Resilience

Defining Resilience

Resilience is the ability to cope with life’s challenges and become stronger as a result.

The Stoic philosopher Epictetus (c.AD 55 - 135 AD) observed that it is the meaning we attach to events that controls how they affect us, rather than the events themselves. 

At the heart of resilience is the knowledge that we have a choice about our mindset, and that by learning to change this we can change how we respond to life’s ups and downs. Resilience governs how quickly we’re able to “bounce back” from the inevitable setbacks we all face. 

I’ve specialised in helping individuals and teams to build resilience since 2012. In that time, I’ve noticed that building resilience also helps us learn from our experiences and them so we don’t just “bounce back” but “spring forward” to achieve even more. 

How can resilience help?

Resilience plays an important part in many aspects of personal and business performance, including:

·     Transformation

·     Agility

·     Emotional Intelligence

·     Self Confidence

·     Direction and Purpose

By building resilience, we help individuals and teams develop the skills they need to thrive in this volatile world, and transform their performance both personally and professionally.

My approach to building resilience:

In my approach, I’ve combined a number of different resilience models into a “Resilience Wheel”, which I use as a framework for my coaching. As part of resilience coaching we’ll examine each of the areas below, and how they interact with one another:

Energy:

Your overall health and wellbeing, and also how energised or de-energised you are thinking or feeling about what’s happening and what you have to achieve.

Meaning:

How we describe events that happen to ourselves and others – the “stories” of our lives.

Support:

The people that you have in your life and how they contribute, either positively or negatively.

Purpose:

This is about your “reason why”. Either the bigger picture of your reason for being, or more simply the goals/outcomes are you working towards right now.

Confidence:

In its simplest sense - the balance between your positive and negative thoughts and feelings about yourself.

Adaptability:

How you approach change and how much you see change as an opportunity.

"As my Coach, Russell has been exceptional at working with me in creative ways during our sessions. I would compare him to Piccaso! He paints a framework for me to work within and enables me to work out all that I need to move forward."

Peter – OD Consultant and Coach

"I worked with Russell over the last 2 years and more recently on a tailored development programme for over 50 people. I think he has a great ability to understand requirements and adapt to meet needs. He balances his work well between support and challenge to push you to develop beyond your comfort zone. Russell is a great asset to the organisation and I would recommend him to anyone looking for coaching or development opportunities."

Christine – Senior IT Programme Manager