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The genie is out of the bottle, and organizations cannot go back to the way things used to be. The aftermath of Covid is going to be felt by leaders and organisations for years to come.
If you are currently feeling the stress and burden of leadership, you are not alone. Many leaders are being challenged by a new and more complex landscape. The secret to leaders thriving in this new landscape is resilient leadership.
How do you build your resilient leadership skills, so you can thrive in challenging, disruptive, and turbulent times?
In this article, I give you five key strategies to thrive as a resilient leader.
Studies in neuroscience have found that the brain is very plastic or changeable. Norman Doidge, in his book, The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science, gave many examples of brain plasticity. Therefore, you are not fixed at birth and are capable of learning how to build resilience.
For some, this will be easier than for others. However, the good news is the more you are exposed to challenging situations, the greater the opportunity to build your resilient leadership skills.
Your brain can assist you with this because it is designed to help you grow, learn, and adapt. This is part of its inbuilt survival mechanism.
Therefore, the greater the challenges, the greater the opportunity for growth and resiliency. Here are five ways to build resilient leadership in challenging times.
Developing a growth mindset is an essential ingredient to building resilient leadership. Resilience is your ability to respond adaptively to challenges. Being able to adapt requires change, and positive change leads to growth.
The quickest way to grow and create new opportunities is through adversity. Without adversity, there is little growth, and without growth, you cannot realize your full potential.
View every challenge as an opportunity to step into the greatest version of yourself and trust that you will always find the answers. But first, you must seek them out.
You do not have to figure it out by yourself. Leverage the power of your team.
Scientists and self-help gurus often argue that some sources of stress and misery are caused by ruminating on our worries while robbing us of the present. Mindfulness and mindfulness tools such as meditation have proven to boost our moods and our overall health.
I am sure you are familiar with that voice inside your head that never shuts up. It continually wants to judge, complain, compare, and assess everything as good or bad. It is constantly interfering with your concentration, clarity of thought, decision-making, and piece of mind.
It is often this same voice that interferes with your ability to be a resilient leader. How much more productive and positive would you be if you could tame this inner critic?
Being in the present moment is powerful because you are not bound by limiting beliefs and past failures or worried about the future. Instead, you have full access to the power of your mind when you are in the present moment.
To demonstrate the power of being in the present moment, consider the example of elite athletes. Why is it that they can excel one day and perform poorly the next? Did their skills suddenly disappear overnight?
Let’s imagine a tennis player who is about to serve the ball. They look up and see that it is break point. Their thoughts and focus suddenly jump to the future and what happens if they lose the point. That means less energy and focus on hitting the ball.
However, what would happen if they forgot about the scoreboard and entered the present moment?
They do this by placing all their focus on serving the ball. They are so focused that their mind may even alert them to their opponent making a slight movement in a particular direction. This enables them to adjust their serve and easily win the point.
This is how great players consistently win matches. They realize the power of placing their mind and focus on the present moment. Being a scoreboard watcher will always take you out of the present moment.
As a leader, your ability to succeed lies in accessing the power of the present moment. It also means that your need for resiliency becomes obsolete. This is because resiliency is a natural by-product of being in the present moment.
Let’s look at an example that shows how the power of purpose builds resilience.
Imagine taking a road trip. However, not long into the trip, your car breaks down. Fortunately, you find a car mechanic who fixes your car, and you set off again.
Because of the length of the trip, you have booked overnight accommodation. You arrive at the motel a lot later than expected, tired and exhausted.
You approach the reception area only to be told there was a mix-up, and they gave your reservation to someone else. You are ready to scream. Left with no alternative, you decide to sleep in your car.
You set off again early the next morning. As you are driving along a deserted road suddenly a wild hog runs out in front of your car. You swerve to miss the hog and end up in a ditch on the side of the road. Your car becomes bogged because of a heavy downpour of rain during the night.
At this point, you think, “you know what? This isn’t meant to be. I am having way too many problems. I think I will go home.” As you are thinking this, a man in a four-wheel drive stops and helps get your car out of the ditch.
After thanking the man, you set off again. After a couple of hours of driving, you decide to stop and get something to eat.As you go to pay for your meal, you notice your wallet is missing. You realize it must have slipped out of your pocket when you were trying to get the car out of the ditch.
At this point, you are well and truly over your road trip and decide you are heading back home. Leadership is like this. Sometimes, you run into one problem after another, leaving you feeling stressed and defeated.
Returning to our example: What would you have if upon setting out on your trip, you had a strong purpose for reaching your destination? Maybe the purpose was to see your parents, who because of unseen foreseen circumstances, you have not seen in two years.
It is the longest time you have ever gone without seeing them. They are so looking forward to seeing you, and you cannot wait to see them. What do you think your decision would be when you realized you had left your wallet on the side of the road?
Would you decide to go home? Or would the motivation of seeing your parents encourage you to drive back, find your wallet, and continue your trip? This is the power of having a purpose. When things get tough as a leader, you will always find the motivation to be resilient.
Putting things into perspective and being realistic is another simple and effective way to build resilient leadership. Here are a few simple strategies to make it easy for you to do this.
Added stress occurs when you mistake feelings for facts. Being able to distinguish between the two is another great way of building resilient leadership.
As a leader, you are in a position of great power to influence and impact the lives of the people around you.
Leadership in today’s turbulent climate isn’t easy. It is easy to become stressed and lose focus on your goals as well as what truly matters. Today, more than ever, leaders need to be resilient.
Every journey begins with a single step. Choose one strategy from the five listed. Then, commit to taking action on it.
The impact you have as a leader can only be as great as your decisions and actions.
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About the Author
Jule Fuller is founder of Growth Minded Leadership .
