“I did a lot of self-evaluation in terms of where I was and how marketable I was … I tried to step back and not rush into anything,” he says. He spent more time with his family and began getting involved in the community and with his church.
After a three-month break, Matt felt rejuvenated and began a diligent, focused process of networking and job searching. Through a series of contacts, he was offered a job in a related field. Over time, Matt began to see how much he learned from the loss of his job. On the work front, he realized he needed to do a better job of “managing up” – communicating with his boss and his boss’s boss. Personally, he learned that maintaining a more balanced life is an effective long-term way to cope with life’s ups and downs. After two years on the new job, he had grown his region’s business by 20 percent, while at the same time continuing his focus on family and community.
Matt believes losing his job was a blessing in disguise: “It was not a catastrophic event. There was a paradigm shift, but it wasn’t a catastrophe.”
Why Is Resiliency Important?
In 1984 CCL conducted a study on the “key events” that contributed to leaders’ development. Twenty percent of respondents said they learned significant lessons from hardships, such as a job loss, career setbacks, mistakes and failures, or personal trauma. The research was repeated in the late 1990s. At that time 34 percent of respondents cited hardships as key learning experiences. That 14 percent increase reflects an increasing complexity and turbulence – and it underscores the importance of developing resiliency.
Resiliency is important because change is so pervasive. Think for a moment about the kinds of changes today’s organization typically encounters and how they might affect your leadership skills, your managerial performance, even your career. Organizations can change mission, strategy, or global focus. Outside and inside business environments, as well as markets, can shift.
How does a manager flourish, even survive, in a current of constant and complex change? By building skills in resiliency, by broadening perspectives and competencies so that organizational, personal, and career changes can be absorbed and contribute to your leadership development.
Becoming Resilient
Beginning early in life you have developed behaviors and perspectives that have enhanced or hindered your ability to be resilient and adaptable as an adult. Yet resiliency can be developed. It’s possible to change your views, habits, and responses by modifying your thoughts and actions in nine areas: acceptance of change, continuous learning, self empowerment, sense of purpose, personal identity, personal and professional networks, reflection, skill shifting, and your relationship to money.
These nine areas aren’t separate facets of resilience but intertwined and interrelated themes. Each builds on the others, influences the others, and in concert with the others can bolster your resiliency and your skill in handling change. By improving in all of these areas you broaden your outlook and become less narrowly focused – more able to adapt to change.
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