While there are so many qualities that make an executive successful (ability to diagnose situations, think strategically, create a vision that excites people, lead others in a way that they want to follow etc.) one of the qualities that is often, if not always, raised is the need to be resilient. It seems like a no-brainer given the situation in our country, the strain on the economy and working in high performing, results focused organisations. If you don’t have it, it doesn't matter how brilliant you are, you just can't sustain the pressures and the expectations for the long term.
While some people seem to naturally have more resilience inherent in their personalities (and I envy them dearly) the good news is that it is a skill that can be learnt and practiced. We are not either resilient or fragile, it is an active and dynamic process – i.e. our level of resilience changes.
Given that stress is an inevitable part of life and executives operating in the workplace experience a variety of these stresses on a frequent basis, by developing strategies to build resilience we increase our ability to handle stress or buffer stress. With higher resilience it is not that we won’t feel stress, but that the impact of it on us will be less, enabling us to cope better and sometimes even flourish under stress.
Some of the biggest obstacles in achieving resilience is hiding when we struggle, covering up our low moods by pushing it away and just continuing to focus on meeting expectations, trying to appear like we are fine, having expectations of ourselves that we must have it all together, feeling that there is something wrong with us for struggling. If we continue to do this over a period, keeping this struggle in the dark from others, a sense of shame and failure can build.
So it makes sense that we need to be vulnerable to be resilient. Resilience consists of a cluster of factors: behaviors, thoughts, actions, attitudes, and skills. Speaking about what we are experiencing at work, building our emotional insight, monitoring our thoughts when we are under stress, noticing patterns in the way that we are thinking and acting, considering if what we are doing is supporting ourselves, or fueling further stress are important aspects of building resilience.
By developing strategies and tools to help build your resilience you can create a sustainable way of operating as an executive and feel fulfilled in the process. We are after all what we choose to focus on.
Image of Kintsugi - the Japanese art of repairing broken pots using lacquer mixed with gold dust, emphasizing rather than hiding damage, illustrates a key philosophy. Kintsugi beautifies the weakness and treats it as an important part of the object’s history, and the broken pot not as something to discard, but as something more precious than it was before.
This idea is in contrast to values of perfection and symmetry, and supports an eastern philosophy that finds beauty in the imperfect.
References:
1. Resilience in the Workplace: How to Be Resilient at Work, https://positivepsychology.com/resilience-in-the-workplace/resilience in the Workplace: How to Be Resilient at Work, Heather Craig, Jan 2019
2. HRM Online, https://www.hrmonline.com.au/topics/health-wellbeing-and-safety/hr-focus-resilience, By Jessica Mudditt, March 2018
3. BBC Arts - Get Creative - Broken a pot? Copy the Japanese and fix it with gold, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/326qTYw26156P9k92v8zr3C/broken-a-pot-copy-the-japanese-and-fix-it-with-gold Mercedes Smith,2023, image by Tom Slemmons