Recently, I talked about a key trait that every successful business leader must have – resilience. Now, I’m going to show you what you can do to be more resilient in your life so you can achieve higher levels of success.
How to Build Resilience
According to Merriam-Webster, one definition of resilience is “an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.”
Or, as I like to say, resilience is about recovering quickly from what shuts you down and what sets you off. Click to Tweet
Here are some helpful pointers to help you get started:
Practice awareness.
- The first step in developing your resilience is to pay attention to exactly how you respond when “bad” or adverse things happen.
- How are you reacting to disappointment, conflict, a lack of feedback, or other perceived misfortunes?
- Is it time for a nap, a cocktail, or some downtime on Facebook? Or, do you perceive the event as an exciting opportunity for change and/or growth?
Assess your support network.
- Who is on your support team?
- When you think about the people you consider a part of your network, do they help you come up with real solutions – or do they take your troubles as an opportunity to commiserate or even, bring you further down?
- In other words, do the people on your team build you up – or leave you feeling drained of energy?
Nourish your mind, body, and spirit.
- I’ve talked about the importance of self-care – and why it’s the foundation for all true success – many times. Taking good care of yourself is also a critical component in developing resilience.
- The Mayo Clinic aptly suggests tending “to your own needs and feelings”. Beyond the obvious self-care tips like eating a healthy diet, getting plenty of rest, and engaging in physical activity, it’s also important to carve out time to develop your interests and hobbies.
- The key is to be proactive – pay attention to the ways you’re most likely to neglect yourself when you’re under stress so the next time an adverse event makes its way into your life (and it will!), you’ll be able to take healthier steps to recover faster and come out stronger.
Learn from an Example
I was working for some time with an HR Director who came to me because she needed guidance on tackling her various responsibilities. She was lacking time to get her administrative work done, have face-to-face meetings with staff, finish her degree and take care of a chronic health condition…never mind the long list of responsibilities outside of work.
We put some structures in place which alleviated much of the stress, but she slowly allowed some of her old habits to creep back in. When we had been unable to talk for a month, I next found her at the brink of completely shutting down in overwhelm.
Step Back to Soar Ahead…
I did what anyone on the outside of the situation looking in would do. I insisted she take a day off. She was appalled and only expressed to me weeks later how angry she was that I would suggest such a thing.
But when we did talk next she was grateful. She had spent the afternoon shopping and visiting with her sister and when she came back to work the next day, she immediately prioritized her tasks, delegated several, and communicated to interested parties that some projects were just going to have to wait.
Pointing Out the Obvious
Business owners and high level leaders sometimes need someone to point out the obvious and validate necessary action. Not because they are lacking, but because they are so focused on the goal and achieving results that they sometimes overlook the signs that they are not in the right headspace to be at their most effective.
Share your best tips – what do you do to cultivate resiliency?