Building Resilience

Resilience is a highly regarded characteristic for leaders.   In the ever-changing work environments we are currently working in, being able to adjust viewpoints, tactics and strategy are really important.  At the helm of these skills is resilience, the ability to face adversity and continue showing up with best intent.

Much of resilience is about self-care, taking time to check in with our emotions, workload and time to reflect on what matters.  I don’t believe we can talk about resilience without the tie into self-care.  To be resilient we need to cultivate energy and focus on what is important to us.

The work of Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz in The Power of Full Engagement shares 4 pathways to cultivating energy and keeping our focus – all supporting our resilience.    These 4 pathways generate energy through Mental, Physical, Spiritual and Emotional means.

Resilience is a close relative to optimism too, having the belief that we can influence a positive way forward gives us the get up and go to strive to achieve our goals.  Many of the emotional intelligence competencies support our resilience through self-belief, self-confidence, optimism, self-control to name a few.

 Some helpful ways to help build resilience for self and others is to share your intent and engage with others; 

• Knowing our purpose and why we do what we do

• The power of the pause, giving yourself headspace

• Mindfulness & Breathing practices

• Creating the Third Space – concept by Dr Adam Fraser

• Reframing challenges to opportunities

• Using  growth / learning mindset

Taking the time to reflect on where we are at, knowing our triggers and learned responses to challenges allows us to make choices.  I find the question “What else could be true?” really useful when I start to blame others or not take accountability for my actions.   Often resilience is tested because we are run down, tell ourselves unhelpful stories and then use our confirmation bias to support them.

Resilience can be built through Support    Challenge   Champion, Kreating New Collaborations Pillars to Success.   Building safe and supportive workplace environments, trusting relationships creates the foundations for proactive challenging of viewpoints.  Resilience comes through a growth mindset where we see problems as learning opportunities and challenge ourselves to find a way forward.  We then should lean into being our own Champion and a Champion for others.   All too often in workplaces I find that business stops teams celebrating success along the way. 

Having a sense of achievement and pride at our successes is a great platform for building resilience.

Next post we’ll look the power of emotional and social intelligence to create positive workplaces.

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Mid-Year Performance Conversations coming up?

Performance appraisals can be harrowing for leaders and team members alike.  Kreating New Collaborations would like to invite you to reach out and learn about small bite Lunch’N’Learn, or Morning Boost  opportunities.  Set your team up for success learning delivered virtually or in person. 

Learning Bites include:

• Effective Feedback – using our BICK model to drive 2-way focused interactions

• Setting Goals – setting goals that motivate, reward outcomes and energise

• Succession Planning -  identifying future leaders and setting them up for success and growth

• Influential Communication – influence outcome by gaining buy-in and enthusiasm to create accountability and best outcomes

• Building Resilience and Avoiding Overwhelm – helping teams keep energised, focused and in control

• The power of emotional and social intelligence to create positive workplaces