Three small and powerful words: hope, despair, forgiveness. These words so aptly describe the ebb and flow of a leadership life. No leader sustains and rises again without experiencing these states of leadership. There is no magic bullet for leadership resilience; in conversations with leaders from many walks of life, we have come to think of resilience as a practice—a daily practice to recognize and lift up hope and a hopeful view, to focus on even the smallest of strengths in times of despair, and to practice the will to forgive. This post outlines several resilience practices that you as a leader can add to, recreate, and reinvent for yourself.
Hope
Hope, and the ability to generate it for yourself and others, is the most powerful practice in both good and challenging times. It is this practice that builds the capacity for resilience. If you practice hope in good times, when more challenging times arrive it is easier to see possible solutions and new ideas. There are many ways to practice hope in leadership; here are three.Set the conditions to see hope. Take a moment to recognize what is good and strong in your leadership. Ask yourself:
- What was successful yesterday?
- What enabled that success?
- How can I use those enablers today in my leadership?
Take a hopeful view. Foster hope and a hopeful view. Ask yourself:
- What have I done today to foster hope for myself and my team?
- How might I increase hope and a hopeful view?
- Did the questions I asked prompt new ways of thinking?
Develop the craft of reframing. Reframing is the practice of creating a new way of seeing a situation. In every situation, whether we realize it or not, we are choosing to frame the reality of what is happening and we are choosing what is most important. Having done this, we then proceed as leaders to act. Practicing reframing can open new ways of thinking and seeing. Ask yourself:
- How can I frame this situation in a new or positive way?
- What does that new frame offer in terms of alternatives and new paths forward?
- Who can I talk to that might help me reframe this situation?
Despair
Despair is never welcome in our leadership lives, yet it comes with the failed projects, stress, weariness, and complexities of life. Despair can take the form of a glancing blow—you will be over it by next week. Despair can also visit and remain with you, like an unwelcome guest. A powerful focus on strengths, no matter how tiny, can help sustain you in the day-to-day when despair visits.Uplift your strengths. Ask yourself:
- What strength, however small, have I exercised today?
- Can I use that same strength to function tomorrow?
- Who is enabling me to sustain and how can I foster that even more?
Forgiveness
Forgiveness is an act of leadership will. It is not easy and it does not absolve past acts, but it is the path to venturing and evolving into the future. Forgiveness is key to sustaining our resilient leadership selves. Forgiveness is an act of letting go, beginning again, recognizing the reality of what is and opening to possibility.Undertake the will to forgive. Ask yourself:
- Where have I seen forgiveness at play in the leadership of others? What can I learn from that?
- How can I put down the burden of non-forgiveness when carrying it seems so justified?
- If I practice forgiveness, what new pathways will open for me?
Resilience is a practice, and we believe it arises not just in the challenging times but in polishing skills in all three states of hope, despair, and forgiveness. Of these, the polishing of hope is the most powerful because it fosters our strongest leadership selves . . . so we leave you with this poem:
Hope
My beautiful friend—hope
You point me toward the sun
You shelter me in the rain
You trumpet my successes
And
Hold me in my sorrow
Ever whispering,
Rise up
Rise up
