Coaching full-time and being a full-time mother of four school-aged children (including one with special needs) has made resiliency a way of life for me. I didn’t anticipate full-time homeschooling joining my list of responsibilities, yet this happened in mid-March of 2020.
The addition of the role of homeschooling parent wasn’t the only thing that changed at this time. Many of my clients also began to take on much more active roles in their children’s education and working from home, which was new to them. My family and clients required more support from me during a time when I also had more going on.
Resiliency is important because someone needs to lead when others cannot. Someone needs to be the rock when others turn to sand under the pressures of work and life. If you are a resilient leader, you become that solid foundation so that your family or company don’t crumble under the unexpected pressure.
Are You a Resilient Leader?
A resilient leader is someone who can sustain their energy level under pressure, quickly bounce back from setbacks, adapt well to change, and keep going in the face of adversity. They also are expected to overcome these difficulties without engaging in dysfunctional behaviors that might harm them, their team, or their company. The most resilient leaders have a growth mindset and continuously learn.
Are you resilient? Here are a few questions you can ask yourself:
Do you become exhausted when you’re faced with setbacks? Do you find it hard to keep trying?
- Can you sustain your energy long enough to bounce back after adversity?
- Do you adapt well to change?
- Do you maintain a positive attitude when you’re facing conflict?
- Can you find solutions to problems when faced with ambiguity?
- Do you maintain a growth mindset during difficult times?
- Are you coachable?
If you answered no to a majority of these questions, you could use a tune-up on your resiliency skills. It’s likely that all of us will answer no to at least one of these questions, so let’s dig into seven keys to becoming a resilient leader to start building those skills.
1. Resilient Leaders Communicate Powerfully
How can a leader bring others along during times of turbulence? If they act individually and do not inform others about what they are trying to do, they are going to be ineffective. You cannot be a leader if you have no one to lead; therefore, having a framework for effective communication to reference is useful, especially when you’re trying to refine this skill. Below is a framework that has helped me and my clients improve our communication.
Leaders who follow the Communication Based Leadership philosophy coined by Cliff W. Gilmore of North of Center know the four timeless truths that are the cornerstone of effective communication:
- Everything is a communication activity.
- Our capacity to communicate is finite.
- Leadership is about relationships.
- Enduring leadership success requires trust.
To be resilient, leaders need to remember that everything they say or do will communicate something to someone, and they only have so much capacity to communicate. These principles help ensure leaders effectively communicate their intentions to their team so they can maintain the important relationships that will help them and the team succeed. Effective communication ensures others understand the new strategy or direction they are being asked to take and that the leader maintains the trust required to effectively lead.
Enduring leadership success requires trust. Trust is maintained by setting one’s intention in public to help others understand the changes, expectations, and new guidance, advice, and direction required to move forward.
2. Resilient Leaders Build Positive Relationships
One of the four timeless truths of communication-based leadership is that leadership is about relationships.
Resilient leaders know that success requires effective and positive relationships. They build trusted relationships and create strong teams. To make change, leaders need to have others moving in the same direction they are headed. They do this by building positive relationships. One of the ways they can build those relationships is by developing other leaders.
3. Resilient Leaders Develop Other Leaders
Resilient leaders build positive relationships by developing other leaders.
The most resilient leaders are interested in their own growth as well as concerned with the development of others. Intrinsically resilient leaders know that when someone encounters a failure, it is nothing more than feedback for moving forward.
This growth mindset principle—that failure is just feedback—helps when developing others; those they mentor know that learning happens from the mistakes and successes.
The most resilient leaders want feedback for themselves, and they are more likely to give feedback and coach others because they want candid feedback in return.
Resilient leaders are most successful when they develop other leaders with the same ability to bounce back in the face of adversity. By developing other leaders, resilient leaders demonstrate how to be coachable.
4. Resilient Leaders Are Coachable
Becoming a more resilient leader requires some behavior change. Behavior change involves a growth mindset. A growth mindset can be cultivated through coaching. Being coachable means you are ready to do what it takes to change, transform, or improve.
Behavior change requires a growth mindset: the ability to listen to feedback, put in effort, and adopt skillful behaviors. Resilient leaders have such a mindset, and those who don’t have one yet can use coaching to improve their mindset. If you are coachable, then you can learn to be open to feedback and request feedback from others. Resilient leaders don’t just request feedback then move on; they make improvements based on the feedback they are given. It’s this bold attitude of asking for feedback even when it isn’t offered that leads us to the next key to becoming a resilient leader; resilient leaders are bold risk takers.
5. Resilient Leaders Are Bold Risk Takers
Resilient leaders take bold risks and try new things. Being a risk taker isn’t as important when times are stable; however, when times are turbulent or changing fast, it is important for a leader not to be afraid to take risks and make bold moves without having a lot of time to make the decision.
Resilient leaders adapt well to change and keep going in the face of adversity. They have a growth mindset and continuously learn. That approach works well when the world is rapidly changing and is sometimes the difference between an organization staying afloat or folding. This ability to make bold changes often is related to their ability to adapt to and champion change.
6. Resilient Leaders Are Champions of Change
Resilient leaders are willing to change themselves as well as provide the leadership necessary to ensure that their team and their organization will also change.
Change takes courage and requires a vision about where an organization is headed. Resilient leaders lead through the change and often are the ones championing the change within their area of authority in the organization.
Now more than ever, as everything around us seems to be changing, it is important to have someone with a clear vision in charge. Having a resilient leader with a vision inspires action. A powerful vision can pull together ideas, people, and other resources even when it feels like everything is uncertain. Resilient leaders can provide the proverbial lighthouse when things are uncertain, which helps create the energy it takes to make change happen. Resilient leaders with a vision inspire individuals no matter what is going on around them.
7. Resilient Leaders Are Decisive
While resilient leaders often champion change, they must also make the decisions required to enact upon it. Making decisions is difficult because no one person has all the data or understands all possibilities. But organizations cannot move forward until a decision is made. The most resilient leaders are effective at making decisions and quickly moving forward.
If a resilient leader makes the wrong decision, they are quick to make a different decision and pivot. It often helps the transition to be smoother as they are bold risk takers, champions of change, and have built enduring trust within their organization.
Resilient leaders are perceived more positively in an organization, but it’s sometimes difficult to understand specifically what a leader can do to be viewed as more resilient. Choosing to improve even one or two of the keys to becoming a resilient leader will help you more effectively support yourself and others during times of adversity and maintain important relationships even when times are difficult.
Want to know which leadership styles are a good fit for resilient leaders? Download our 10 Leadership Styles You Should Know to find out.