Being resilient is considered one of the crucial qualities that leaders need in our complex working world. In organisational psychology, resilience is defined as the ability to adapt to and recover quickly from challenging situations. It is a quality that should enable leaders to succeed even when faced with difficult decisions, stress and uncertainty. In this blog post, we will look at how leaders can develop resilience through 5 key points.
1. Reflection, self-awareness and self-confidence
In order to establish a sound self-awareness and to be aware of what they have done well and what they can improve, leaders should regularly take time – individually and together with their teams - to reflect on their situation and performance. This includes not only facts and figures but also communication, emotional aspects and relationships. This exchange can help to strengthen the self-confidence of those involved and the quality in dealing with each other and give them the self-confidence that they can also master difficult situations.
2. Building trust Trusting working relationships are an important factor in leadership resilience. Through open communication and transparency, leaders should seek to build strong relationships of trust with their customers, supervisors, staff and peers. These "high quality relationships" have an affirming effect on the leaders in their everyday professional life and relieve them in critical phases. At the same time, they form the basis for stable personal networks.
3. Networking
Leaders should be able to get support from others when they need it. It is important to build a strong network of colleagues, friends and mentors who can serve as personal and professional resources during difficult times. This can help leaders gain a variety of perspectives and ideas to successfully solve their problems. Building this network is an ongoing process and should be started during quieter times.
4. Health, well-being and work-life balance
A healthy work-life balance is crucial for human resilience. This includes physical, psychological and social aspects. Leaders should consciously take their time for their families and friends, personal interests and regular breaks and not fall into the trap of permanently putting their work above everything else. They should proactively invest in their health and well-being: through a healthy diet, sufficient sleep, regular exercise and conscious stress reduction. And they should also make all this possible for their employees.
5. Set objectives and stay flexible
Clear objectives and priorities can help to be more resilient to stress and pressure during challenging periods. By agreeing clear goals for themselves, with their supervisors and with their staff and by prioritising their work, leaders can ensure that they focus on the most important tasks and use their resources effectively. At the same time, a flexible mindset and openness to new ideas and alternative solutions enable them to respond adequately to unforeseen events.
In daily project life and while counselling clients, I often experience that the topic of resilience is thought about far too late: only when the stress for those involved has already reached a maximum and the options for action are unnecessarily limited as a result. Resilience is the ability to recover from setbacks and overcome challenges in a healthy way. We all possess this ability to a certain extent and with very different individual dispositions. Leaders should understand that developing and maintaining resilience is a demanding process. It takes quite some time, attention and practice in both traditional and agile setups to get there.
There are many books and videos on resilience that can be useful for leaders. Here are three recommendations:
Cary L. Cooper, Jill Flint-Taylor, Michael Pearn: Resilienz als Erfolgsfaktor. Nachhaltige Strategien für die Arbeitswelt. Junfermann Verlag. Paderborn 2017
Brian Marien:
Mirriam Prieß:
Resilienz. Das Geheimnis innerer Stärke. Widerstandskraft entwickeln und authentisch leben. Südwest Verlag, München 2016