Our resilience is being put to the test. The nature of stress and the types of challenges we face has changed dramatically over the last several months. We are living in a world where significant global challenges— including the COVID-19 pandemic, racial injustice and political unrest—impact us daily, alongside the stresses and strains of our professional and personal lives.
The challenge facing leaders now is not to just overcome adversity and change – rather, it’s to meet it head-on and use it as an opportunity to progress.
Resiliency is our ability to deal with high levels of challenge and disruption while maintaining high levels of effectiveness and well-being. A common misconception about resiliency is that you are either a resilient person, or you aren’t; that it is something inherent to your personality. The good news? This is, in fact, a misconception. Resiliency is a learned skill.
In essence, resiliency can be developed over time, by strengthening what Linda Hoopes, author of Prosilience: Building Your Resilience for a Turbulent World, refers to as our “resiliency muscles” and what Ama and Stephanie Marston, co-authors of Type R: Transformative Resilience for Thriving in a Turbulent World, speak into about reframing challenges into opportunities.
In a business setting, resiliency better positions leaders and teams to bring a calm, measured approach to adversity, challenges and unexpected events. Those who proactively build their resiliency are better able to problem solve and manage their energy and productivity through uncertain circumstances and times of upheaval or change.
Much of the potential for growth stems from altering how you frame adversity and your beliefs about finding opportunity in challenges, as well as actively understanding, and strengthening, your resiliency “muscles”. When you do this, not only can you better manage change and adversity in your personal life, you can better bring strengths, skills, and insights into your role and improve how you contribute to the success and future of your organization.
Ultimately, building resiliency – for yourself, and with your team – fosters psychological health and safety, as you become mentally better equipped and prepared to manage disruptions and change, with less of an energy drain, and less mental upheaval.
As is often the case with personal development development work, self-observation and self-awareness are a great place to start. Start noticing events, activities, situations and people that drain your energy and cause your stress. How do these situations impact you? What does this energy drain cost you? How do you react?
Resilience is a learned skill that comes with conscious effort and practice. As a Certified Resiliency Practitioner, I work with individuals and teams to assess their levels of resiliency and support them in putting together a tangible action plan to help them become more resilient to manage an increasingly unpredictable and uncertain world. If you’re looking to learn more about building your own resiliency, or that of your team, let’s connect.
