports Heifetz’s theory, including a study titled “The Impact of Adaptive Leadership on Organizational Performance” by H. J. Yu and colleagues.
The study shows that adaptive leadership correlates with increased employee engagement and performance, leading to higher levels of innovation, adaptability, and success. In management, adaptation is seen as “strategic flexibility,” where leaders adjust their approach to market changes or internal shifts. When facing “disruptive innovation,” adaptive leaders use emotional intelligence to realign strategies and team objectives.
Adaptive leadership equips leaders to handle modern business complexities, inspiring trust and collaboration. Rigidity in leadership leads to stagnation and disengagement, making it difficult for organizations to respond to changes. This rigidity results in decreased morale, increased turnover, and missed opportunities, creating a cycle that hinders growth and innovation. Below are 15 Strategies for Adaptive and Flexible Leadership.
1. Embrace Uncertainty
2. Foster a Culture of Learning
3. Empower Others
4. Build Resilience
5. Lead with Purpose
6. Anticipate Future Needs
7. Encourage Experimentation and Innovation
8. Promote Collaborative Problem-Solving
9. Leverage Diverse Perspectives
10. Adapt Responses Based on Continuous Learning
11. Articulate Needs Clearly
12. Implement Flexible Decision-Making Processes
13. Continuously Reassess and Adjust Strategies
14. Leverage Emotional Intelligence
15. Practice Organizational Justice
1. Embrace Uncertainty
Embracing uncertainty is accepting that variables cannot always be controlled and staying open to unexpected changes. Embracing uncertainty fosters adaptive leadership by helping leaders remain composed during unpredictability. Leaders who embrace uncertainty navigate fast-changing environments, make informed decisions, and avoid paralysis caused by fear of the unknown.
Such leaders exhibit agility and responsiveness to challenges. During the COVID-19 pandemic, for instance, New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern showcased decisive actions despite uncertainty, effectively managing the crisis. Embracing uncertainty boosts team morale by fostering resilience and encouraging innovation, as team members feel safer experimenting and taking calculated risks.
A Harvard Business Review article, “5 Principles to Guide Adaptive Leadership” (2020) by Ben Ramalingam, David Nabarro, Arkebe Oqubay, Dame Ruth Carnall, and Leni Wild, emphasized continuous learning for adaptive decision-making in uncertain contexts like the pandemic. Uncertainty discomfort poses the biggest challenge, hindering proactive decisions. Avoidance of uncertainty, in contrast, fosters risk aversion, stifles creativity, and causes missed opportunities, stagnation, and decreased competitiveness. Avoidance of uncertainty ultimately results in organizational paralysis and failure to adapt to dynamic environments. Embracing uncertainty cultivates a learning culture where teams adapt and thrive in the face of unforeseen challenges.
2. Foster a Culture of Learning
Fostering a culture of learning means creating an environment where continuous education and development are prioritized. Fostering a culture of learning is vital for adaptive leadership as learning culture equips teams with improved skills and knowledge, enabling leaders to handle changes effectively.
A learning culture ensures teams stay ahead of industry trends, quickly adapt to new technologies, and adopt innovative methodologies. Google’s culture of learning, for example, stands out with initiatives like “20% time,” which encourages employees to pursue personal development and innovation. Fostering a culture of learning boosts team morale by demonstrating the organization’s commitment to professional growth and fosters creativity through the exploration of new ideas.
A 2022 study, “Causes and Consequences of Adaptive Leadership” by Manuel London, published in Psychology of Leaders and Leadership, highlights how adaptive leadership promotes continuous learning, enabling leaders to respond rapidly to unexpected events. The study emphasizes the link between adaptive leadership and organizational resilience. Fostering a culture of learning challenge lies in ensuring learning opportunities are accessible and relevant. Stagnation, in contrast, stifles innovation, disengages teams, and causes organizations to lag behind competitors. Fostering learning naturally transitions into empowering others, as skilled and educated team members are better prepared to assume leadership roles and responsibilities.
3. Empower Others
Empowering others is providing team members with authority, resources, and support to make decisions and take ownership of their work. Empowering others is critical for adaptive leadership, as distributing decision-making enables faster, more flexible responses to change. Empowered teams act independently and efficiently, enhancing organizational agility in addressing new challenges.
