Resilience: How to Keep Bouncing Forward
What does it mean to be truly resilient?
When you think about the common attributes of what makes a strong leader, resilience is probably high on the list – and for good reason!
Resilient leaders are more likely to take necessary risks, stay positive through challenges, think and make decisions quickly, and find creative solutions to continuously keep moving forward.
Resilience can seem like an innate superpower – the ability to bounce back from difficult situations with ease – but it’s actually not. In fact, nobody is born resilient. It’s a mindset and a skill that can be learned, practiced, and grown.
Isn’t this great news – to know that any leader can become more resilient with the right tools, practice and patience?
The truth is that resilience doesn’t come from never being knocked down. It comes from not being afraid to make mistakes or stumble, and learning from each and every setback you face.
Let’s look at the 4 steps towards cultivating more resilience, so you can face challenges with a growth mindset, learn from mistakes, and bounce back stronger from unexpected setbacks.
How to become a more resilient leader
Step 1: Allow yourself to feel/name your feelings.
Emotions are a big part of the process in building resilience, because they help you understand yourself and your needs in relationship to the world.
Turns out, resilient people are not immune to things like stress, fear, anger, or exhaustion. They have just learned how to tune into and work through their feelings to figure out how to move forward.
The key to working through difficult situations is acknowledging and understanding your own feelings. This will allow you to make thoughtful, grounded choices, instead of making rash or emotion-based decisions.
Step 2: Keep your eyes on the goal, but make room for flexibility.
Maintaining your perspective is another integral part of becoming more resilient. Always keep track of the bigger picture – what outcome you’re working towards and why – so that you don’t get knocked off track by every setback.
Sometimes things happen that are simply out of our control, so being able to stay flexible and adapt to sudden changes is a skill that will keep you calm under pressure. Just check in that you’re still on track to those bigger, long-term goals.
Taking a slightly different path doesn’t need to change the destination – it may just be a quick detour on the way.
Step 3: Be vulnerable and let others in.
Vulnerability is often a sign of deep strength, especially when it means asking others for help, admitting we don’t know the answer, or allowing people to see the struggle.
A strong leader knows that one person can’t do everything alone, and letting people in is a great way to combine strengths, fill in gaps, and brainstorm any problems that arise.
Step 4: Don’t forget to refuel and recharge.
Here’s the great thing about this last step… if you closely follow steps 1-3, the refueling phase happens almost naturally!
A resilient leader who acknowledges and understands their own feelings will always know when it’s time to push through or pull back and rest, and knowing what the end goal is brings clarity in how to proceed while honoring needs.
Once the channels of connection are opened up, it also becomes easier to ask for help when necessary, and rely on other team members to accomplish tasks – freeing up time and space for those necessary recharge moments.
Remember, just like any other skills, building resilience takes patience and practice. Don’t expect it to happen overnight, but also give yourself lots of grace to explore each of these steps again and again.
We all know that difficult situations arise all the time, so there’s no shortage of opportunities for growth when it comes to leading a company through turbulence.
Imagine each challenge as a way to practice responding with resilience, and you will benefit – both personally and professionally – as will your entire organization.
No journey is free from challenges . . . It’s how we respond to setbacks that matters most.
Dawn Garibaldi is the CEO and Founder of Amplify Strategy Group. As an experienced corporate leader and certified executive coach, she’s on a mission to serve leaders who find themselves in high stress, high stakes, new or changed situations to create significant impact, confident performance and powerful relationships -- with stakeholders, teams and peers. She shares powerful strategies and tactics to quickly amplify confidence, success and achievements far beyond what they thought possible.