I believe that leaders make a big difference. From my perspective as a leadership professor, psychologist and author I’ve seen that leaders who have personal resilience generate sustainable cultures for their organizations. I have been very busy for the last year using my research-based framework of personal and organizational resilience to help leadership teams make sense of what is going on, reset direction, and muster the clarity and energy to carry on in the face of continuous VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity).
As I reflect on the past year one team of senior leaders stands out in their ability to mobilize their individual resilience as a path to organizational sustainability and renewal. I want to share the journey of one team I have been working with as they continue to navigate the global pandemic, impact of George Floyd’s death, economic downturn, wildfires, and political uncertainty in their mission focused organization. Their journey reaffirms for me the framework and structure I have used to help leaders become more consciously competent in these challenging environments. I share this in the hope that this can be helpful to you in the work you are doing with building resilience in leadership teams.
Looking Back, Looking Forward…
Last week, this team gathered to take a pulse of where they were as leaders acknowledged that they were not “done” but also wanted to note their learning and insights to begin to frame their next cycle of leadership growth. This session (still virtual) across geographies with senior leaders proceeded with each person talking about what this time had been like for them-experiences, learnings, challenges and where they were at this time. This team had spent 9 days over the last 9 months in a leadership capacity building journey, designed to build individual awareness, and leadership skills. This team created a safe learning environment of feedback and support for stepping into greater accountability for shaping strategy and culture for their growing organization.
Each person stepped forward with stories of personal challenge: sickness, exhaustion, death, disruption, economic impact, and at the same time acknowledging the privilege they had experienced to remain employed and largely ok while others suffered so much. Everyone was touched in some way and providing time to talk about their experience provided a “ritual” of acknowledgement that demonstrated that they were more resilient than they realized.
Circling the Resilience Canvas
A core design element for this leadership development journey was to apply the key practices of individual and organizational resilience. It was a basic assumption that leaders needed to become personally resilient to have the energy to provide this leadership for their teams. To design this Leadership Development Journey, we drew from the core elements of personal and organizational resilience.
How they applied these core elements to themselves and their team:
Coherence-how to make sense of what was going on
Being aware of how they talked about the environment and challenges, acknowledged that their words created worlds for their employees and teams. They even redefined having a glass half full of liquid is also half full of air-redefining fullness in a way that fostered more capacity.
They spent a lot of time resetting what being a good employee was, and how individual actions of each person tied back to the values and mission of the organization.
Challenge-stretch beyond what you thought was possible
They gathered the stories of how they had to evacuate their whole facility with only virtual direction. Acknowledging how they coordinated support from other agencies, shifted roles as necessary. They continued to redefine sustainability-focusing on the core service elements as they made and remade choices considering changes in environment.
Centered capacity to find small islands of calm in turbulence
Many experienced extreme stress and pressure and often returned to practices that had helped them before. They tried out multiple approaches and modified them to fit into their daily routine. They started incorporating centering practices into team meetings, starting each zoom meeting with a time for centering-arriving.
Control-Sharpen your clarity, do what you can you do something about
Many took charge in situations requiring quick direction and action to preserve safety.
They experienced discomfort in making changes with little time for direction, sometimes moving forward-overstepping and then having to recoup their initial actions. Their sense of mastery and capability was strengthened and appreciation for quick learning across departments.
Connection-building authentic relationships
Taking the risk to get to know each other as a “team-not just individual roles.
They increased their trust and compassion for each other as they navigated personal challenges
(surgery, death, discrimination, family crisis, divorce, mental challenge). Through working together, they saw more of the other person behind the role respond to challenges.
Learning’s from Navigating
From listening to this team discuss their experience here are some of the insights that they noted. These discoveries can help other organizations and teams as they increase their understanding and capacity to lead :
- Self-care is a New Leadership Capacity
Taking care of yourself is very important, no one will do this for you. Many took these challenges as an opportunity to a learn new practices and make small changes that could be incorporated into daily routine. This was accomplished with small “nano” practices, leading each of them to become just a shade more resilient over-and-over again.
- Leadership Vulnerability Demonstrates Strength
Leaders go first, showing vulnerability as a leader makes team more responsive to your direction and able to share their experience. The shared awareness and response during the aftermath of George Floyd’s death resulted in team members feeling “seen” for who I really am, beyond my work “role”. This increased trust to share experiences and learn and recover from assumptions that had not been tested.
- Practicing Self-Compassion Supported Team Performance
Many felt like “imposters” that I didn’t have the goods to do what need to be done. When they could have compassion-for themselves and for each other they could see how others were also being stretched. They cultivated a shared appreciation for being all in this together, sparking across department thinking and helping.
- Keeping the Organization Running Helped Everyone
Work was a stabilizing factor-being able to have a role and continue to work was an important pillar of resilience. Not having to worry about having a job left them open to focus and create opportunities for service across departments. Gave them meaning and overcome their feeling helpless in the face of challenges. (virus, fire, political instability)
- Acknowledging How We are Already Resilient
The team was amazed at what they had done and how they grew capacity beyond what thought they could do. As they individually and collectively stepped up to lead, they found themselves provide direction, listening more deeply to their teams and each other and discovering new options for flexibility that they would not have considered earlier.