At Zappos, the holacracy model empowers employees to make decisions without traditional managerial approval, creating a responsive and adaptive organizational structure. Empowerment boosts team morale by demonstrating trust and confidence while fostering innovation as employees feel invested in roles and are more likely to propose creative solutions.
A 2005 study, “To Empower or Not to Empower Your Sales Force?” by Michael Ahearne, John Mathieu, and Adam Rapp, published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, revealed that empowered teams directly improved customer satisfaction and sales performance. Teams given decision-making authority outperformed non-empowered teams, showcasing empowerment’s impact on performance in adaptive, customer-focused environments. Empowering other’s challenge lies in ensuring empowerment does not lead to discoordination. Micromanagement, on the other hand, undermines trust, hinders creativity, and slows decisions, resulting in disengagement, missed opportunities, and reduced innovation. Building resilience is the next step, as empowered teams must handle the responsibilities and challenges of autonomy.
4. Build Resilience
Building resilience is strengthening the ability to recover from adversity and adapt to change. Building resilience cultivates emotional strength, flexibility, and proactive mindsets in leaders and teams. Resilience is vital for adaptive leadership, enabling leaders to navigate uncertainty and swiftly shifting environments. Resilient leaders stay composed under pressure, pivot strategies when necessary, and motivate teams to embrace change. In today’s fast-paced world, agility and responsiveness are essential for organizational success. Agile leaders adjust to market shifts, technological advances, and disruptions, transforming challenges into growth opportunities.
Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, exemplifies building resilience by fostering a growth mindset and resilience, leading the company from a Windows focus to cloud computing and AI, driving growth and innovation. Resilience boosts morale by creating supportive environments where employees feel valued and empowered, encouraging risk-taking and creativity. Resilient organizations thrive through crises, achieving long-term success.
Zenger Folkman’s research reveals that resilient leaders are viewed as more effective by managers, peers, and direct reports. Resilient organizations thrive amid change and uncertainty. While resilience offers advantages, maintaining resilience under continuous stress is challenging. Fragility, the inability to adapt to stress and change, contrasts with resilience. Leaders must guard against fragility and build resilience in the team.
5. Lead with Purpose
Leading with purpose is aligning actions and decisions with a clear mission or vision, ensuring every team member understands the “why” behind work. Purpose, in dynamic environments, provides focus and motivation, even amid uncertainty. Leading with purpose creates a stable foundation for navigating change. Purpose-driven leaders pivot strategies while staying true to the mission, ensuring actions are meaningful, not reactive.
Patagonia exemplifies leading with purpose through environmental sustainability commitment, and guiding business choices. Similarly, Tesla’s mission to accelerate sustainable energy transitions drives innovation. Research from MDPI, “Exploring Purpose-Driven Leadership: Theoretical Foundations” (2024), highlights how purpose-driven leadership boosts organizational outcomes. A clear purpose strengthens team morale by offering direction and meaning. Poor communication of purpose, however, risks confusion and disengagement. Leading with purpose sharpens foresight, helping identify long-term goals and challenges.
6. Anticipate Future Needs
Anticipating future needs is proactively identifying and preparing for upcoming challenges and opportunities. Anticipating future needs helps leaders stay ahead of the curve, enabling informed decisions that position organizations for success in rapidly changing environments. Leaders who anticipate future needs create flexible strategies that adapt to new information and circumstances. Jeff Bezos exemplifies anticipating future needs by foreseeing the potential of e-commerce and cloud computing, positioning Amazon as a global leader.
Teams that feel prepared for the future gain confidence and experience reduced stress, which fosters innovation and continuous improvement. Studies from SpringerLink highlight that adaptive leaders who anticipate future needs navigate uncertainty more effectively and drive organizational success. Anticipating future needs challenge lies in the unpredictability of future events. Reactive approaches, in contrast, risk unpreparedness and missed opportunities. Managers prioritize experimentation and innovation, addressing both current and future needs while building resilience against uncertainty.
