American Journal of Management Vol. 23(3) 2023 145 New Tactics for the Rapidly Changing Business Environment: How Cognitive Flexibility Can Help Small Business Withstand the Next Storm Martin S. Bressler Southeastern Oklahoma State University Mark E. Bressler U.S. Army Medical Service Corps Emotional intelligence is often touted as one of the most important leadership skills, and with good reason. According to Goleman, emotional intelligence refers to the ability to identify, understand, and manage emotions in oneself and others. Researchers John Mayer and Peter Salovey initially coined the term “emotional intelligence” in 1990 (Salovey & Mayer, 1990) but became popularized later in 2005 by psychologist Daniel Goleman (Goleman, 2005). Researchers today define emotional intelligence as the ability to understand and manage your own emotions, as well as recognize and influence the emotions of those around you. Research, however, increasingly points to the importance of cognitive flexibility during rapidly changing conditions, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Cognitive flexibility provides us with the ability to adapt our behavior to achieve goals under new environmental conditions. In this paper, the authors introduce cognitive flexibility as a critical business skill and offer ways to implement cognitive flexibility in your business or organization. Keywords: cognitive flexibility, reactive flexibility, spontaneous flexibility, bricolage INTRODUCTION Defining Cognitive Flexibility Alves & Yang (2022) define cognitive flexibility as the ability of people to reconstruct their understanding and their administrative resources in various methods under the needs of unique backgrounds. Additionally, cognitive flexibility could be considered a crucial psychological characteristic that bolsters a person’s aptitude to overcome doubt and effectively achieve unstructured intricate tasks. Cognitive flexibility may include adaptable awareness, self-efficacy, and an adaptable will. Two distinct types of cognitive flexibility exist and include spontaneous flexibility and reactive flexibility (Alves & Yang, 2022). Reactive flexibility consists of a person “transforming their way of thinking to effectively adjust to changes in the environment. Moreover, spontaneous flexibility requires two areas of reactions generated without external cues” (Alves & Yang, 2022). Importance of Cognitive Flexibility Individuals with elevated cognitive flexibility may possess a more powerful feeling of connection with the peripheral environment (Alves & Yang, 2022). Cognitive flexibility also gives people the capacity to