What is a Resilient Leader?
Those of you who closely follow my monthly blogs will know by now that whilst there are many leadership traits and qualities I admire, one in particular consistently remains close to my heart.
That of resilience.
This month I want to address four key areas around this topic – “What is a resilient leader,” “The benefits of being a resilient leader,” “How to be a resilient leader,” and “The importance of being a resilient leader.”
Before starting on the first of these, let’s take a slight step back to remind ourselves of the meaning of resilience.
The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) - a worldwide federation of national standards bodies – defines resilience as: 'The ability of a business to absorb and adapt in a changing environment to enable it to deliver its objectives and to survive and prosper.'
Quite simply, resilience is the ability to learn from your setbacks and mistakes.
How well do you learn from and recover from, your mistakes? Photo Rob Wicks Unsplash
That is why I define Resilience as “Springing Forward with learning.”
Former South African President Nelson Mandela – revered by many as of the most inspiring and motivational leaders of the modern world – succinctly summed up his understanding of resilience when he said: “Don’t judge me by my success – judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.”
So with a clear understanding in our minds of what resilience means, let’s now apply it to leadership in the workplace.
The COVID-19 crisis has created the epitome of ‘VUCA’ environments: volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity.
Under these circumstances, leaders need the ability to react quickly to change - demonstrating flexibility and agility in merging planned activities with adapted ones or changing course entirely.
A resilient leader is someone who:
Faces difficulties head-on rather than falling into despair or hiding from problems with unhealthy coping strategies.
Remains calm in the face of intense and stressful situations – even those totally unexpected or out of the ordinary.
Possesses a high tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty, and can quickly adapt to these new circumstances.
Looks after their own mental and physical wellbeing – recognising the importance of this to perform at optimum levels.
Is measured and confident in how they communicate – instilling confidence in their leadership.
Keeps a good handle on reality, both in terms of putting mistakes or set-backs into perspective, and also setting achievable goals.
Look out for my next blog in this series – “The benefits of being a resilient leader.”
If you’d like to explore the subject of resilience more deeply, please contact me via Email: russell@theresiliencecoach.co.uk.