7. Encourage Experimentation and Innovation
Encouraging experimentation and innovation is fostering a culture where team members confidently explore new ideas without fearing failure. Innovation is essential for staying relevant and competitive in fast-changing environments. Experimentation enables organizations to adapt quickly to challenges, with leaders pivoting and implementing new solutions to stay responsive.
Companies like 3M and Google demonstrate encouraging innovation through programs like 3M’s “15% rule,” which led to the invention of Post-it Notes, and Google’s “20% time,” resulting in innovations like Gmail and Google News. Research from Current Psychology (2023), titled “Role of Adaptive Leadership in Learning Organizations to Boost Organizational Innovations with Change Self-Efficacy” by Chughtai et al., highlights adaptive leadership’s role in driving innovation.
The study, involving 373 pharmaceutical employees, confirms that experimentation enhances innovation by building change self-efficacy. Innovation boosts morale by making work engaging and rewarding while fostering continuous improvement and creativity. Balancing experimentation with stability, however, is challenging. Overly rigid practices stifle creativity, harming adaptability. Encouraging innovation naturally leads to practicing organizational justice, as fair treatment and support are crucial for sustaining a culture of creativity.
8. Promote Collaborative Problem-Solving
Promoting collaborative problem-solving is encouraging teams to work together to address challenges and find effective solutions. Promoting collaborative problem-solving is crucial for adaptive leadership, leveraging collective intelligence and creativity to tackle complex issues and respond to change. At IDEO, a global design firm, collaborative problem-solving is integral to innovation. Diverse teams brainstorm and prototype solutions, producing groundbreaking products and services, which boosts morale by fostering community and shared purpose while driving innovation through diverse perspectives.
Research from the Journal of Leadership Education (2017), “Addressing Complex Challenges through Adaptive Leadership” by Tenneisha Nelson and Vicki Squires, highlights collaborative problem-solving as essential for adaptive leadership. The paper critiques traditional leadership models, emphasizing the importance of multiple perspectives in addressing organizational challenges. Promoting collaborative problem-solving challenges includes ensuring effective communication and coordination. Isolationism, in contrast, reduces collaboration, stifles creativity, and lowers morale. Promoting collaborative problem-solving naturally extends to leveraging diverse viewpoints, and integrating the perspectives into strategies for innovative and inclusive solutions.
9. Leverage Diverse Perspectives
Leveraging diverse perspectives is actively seeking and integrating different viewpoints and experiences into decision-making. Leveraging diverse perspectives is vital for adaptive leadership, expanding the range of ideas and solutions, and enhancing organizational adaptability and innovation.
IBM’s dedication to diversity and inclusion has driven innovation and market adaptability. Through leveraging diverse perspectives, IBM creates products and services tailored to a global customer base. Leveraging diverse perspectives boosts morale by fostering an inclusive environment where all voices are valued and also sparks innovation by uniting diverse ideas and experiences.
Harvard Business Publishing’s 2021 Pulse Report by Ian Fanton emphasizes the strategic value of diversity, inclusion, and belonging, showing how the factors lead to more innovative solutions and stronger performance. Leveraging diverse perspectives challenge lies in genuinely integrating diverse perspectives into decision-making. Ignoring diverse perspectives results in narrow, homogeneous thinking, stifling innovation and problem-solving. Leveraging diverse perspectives aligns closely with adapting through continuous learning, using insights to refine strategies and drive organizational growth.
10. Adapt Responses Based on Continuous Learning
Adapting responses based on continuous learning is refining strategies and actions through new information and experiences. Adapting responses based on continuous learning is critical for adaptive leadership, enabling leaders and teams to evolve continuously and improve. Netflix exemplifies adapting responses based on continuous learning by transforming Netflix’s business model from DVD rentals to streaming and original content, staying ahead of industry trends. Continuous learning fosters a culture of growth, boosting morale and driving innovation as teams apply insights gained from experience.
Research in Current Psychology (2023), “Role of Adaptive Leadership in Learning Organizations” by Chughtai et al., highlights that adaptive leadership enhances innovation through change self-efficacy. Based on a study of 373 pharmaceutical employees, underscores the importance of learning in driving organizational progress. Adapting responses based on continuous learning challenges lies in effectively translating learning into actionable change. Static responses, in contrast, where adaptation is absent apply rigid solutions to dynamic problems, hindering innovation and neglecting opportunities. Clear articulation of needs is the natural next step, ensuring communication supports learning and adaptation for sustained growth.
