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Tough Times Demand Resilient Leaders
The stock market gyrates with unpredictable and heartburning results. Icons of solid companies become straw figures before balance sheets. Children are abducted from their front yards and networks of terrorists spiral throughout the world. Religious institutions cast shadows of duplicity while El Nino brings strange fish to the California coasts and out-of-control fires head toward ancient Sequoias. Tough times. It's enough to cause all of us to stand like the proverbial "deer in headlights", mutter "the sky is falling", or else spring into action. The latter would be fine but it's often a knee-jerk response based on what we've done in the past. Trouble is that the present doesn't look like the immediate past. Whether you are leading a Fortune 100 company, a small department, or an enterprise of one, now is the time to hone your resiliency skills. But first, let's update the definition of "resilient". In 1824, Webster defined it as: "the capability of a strained body to recover its size and shape after deformation caused especially by compressive stress." That definition works for explaining metal but not for the mettle of the human system. Consider this: The compressive stress to an organizational body can be the result of bloating mergers. Mergers now meet mania and layoffs distort the workloads and customer care. If this is the case, the resilient organization must carefully think what size and shape will serve it for the long haul. Recovering its size and shape might be the worst thing! At the risk of insulting Webster, I define resiliency as " the capacity to cultivate strengths to positively meet the challenges of living; the ability to bounce back from adversity while maintaining personal and corporate integrity." Some key resilient strengths are found in using HOPE as an acronym:
Head talk asks that we critically explore our thinking process. Are we stuck in out-moded patterns of behaviors that no longer serve us? What assumptions are we making and what actions can we take if the assumptions are confirmed? What resources can we call upon? How have we nurtured our relationships and support network? Are we being truly HONEST with ourselves about our own fears? What voices do we need to listen to-even if we don't want to? Heart walk is truth in action. It means we keep our word. Trust is the password of our time. It is also the cornerstone of relationships. Since an inability to get along is the single biggest reason for failure, heart walk builds relationships through connecting at more than cerebral levels. Optimism arises from our anticipation of a positive outcome as well as our ability to help produce that outcome. Dr. Martin Seligman's decades-long research indicates that optimism can be learned by listening carefully to our internal dialogue and challenging negative beliefs. Learned Optimism is a book that should be on everyone's reading list. Purpose, passion and persistence work like a three-legged stool in holding up a resilient leader. Purpose implies that you have a reason for being on this earth and it is not "all about you". Since the odds of a human egg being fertilized are 220 trillion to one, you are NOT a mistake. If purpose is the "why" you are here, passion is the "what". It's that activity that gets your juices flowing. Somehow, somewhere it must be in your life. Find a way to put it there and then persist in the doing. Pablo Casals knew he was put on earth for music. His passion was the cello. Even severely crippled with arthritis, his resilient spirit persisted through the pain and he played like an angel. Energy and enjoyment spark up the human engine. In complex time, our energy sources need to be renewed and refreshed. Sleep, exercise, solitude, and meditation pump the exhausted spirit with the octane of resiliency. Play and laughter are birthrights of the human spirit. Laughter is the canary of hope. If the laughter has died, so too has your resiliency. Lighten up. Find what's zany about life. Watch children at play. Don't take life so seriously-you won't get out of it alive. Philosopher Howard Zinn wrote that to have hope, one doesn't need certainty, only possibility. In an upside down world-there are lots of possibilities for positive change and growth. Let H.O.P.E. support YOUR resilient spirit. (c) 2002 by Eileen McDargh. All rights reserved. About The Author Eileen McDargh, CSP, CPAE, is an international speaker, author and seminar leader. Her book 'The Resilient Spirit' is the companion piece to her talks on resiliency and spirit. For more information on Eileen and her presentations, please call 949-496-8640 or visit http://www.TheResilientSpirit.com
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Coaching Tough Times Demand Resilient Leaders The stock market gyrates with unpredictable and heartburning results. Icons of solid companies become straw figures before balance sheets. Children are abducted from their front yards and networks of terrorists spiral throughout the world. Religious institutions cast shadows of duplicity while El Nino brings strange fish to the California coasts and out-of-control fires head toward ancient Sequoias. Having Fun In Leadership "Don't measure your life by your goals, but rather by what you are DOING to achieve them." ?Unknown Pay No Attention To The Man Behind The Curtain! As the 'Great And Powerful Oz' once said to Dorothy, "Pay No Attention To The Man Behind The Curtain!" and as you know, appearances can be deceiving they are also one of the first things people judge others by. For instance, you recall the old saying 'Never Judge A Book By Its Cover?' well guess what we still do! The Three Faces of Leadership This article was published in the Nov. 2003 edition of