Ten ways Resilience can improve Leadership

A couple of months ago I wrote a blog, ‘Make time to build resilience and reap the rewards’ and as I wrote I discovered I had so many reasons - too many to put down in one blog - so I promised I’d write another one soon. Here’s the second instalment, this time tailored specifically to the needs of senior leaders, who might be finding things exceptionally tough at the moment.

As we enter what seems to be becoming known as ‘lockdown 2.0’ senior managers and leaders of teams may be struggling with managing colleagues remotely, and finding a way to keep the wheels of work in motion in these very strange times. If you are a leader, you might feel the primary focus should be keeping your teams motivated and resilient, but who is taking care of you? A bit of self-care to work on your own resilience may be required. You might think this is rather selfish, but I promise you it will help not just you but your teams as well and in this blog, I talk about being “Selful” and how that is different to being selfish.

Pick a few of the 10 ideas and make a start. Picture credit Lala Azizli Unsplash

Here’s ten ways developing resilience can help:

1)      Reduce isolation:

2020 has been tough, and as we enter lockdown again you may well be feeling isolated, particularly if you have been working from home for a long time. Reviewing and rebuilding your support network, a key dimension of resilience as outlined in my Resilience Wheel, helps you retain a feeling of connection to others. Reviewing what you need from others, ie support, but also constructive challenge, will help your own confidence and adaptability.

2)      Re-gain perspective:

When we feel stressed and burned out, as many may be doing at the moment, small problems can become magnified. Building resilience can help you regain a sense of perspective and calm, essential to addressing problems more easily.

3)      Support your team:

If team members are struggling with their performance and motivation at the moment, developing your own resilience can help you to give them the strength and support needed to turn things around.

4)      Improve engagement:

Working on your own resilience can help rekindle a sense of purpose, which increases your own and your team’s confidence and motivation, as clear shared goals are identified, and everyone understands their part in delivering these.

5)      Re-establish your personal values:

Do you feel like your personal values are out of sync with the way you are working? Developing your own resilience can provide clarity on what your values are, and whether or not they are aligned to the way you are currently working.

6)      Delegate effectively:

If you feel unable to ask your team to complete tasks for you, perhaps because you don’t want to add to their pressures, developing your own resilience will help you to have productive conversations with them. By learning to play to your own strengths, and encouraging them to do the same, teams can feel happier and more motivated to get tasks done effectively.

7)      Ease the strain:

If you feel like an elastic band that’s ready to snap at any moment, developing your own resilience can help you regulate your emotions, and understand ways to re-charge, recuperate and re-energise.

8)      See the bigger picture:

Sometimes it can feel as if we get so bogged down with the minutiae of the immediate tasks, the long-term overall strategy is all but forgotten. When this happens, teams are in danger of veering off course, focusing on the wrong things, and lacking productivity. Building your own resilience can help you re-focus on what matters, so you and your team can all see the bigger picture more clearly.

9)      Focus on the right tasks:

The definition of insanity is repeating the same actions and hoping for a different outcome, yet so often I see people trapped in this type of behaviour at work, often because it is ‘the ways we’ve always done it.’ Developing greater resilience enables you and your team members to break out of these inefficient behavioural patterns and focus on what really matters.

10)  Rest easy!

Finally, never underestimate the restorative powers of a good night’s sleep. Resilient people know that eight hours’ a night is the way forward to maintain mental and physical health and support peak performance at work.

I hope you have found my tips helpful. If you would like more information on building either your own or your team’s resilience, please do get in touch.

What rest have you got planned? Picture credit Yeopay Yong Unsplash