11. Articulate Needs Clearly
Articulating needs clearly is communicating requirements, expectations, and goals in a straightforward, precise manner. Articulating needs clearly is vital for adaptive leadership, ensuring alignment and collective focus on shared objectives. Satya Nadella’s transformation of Microsoft highlights the importance of clear articulation. Satya Nadella’s communication of the company’s vision aligned teams, driving a successful turnaround. Clear articulation reduces confusion, boosts morale, and establishes a framework for innovation by defining boundaries within which creative solutions thrive.
The Harvard Business Review article “5 Principles to Guide Adaptive Leadership” (2020) by Ramalingam et al. stresses that adaptive leaders must articulate vision and needs effectively to gain support and navigate uncertainty. Articulating needs clearly challenge lies in maintaining clarity and consistency, as ambiguity undermines trust and blurs priorities. Implementing flexible decision making processes naturally follows, with clear communication forming the foundation for informed, agile responses.
12. Implement Flexible Decision-Making Processes
Implementing flexible decision-making processes is creating systems that enable rapid and adaptive decisions, ensuring responsiveness to dynamic circumstances. Implementing flexible decision-making processes is critical for adaptive leadership, enhancing organizational agility, and positioning leaders to navigate change effectively.
Elon Musk exemplifies flexible decision-making through his iterative approach at Tesla and SpaceX, fostering rapid innovation and market adaptability. Similarly, Toyota’s lean methodology promotes flexibility and continuous improvement, maintaining the company’s efficiency and responsiveness. Flexible decision-making empowers teams, boosts morale, and fosters innovation by enabling quick experimentation and iteration.
The Journal of Applied Psychology study “Cognitive Flexibility and Adaptive Decision-Making: Evidence from a Dynamic Environment” (2018) highlights the importance of cognitive flexibility in effective decision-making during rapidly changing conditions. The study emphasizes that leaders adept in flexible thinking excel in adaptive strategies. Balancing flexibility with structure, however, is a challenge. Overly rigid decision-making, in contrast, stifles progress by ignoring evolving contexts and prioritizing consistency over relevance. Flexible decision-making naturally leads to continuously reassessing and adjusting strategies, ensuring approaches remain aligned with current needs and long-term objectives.
13. Continuously Reassess and Adjust Strategies
Continuously reassessing and adjusting strategies is regularly evaluating plans and actions, and refining the plans based on new information and shifting circumstances. Continuously reassessing and adjusting strategies is pivotal for adaptive leadership, enabling teams to remain agile and aligned with evolving challenges and opportunities.
Apple exemplifies continuously reassessing and adjusting strategies, maintaining its position as a leader in technology by consistently reassessing and adapting its product lines and business strategies to meet consumer demands and market trends. The iterative process cultivates a culture of growth and development, boosting team morale and fostering innovation by encouraging teams to learn from experiences and implement fresh insights.
A study titled “Adaptive Leadership: Principles and a Framework for the Future” by Atlassian (2021) emphasizes continuous strategy adjustment as a core component of adaptive leadership. The study highlights that strategy adjustment supports resilience, ongoing development, and emotional intelligence, which are critical for organizational success. Continuously reassessing and adjusting strategies challenge lies in ensuring reassessment leads to actionable outcomes. Static strategies, on the other hand, risk creating rigidity, ignoring emerging patterns, and failing to adapt to dynamic environments. Incorporating emotional intelligence is the next natural step, as understanding and managing emotions enhances the reassessment process, ensuring strategies are both responsive and impactful.
14. Leverage Emotional Intelligence
Leveraging emotional intelligence is understanding and managing personal emotions while recognizing and influencing the emotions of others to enhance decision-making, relationships, and organizational outcomes. Emotional intelligence is a cornerstone of adaptive leadership, enabling leaders to navigate complex interpersonal dynamics, foster collaboration, and drive innovation in rapidly changing environments.