Hamilton, Ontario's BIZ Magazine under the title "Leadership's Triple Crown" LM Managing Monsters in Meetings - Part 1, General Strategies for Unproductive Behavior It happens easily. You're conducting a meeting and suddenly a small side meeting starts. Then someone introduces an unrelated issue. Someone else ridicules the new issue. Everyone laughs, except the person who mentioned the idea. Then someone insults the person who told the joke. Two people stand up and walk out. Others complain that the meeting is a waste of time. Dont be Afraid to Lead! In most aspects of human activity, the pendulum of fashion swings back and forth between extremes, passing briefly through the point of balance on every swing. Leadership Development for Success In today's highly competitive world, there is a lot of pressure on leaders to create highly productive organizations. To be successful with this task, leaders will need all of the talent, skills, techniques, and experience they can muster through leadership development. The pressure to succeed can create a real dilemma: whether to "manage" people or to "lead" people. At CMOE, we maintain that in order to achieve high levels of employee engagement and morale, people in authority must learn how to show others the way, be a "lighthouse," rather than to "railroad" people into compliance by telling, commanding, or controlling them. Respected leaders easily gain loyalty and mutual agreement with their followers (loyalty demanded is loyalty denied). A Good Leader Knows The Teams Colours Leadership can be a very challenging task. As leaders we don't always get to choose who is on our team. In fact very often a leader inherits a team, of which most of the members have been there far longer than the leader, and may even know more about the work than the leader. Whatever the situation, one of the responsibilities of a leader is to motivate the team to all work together towards the common goal. This can be a daunting challenge. So often the team is comprised of very diverse members, each with their own strengths, weaknesses, and work styles. The team dynamics are also often complicated by internal disagreements and personal conflicts. The leader, not only has work with this group of people, but also needs to achieve the results expected by their superiors. E=MC - Is It In Me? How many times have you seen the E = MC2 formula and wondered what it might mean to you? Leadership Skills and Ability What is true Leadership. The Sink Or Swim Approach To Leadership Looking around in most corporate environments today you'll find mission, vision and values statements proudly displayed on the walls, in print materials and even engraved in granite. Often, they've invested a great deal of time; effort and expense in crafting just the right message to best describe the foundational principles of the company. I can't help but stop, take notice; and then wonder how this foundational wisdom is incorporated into the day-to-day operations. What's in it for the operational leaders to carry out the mission in ways that align with the vision and values? How are they taught to walk the talk? The Six Essential Leadership Attributes Leadership is the foundation for all organizations, whether corporate, nonprofit or government. Leadership is a high calling and responsibility, upon which all else the organization is or does rests. Moreover, leadership is always top down, never bottom up. Creating Unlimited Belief for Success! What's holding your team back from experiencing "breakout performance"? Character Traits of Extraordinary Leaders When people make a decision (either consciously or unconsciously) to follow your leadership, they do it primarily because of one of two things: Your Character or your Skills. They want to know if you are the kind of person they want to follow and if you have the skills to take them further. Yes, there are other variables but these are the bulk of the matter. This week we focus on the kind of character that causes people to follow your leadership. Managing Monsters in Meetings - Part 4, Quiet Participants There are many reasons why someone would decline to participate during a meeting. For example, the person may feel reluctant to speak out, may disagree with the approach endorsed by others in the meeting, or may just be tired. BIG-3 Leadership! "Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends." - Walt Disney Shades of Grey: Government, Religion, & People Some think that everything is black and white. I'm beginning to see everything as different shades of grey. Are You The Most Powerful Leader You Can Be? As someone who teaches, manages, parents or influences you'll probably already be aware that powerful leadership is not just about the boss, it's about the team, irrespective of whether that team is in the classroom, in the office or around your home. 10 Smart Ways Leaders Can Bring Out the Best in Others You are a leader. Everyone is a leader. It doesn't matter if your title is Chairman of the Board or 3rd Assistant to the Supply Room Manager, you lead every time you influence others to do what you want. It's a skill that starts at birth (doesn't a newborn baby run her house?). As a smart adult, you have refined your natural leadership skills in order to influence others to willingly do what you want. Choose Your Best Life: Where Are Your Choices Leading You? According to the dictionary choice means "to select freely after consideration, to have a preference for, to take an alternative and of high caliber." Based on this definition, I believe choice is the act of careful selection, identifying preferences and exploring quality alternatives that lead to freedom. How often do we approach our choices in such a deliberately thoughtful way?
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