Resilient Leaders: Setting your Business up for Success

Resilient leaders

Resilient Leaders: Setting your Business up for Success

When turbulence hits, what sets your organization apart from the rest?

As we enter the New Year, I would like to highlight once again one of the most important success factors for your business…the power of resiliency!  As I often tell my clients, in business you have to get good at managing change and get good at recovering from it. Of course, many of you know the importance of resilience in your personal lives, but if you haven’t recognized it as an essential component to the success of your organization’s health, this is the next vital step. 

Resiliency is best defined as the ability to bounce back from change, recover from setbacks, and adapt well to change. Resilient leaders in the business world see changes as opportunities for growth, and have a calm confidence in their own ability to cope. They make decisions easily and quickly and can reframe failures during periods of turbulence. If your business quickly and easily takes what is typically seen as a negative or bad business scenario and turns it around into a learning experience that is a resilient organization.

With no effort to build resiliency in your organization, leaders and staff become stuck. They can’t make decisions easily and they become distracted by perceived failures, and miss out on clear opportunities. They don’t have the mental fortitude needed to guide the business towards success. Hence, the importance of resiliency!

Are you creating the perfect conditions for a resilient organization?

In order to have a resilient organization, you must have resilient leaders that create an environment for resiliency to thrive. These leaders set the stage for their team members to get out of their comfort zone – to engage in new activities in which they feel uncomfortable. They encourage the team to get out of themselves — the self that resists change and failure. Although it may sound a bit daunting, this is really a safe environment where individuals feel confident and supported.

So how exactly do you build these conditions so your people feel supported, competent, and confident?

Creating the ideal environment in which both setbacks and successes are treated as positive learning experiences is the key to enhancing organization’s resilience. Leaders can help construct this culture by breaking down any barriers that separate them from their team. The most resilient leaders are effective at making decisions to avoid becoming stymied by change. Their teams instantly recognize this behavior and follow suit.

You can do this by modeling resilient behavior and through your daily interactions with your team. More specifically, you can demonstrate resiliency by developing, and communicating powerfully with, your team. You need to help everyone reframe failures into learning opportunities, build positive relationships on a personal level, and remain open to admitting fault when necessary.

Here are four habits of resilient leaders that translate into business success:

1) They adapt well to change — Resilient leaders are flexible and adaptable to constantly changing circumstances. Especially those that are beyond their control. They embrace change and encourage others to do the same. This ensures that the organization will also grow and change with them. They have an optimistic attitude towards adjustment and simply follow the river rather than fight it.

2) They feel confident — Resilient leaders feel competent and confident and they employ effective coping strategies to deal with difficult emotions and stress. They focus on their abilities and skillsets rather than their perceived failures. When things don’t go as planned they ask themselves, “What did I learn from that?”

3) They Have Good Social Support Systems in Place — Resilient leaders establish and nurture a supportive social network — they build good relationships with others because they know that a strong support team is more helpful than coping on their own. This type of support system acts as a vital tool to help them deal with failure, stress, and change.

4) They reframe change and failure (or any seemingly negative occurrence) — Resilient leaders have a learning and growth mindset. They ask themselves, “In what way can I view this situation to see this as a learning and growth opportunity?” Just the questions itself sets the resilient leader on a different emotional train — one that supports and encourages new positive possibilities.

Remember, these characteristics hold true for resilient organizations as well. Essentially, if the leaders demonstrate these characteristics, the behavior can be much more easily adopted by the team and becomes part of their mindset. Resilient people and companies create an environment that supports their people so they become good at managing change and recovering from it quickly. Let your organization stand out from the rest.


 

Michelle Landis, Founder and Principal, Master Business Coach

Michelle Landis, Master Business Coach

As a business coach, I use a unique blend of coaching and consulting to help business owners achieve a higher level of performance for both themselves and their business. It’s a very direct approach that provides my clients with insights into what is coming next, laser-sharp focus and the opportunity to practice, make mistakes and learn in a safe and supportive environment.

 

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