Howard Schultz, the former CEO of Starbucks, exemplifies the power of emotional intelligence in leadership. His ability to empathize with employees and customers helped him build a robust company culture and steer Starbucks through significant challenges. The research titled “Leveraging Emotional Intelligence in Leadership: Exploring the Impact on Organizational Performance and Employee Engagement” by Jackie Chong Cheong Sin and Vijayakumaran Kathiarayan (2023) highlights the importance of emotional intelligence in leadership.
This study, published by the International Institute of Applied Science of the Swiss School of Management, shows that all four dimensions of emotional intelligence—self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management—positively correlate with improved organizational performance and heightened employee engagement. Leveraging emotional intelligence fosters team morale by creating a supportive, empathetic environment, which boosts innovation by encouraging open communication and collaboration. Maintaining high emotional intelligence, however, is challenging. Emotional detachment, in contrast, undermines trust, ignores the emotional effects of change, and fails to address team concerns, leading to a disengaged culture. The next logical step is practicing organizational justice, as fair and transparent practices are vital to building trust and fully utilizing emotional intelligence within teams.
15. Practice Organizational Justice
Organizational justice is the perceived fairness of workplace procedures, interactions, and outcomes. Organizational justice involves ensuring that decisions, policies, and practices are transparent, equitable, and consistently applied. In fast-changing environments, practicing organizational justice is essential for building trust and credibility between leaders and the team, helping organizations remain agile in the face of challenges and opportunities. Leaders who practice organizational justice quickly gain the support and cooperation of the team, making adapting to new initiatives and driving change easier. Companies like Salesforce and Unilever exemplify organizational justice by prioritizing transparent policies and fair treatment.
The research titled “The Effects of Organizational Justice on Positive Organizational Behavior” (2017), published in Frontiers in Psychology, highlights how perceptions of fairness positively influence employee satisfaction and performance, essential for adaptive leadership. The research shows that employees who perceive fairness in the workplace are more likely to exhibit positive behaviors, such as increased motivation and collaboration. Practicing organizational justice boosts team morale by creating a respectful, inclusive environment, which encourages innovation by making employees feel safe to contribute ideas and take risks. A challenge in practicing organizational justice is ensuring consistency across all levels of the organization. Organizational injustice, such as biased decision-making or unfair treatment, leads to distrust, low morale, and high turnover. The next logical step is ensuring continuous learning and adjustment, as fair treatment and transparency help leaders adapt responses based on evolving organizational needs.
What is an Adaptive Leadership Toolkit?
An adaptive leadership toolkit is a set of strategies, frameworks, and practices designed to help leaders navigate complex, changing environments effectively. An adaptive leadership toolkit focuses on enabling leaders to recognize and adapt to new challenges, foster collaboration, and engage diverse perspectives. The adaptive leadership toolkit includes methods for diagnosing problems, developing solutions through experimentation, and managing resistance to change. The adaptive leadership approach emphasizes flexibility, continuous learning, and the ability to respond to evolving conditions, making adaptive leadership toolkit particularly valuable in uncertain or high-pressure settings.
How does Adaptive Leadership work?
Adaptive leadership works by:
1. Diagnosing the system: Leaders assess the current environment, challenges, and dynamics within the organization or team.
2. Regulating distress: Leaders manage the tension and uncertainty that comes with change by pacing the work and ensuring psychological safety.
3. Maintaining disciplined attention: Leaders ensure that the focus remains on the adaptive challenge and prevent distractions or avoidance behaviors.
4. Giving the work back to the people: Leaders encourage team members to take ownership of the problem-solving process, fostering responsibility and engagement.
5. Protecting voices of leadership from below: Leaders ensure that diverse perspectives, especially from less visible or lower-level employees, are heard and considered during the decision-making process.
Why practice adaptive leadership?
Practicing adaptive leadership equips leaders to effectively address complex, evolving challenges that traditional leadership models cannot handle. Adaptive leadership fosters resilience and innovation by promoting collaboration and empowering teams to experiment with solutions in uncertain environments. Studies in organizational behavior, such as those published in The Leadership Quarterly show that adaptive leadership helps regulate distress by pacing organizational change and promoting psychological safety, which lowers stress during transitions and crises. Adaptive leadership approach aligns leadership with the demands of modern, rapidly changing industries, making adaptive leadership a scientifically backed method for sustaining success.
