Developing Resilience

This is being recorded in March of 2022, and we have gone through so many drastic changes coming out of COVID . And then now in March of 2022, we have all the , uh, world , uh , turmoil that's going on. We have a war in rushing the U Ukraine and just you continue to see things. And for businesses it's really, really challenging whether supply chain issues or whether it's , uh , issues with finding the right talent and retaining the right talent. There are just a lot of things going on.

Uh , today we're gonna focus on a couple of great tips around resiliency. If you haven't become a resilient already, guess what? Here's gonna be a really nice overview to go ahead and capture some of the key things that we're gonna, that may be very, very helpful that you can implement starting today. Uh, we're gonna focus on several of them now, but one of them is really focused around. Don't try to solve problems the same way with the same thinking that created them .

If you do that, guess what? That's kind of the definition of insanity. So I would say that most of you're probably not insane. Therefore, you probably don't want to try to create the , um, same problems you have continuously with this same types of solutions or same thinking. A lot of companies though, they really focus on. If you fail, fail often and fail quickly and make sure you learn from your mistakes. Let's say the key thing you wanna do there is learn from your mistakes.

If you are , depending on your type of business. And you're always on the cutting edge of technology or innovation , making sure that you learn from your mistakes is critical. And I would say the other big thing is you've always gotta be, you've gotta be as fast as you can to market, but making sure that if you do have a mistake, which will happen often in business, you will make sure that you spend some time focusing on what did you, what happened and what did you learn from that mistake?

So that guess what you don't make that mistake again, match your emotions before they manage you. One of the key things you do have to do is make sure you check your emotions. Even if you're upset at an employee, if you're upset at which way the business is going, if you're just upset with bigger things and we, you can think about the price of the gas pump right now, really focus on checking your emotions.

A leader, a really good leader who is resilient will not let their emotions get to them, especially when you're talking to your employees. So even if there's turmoil going on, even if there is supply chain issues or cost increases that are really far out of your control, making sure you still show a level of confidence and calmness with your employees is gonna be critical. Um, staying tough. You know, one of the key things also is , uh, the tougher, the situation, the tougher you need to become.

And that's the sign, everybody who's in a leadership role, wherever you're a leader in whether it's your organization. And you've got a you're the CEO or you're a respected leader in the organization. You're a leader in other , uh , social capacity outside of work. Making sure you stay tough during trying times is critical because one of the key things is you've gotta be leading from example.

And if you're not leading from example, and you're not showing toughness and resilience, then employees, the people you're working with are going to really, really see that tremendously, keep growing , uh, by keep growing, keep developing. If you're not learning something new every day , guess what you're going backward . It's the information, the flow of information, the flow of new information that's coming out is continuous.

And the more that you focus on learning one thing, at least one thing a day, the better you're gonna become, continue to read whether it's blogs or whether it's podcasts from a favorite author or whether it's just a short , um , you know, there's so many avenues that you can get from a podcast, or maybe you get a daily inspiration in the morning.

Uh, it could be around , uh , exercise, or it could be around prayer or meditation, but making sure you continu to grow whatever that growth looks like, making sure you do that on a continuous basis. So it becomes a have bit for you. Staying prepared, really focused on looking at strategically as far out as you can. And I know strategic thinking , um, 20, 30 years ago used to be five, 10 years down the road. Guess what?

Now, realistically, it could be 3, 6, 12 months down the road, but staying prepared for what's happening in the marketplace and making sure you're taking actions to be able to keep your business to be focusing on your business, to be prepared is really, really gonna be critical. Pick yourself up as many times as it takes really focusing on that.

And as I mentioned earlier in this podcast, you may fail and you may fail very often to, depending on the type of business you're in, but focusing on picking yourself up, not having a pity party and then focusing on oh , poor pitiful me, but really focusing on taking care of yourselves. And if you're in a lit leadership role, you have to make sure you take care of the people within your team, because they are looking for inspir . They're looking for motivation.

They're looking for, for consistency from you as a key leader in a, in the organization reward, the small wins. That's the next one we wanted to focus on rewarding. The small wins.

If you're working on a large project, that's maybe a one year or three year project, making sure you focus on those smaller successes, because if you're just gonna have a big celebration at the end of this large project rollout, or maybe an E R P implementation, guess what if you just wait for the big win at the end, you're is a lot of people along the way, because you're gonna also have some drop setbacks and failures along the way.

So making sure you focus on rewarding, the small wins, keep giving some of the best resilient people I know are servant leaders at heart, and there there's a whole basis and a whole focus on servant leadership in organizations. I'm actually very blessed that I work with a couple of organizations where servant leadership is actually one of their core values. So being a servant leader is taking care of your people and asking them, how can I help you?

And I'm also part of a professional organization in Dallas that is focused on how can I help you do, do what you need to do to be successful. And it's amazing when you actually keep giving you actually keep receiving.

And the more that you give, the more you receive, and there's a lot of focus and there's a lot of truth to that statement, building relationships, building long term lasting relationships, doesn't matter what facet of business you're in, but those business, those build those relationships you're building on are gonna be huge for you. Uh, some people I know that if they're looking for a job, that's the only time they focus on actually reaching out to their network or when things are tough.

Making sure though you have a handful of great business relationships or personal relationships is really, really, really critical. Whether it's the good times or the bad times, these are people, people that you can lean on. And these are people that you can actually focus on to sometimes bear your soul and tell them things confidentially and ask them for advice and mentoring. And the last thing is gonna be around creating your own meaning . It's really having a personal, why do I do what I do?

Why? And it's not just about, or why do I , I lead this company. And if you lead a company just to have create money and create profitability so you can buy the next new thing or the next new vehicle, guess what, that's the wrong thinking?

Really your why as to why you do what you do, why you work maybe 10, 12 hours a day, six or five or six days a week, really focusing on why do I do what I do and making sure that meeting is very, very strong with you, share that with some people, again, you know, very, very close to you and that you have a close relationship with whether it's a personal, why or that's person from a , a business mentor or coach, but making sure you focus on why do you exist and why do you actually do what you do

on a daily basis? Because if you can focus on that, guess what you're gonna be a much more effective leader. And those are some critical things I would say that we should focus on regarding resiliency. And again , the days and times, hopefully we will get past some of the choppy times and the turbulent times we're currently having within the economic environment, then the economic, the environment going on in the , between Russia and the conflict there between Russia and Ukraine.

But guess what I will guarantee there will be more issues that'll come up, whether to year from now two or five years from now that the , the sooner you learn how to become a resilient person, a resilient leader, the be it's gonna be for you and your entire organization. Well, that about covers it for today. Thanks for listening for more on all things pertaining to HR, visit us at HRcatalystconsulting.com and don't forget to like us, subscribe to her podcast until next time.

This is Mark Mitford . Thanks for listening. Take care. Bye .