Three Resilience Starters

Hi Leader,

"I love it," said Don. "This is something I must share with my family this weekend. I love the idea that we can all help each other build resilience in a practical and concrete way. It's great for us here on this leadership team because as the environment continues to shape-shift, it's critical that we be more resilient and adaptive. But you know what? For me, it's even more important to bring these strategies and insights home to my wife and children so that they can see that resilience is a series of muscles we can develop. We can immediately apply this in practice."

We were on the second day of a strategy workshop. Each team member went through the resilience assessment framework to determine their resilience score and select the top resilience practices they must focus on. Don added to his comment, above: "Discovering the resilience framework and reflecting on the five pillars of resilience enabled the team to open up a new conversation. It facilitated a productive level of disclosure and new agreements."

Setbacks and challenges are part of life. We all experience them. The resilience mindset is that you are not defined by setbacks or challenges. You are defined by how you choose to respond and the growth journey you create as a result.

In the decades of helping leaders all around the world realize their vision and develop new futures, I have come to see that resilience is a key differentiator that sets apart highly effective individuals.

Here are three starters to stimulate your thinking about resilience and building resilient teams and families.

Resilience is using setbacks to become better. Take adversity as a gift and turn it into a growth opportunity.
Resilient people shift from "surviving"--the belief that you need to do this to survive--to "thriving"--the belief that you can convert every obstacle into learning that will catalyze growth.
You must cultivate the five pillars of resilience:
- Physical resilience is based on endurance and recoverability.
- Mental resilience is the result of learning velocity, adaptive thinking and problem-solving capacity.
- Emotional resilience is found in self-awareness, humor and healthy self-worth.
- Social resilience is generated by developing and maintaining a support network, and the readiness to ask for and receive help, forgiveness and generosity.
- Spiritual resilience is supported by physical, mental, emotional and social resilience and is made stronger by an adventurous spirit and purposeful centeredness.

You can develop concrete strategies to revitalize each of these five resilience pillars.

Now it's your turn. Turn the resilience key. Engage in a deliberate resilience practice. Commit yourself to building the five pillars of resilience and fostering a resilient team and a resilient family. Celebrate resilience!