Recent events global events remind us of the importance of resilience.
Resilience refers to our ability to ‘bounce back’ after disruption, change, or adversity, and to come out stronger on the other side.
We’ve talked a lot about resilient leadership this year, both in general terms and specifically related to advancing women leaders. You may recall that McKinsey found that resilience is one of three key capabilities that help women leaders thrive , and Accenture reported that resilience is key for advancement and retention. Aligned with these findings, PWC recently called enterprise resilience “…the most important capability in business today.”
As you continue to build resilience in yourself and others, here are three ideas to help support your efforts:
- Start on the inside. Because your reactions to adversity affect others, it can be helpful to reflect on your own resilience first. A useful starting point is the 7 Spheres of Resilience, a model shared earlier this year by Global ECC Affiliate Karsten Drath. The model includes seven aspects of resilience, including: personality, biography, attitude, resources, mind-body connection, authentic relationships, and purpose. According to Drath, “Resilience is not about strength, but rather about flexibility. It is like a bamboo tree being blown from side to side by the wind, which once again returns to its original position after a storm has passed, only to carry on growing.” As you reflect on your own resilience, which ‘spheres’ are natural strengths for you? How might enhancing your resilience positively affect your team, work life and career?
- Leverage your team’s strengths. As suggested in the 7 Spheres model, each of us has different strengths and opportunities when it comes to resilience. After you’ve started on the inside, consider ways you might collectively leverage the team’s strengths. You could start by having a team discussion about resilience. What do team members perceive as their strengths and opportunities? If the overall team is struggling in one particular area, you might discuss ways to collectively strengthen that area. Another practical way to support team members is by educating yourself about resources available through your organization (e.g. wellness programs, EAP resources, etc.), so that you can suggest these when appropriate, relative to resilience. How might leveraging your team’s collective resilience help the group accomplish its goals more efficiently?
- Align with leadership competencies. Organizational competencies communicate what’s important for leadership success and create focus for leadership development programs. When you help existing, new, and emerging leaders better understand and build resilience, you set teams and the broader organization up for long-term success. To what degree does your current competency model reflect resilience behaviors? How are your leadership development programs helping leaders grow their resilience?
Resilient leadership is increasingly what leaders, teams, and organizations need to succeed.
To help everyone bounce back stronger, focus on resilience.
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If you or your team could use some help developing resilience, ECC can help. Give us a call at +1.847.920.0190.