How does Adaptive Leadership lead to development?
Adaptive Leadership leads to development by fostering continuous learning, adaptability, and innovation. Addressing complex, unclear problems, encourages experimentation and new approaches, promoting personal and professional growth. Research in
The Leadership Quarterly highlights how adaptive leadership enhances cognitive and emotional development through reflection, resilience, and adaptability. Adaptive Leadership empowers employees to take initiative and refine problem-solving skills, creating a culture of growth essential for thriving in dynamic environments.
How can Adaptive Leadership be used in different industries?
Adaptive Leadership can be used in different industries by adapting strategies to the specific challenges and complexities of each sector. Peter Drucker, known as the father of modern management, emphasized tailoring management styles to unique organizational dynamics, a principle at the core of adaptive leadership. Adaptive Leadership, in healthcare, helps leaders manage evolving patient needs, technological advances, and regulatory changes, creating resilient teams capable of quick adaptation.
Adaptive Leadership, in technology, supports innovation and rapid problem-solving in a constantly shifting landscape, encouraging teams to experiment with new solutions and pivot when necessary. Adaptive Leadership, in education, allows educators to meet diverse student needs, fostering a culture of continuous learning. A 2024 Forbes Advisor study by Dana Miranda, titled “10 Management Styles of Effective Leaders”, further underscores the necessity of tailoring approaches like adaptive leadership to organizational needs. The scenarios highlight how adaptive leadership aligns with “effective people management styles in different organizations”, allowing leaders to tackle industry-specific challenges while promoting growth and adaptability.
What do scientists say about adaptive leadership?
Scientists like Ronald Heifetz, Michael Watkins, and Barbara Kellerman say that adaptive leadership is essential for navigating complex and rapidly changing environments. Ronald Heifetz, a pioneer in the field, emphasizes the importance of leaders who distinguish between technical and adaptive challenges, enabling teams to develop innovative solutions. Michael Watkins highlights how adaptive leadership promotes resilience and agility in organizations, allowing leaders to guide the team effectively through uncertainty.
Barbara Kellerman underscores the role of followers in the adaptive leadership process, advocating for a more collaborative approach that empowers team members to engage actively in problem-solving. The experts provide a comprehensive understanding of how adaptive leadership is crucial in today’s dynamic landscape.
Are there specific models or frameworks used for Adaptive Leadership?
No, there are no specific models or frameworks universally accepted for adaptive leadership. Ronald Heifetz’s principles, however, provide a foundational guide. Heifetz differentiates adaptive challenges from technical ones, emphasizing the need for leaders to recognize change, engage others in problem-solving, and foster safe environments for experimentation and learning.
The approach prioritizes principles and behaviors over rigid structures, focusing on flexibility and responsiveness. As highlighted in Heifetz’s Adaptive Leadership: The Process of Change, the framework’s core lies in its adaptability to unique organizational challenges.
What is the importance of Adaptive leadership framework?
The importance of the adaptive leadership framework is fostering resilience and adaptability, enabling organizations to navigate complex and changing environments. Adaptive leadership framework emphasizes collaboration and shared responsibility, empowering teams to solve problems and drive innovation.
Promoting continuous learning and experimentation, the framework cultivates a culture of growth and improvement, which makes adaptive leadership essential for thriving in dynamic, fast-paced settings.
What is Rigid leadership?
Rigid leadership is being inflexible and resistant to change. Rigid leadership involves strict adherence to rules and procedures, making adapting to new ideas or changing circumstances difficult. Rigid leadership stifles innovation and responsiveness, leading to a lack of growth and adaptability within an organization. There are many types of leadership, with each having personal strengths and weaknesses.
Goleman’s work on emotional intelligence underscores the value of situational leadership, emphasizing the need to adapt leadership styles to fit changing business demands. While a Coercive style, for example, is necessary for crises requiring quick decisions, rigid leadership fails in fostering trust, innovation, and morale, which are hallmarks of transformational leadership, widely regarded as the most effective style. “Effective Leadership Styles in Management and When/Where to Apply” further highlights that leaders who remain flexible are better equipped to handle change, build employee confidence, and maintain productivity to achieve the best outcomes.