Developing Resilience For Changing and Challenging Times.

It is one of the most important qualities for leaders and managers to have in these turbulent times in which we live and work today. We are living with uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity, paradox and unpredictability. These are the norms.  But what is this thing called "resilience" and how do you become a resilient person?

Some would say that it is just a new buzz word. It is true it is a word that has been used more and more frequently in recent years. It certainly came into its own after 9/11. When it is Googled 9,060,000 entries come up.

Yet while the word may be new, the quality of character embedded in it is far from new. We saw enormous resilience in the people who settled our land, the men who fought our wars, the women who lived, worked and gave birth to their children in the bush.

Resilience is usually associated with the ability to bounce back up after being knocked down, with responding positively and proactively to any adversity.

It is, however, much more than that. Resilience is one of those intangible soft skills that is actually quite a hard skill to develop and sustain. It is easy to list the behaviours that a person needs to engage in to respond resiliently to situations. They usually make perfect sense, but to actually behave that way in the face of challenge and adversity is quite another thing.

That is because resilience calls for a psychological, inner strength in people. That is what they draw on to respond. Whether they have that or not, and in what quantity, depends on what their life experience has been up to that time and how they have responded, or been helped to respond.

Some people seem to face constant challenge and adversity and yet meet every situation head on with a proactive determination that sees them move through to new answers and solutions, new ways of being and doing. Other people go through similar situations and become overwhelmed, stressed, even clinically depressed sometimes, and may never recover to lead the lives they want to live.  Once again the old nature/nurture debate enters the arena as we ask why.

Resilient people have often endured considerable pain and grown through it. It may be psychological pain that has seen them wrestle with the inner demons of their personality and become a much better person. It might be the pain of loss and grief that they move through to new beginnings. It might be physical pain or a life-threatening experience that sees them reassess their lives and move in new directions. It may have been a business or professional challenge that threatened their entire future and livelihood but which they worked through to develop something much more sustainable and productive.  They found the way through, found inspiration and motivation, discovered a force, a strength within themselves to rise above it all, dust themselves down and move on with determination and focus.

Life is full of difficulties and challenges. Failure is a given. It is impossible to get through life without being knocked down or have dirt heaped on us sometimes. What determines who will survive and thrive is resilience.