Pacesetter Matrix - Resilience
The ability to resist, absorb, recover, and adapt successfully to adversity or a change in conditions. Resilience is commonly regarded as the ability to persevere, to overcome setbacks. In ‘everyday’ language, it is often referred to as ‘bounce-back-ability’. Resilience is essential for all of us as the demands grow on a personal and professional level. Every day brings new challenges, which we can do very little to prevent. What we can do is practise, develop and improve the way we respond to those moments of challenge by developing the way we think, feel and then act, and thereafter learn and adapt to be better prepared next time.
"Nana korobi ya oki" (七転び八起き)
A Japanese proverb that translates as: to fall down seven times and get up eight. This reflects the Japanese culture of resilience. No matter how many times you get knocked down, you get up again. Success in all facets of life will require struggle and perseverance. Success does not have to be fast—what’s more important is that one simply does their absolute best and remains persistent. A concept related to the proverb "Nana korobi ya oki" is the spirit of gambaru (頑張る). The concept of gambaru is deeply rooted in the Japanese culture and approach to life. The literal meaning of gambaru expresses the idea of sticking with a task with tenacity until it is completed.
Across the worlds of sport and business, there are many examples of resilient people, overcoming the odds to achieve success.
Elite-level sportsmen prioritise developing their mindset, beliefs, behaviours, and habits to develop a performance mindset by which success is not solely defined by whether you win or not, but by whether you have made incremental gains daily in all elements of performance. It’s a relentless focus on reviewing performance, not just results, which forms the foundation of resilient thinking.
Research fellow Dr. Mustafa Sarkar has spent a lot of time studying mental resilience in Olympic champions. Many of the elite athletes he has interviewed cite the importance of resilience in their success, noting that the path to gold medals is rarely straightforward and simple. Based on his research, he has suggested several ways that Olympic champions developed resilience:
Develop a positive personality – For the Olympians, this included being open to new experiences, being optimistic, competitive and conscientious, as well as being proactive.
View your decisions as active choices, not sacrifices – This helps maintain a sense of control over the situation. This will also keep intrinsic motivation high.
Use support available to you from other people – Seek out people who can help you. This can include technical advice on what you are doing, or just social support to make you feel better when times are tough.
Identify your motivation for succeeding – Identify what’s important to you. This will help keep you motivated and determined, especially when you have had a setback or your goal seems far away.
Focus on personal development – Don’t spend too much time comparing yourself to others. This can increase stress and the fear of failure.
View setbacks as opportunities for growth – Ask yourself what you have learnt and what you would do differently next time. These sorts of questions can help improve your growth mindset and resilience.
Strengthen your confidence from a range of sources – Drawing on a range of sources can make your confidence more robust. This can include your preparation, your previous successes or the faith that other people have in your ability.
Take responsibility for your thoughts, feelings, and behaviours – Avoid the temptation of playing the blame game.
Concentrate on what you can control – Focus on what you can control, not on what you can’t change or can only influence. This means focusing on the process, not the outcome.
“When a flower doesn't bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.”
Dr. Mustafa Sarkar
Much of the focus on the topic of resilience is the individuals’ ability to withstand pressure, however Sarkar suggests that more attention needs to be paid to creating environments that people can thrive in as both a person and a performer. Of fundamental importance to developing high performance environments are the notions of challenge and support. Challenge involves having high expectations of people, and helps to instil accountability and responsibility. Support refers to enabling people to develop their personal qualities, and helps to promote learning and build trust.
Deloitte’s 2021 Resilience Report explores how organisations have coped with the tumultuous events of 2020 and identifies the traits that characterise a resilient organisation—traits business leaders can cultivate to build greater resilience into their own companies. Deloitte’s survey of 2,260 CXOs in 21 countries confirms that organisations that plan and invest in anticipation of disruptions are better positioned to respond, recover, and thrive.
Deloitte’s research identifies five attributes of resilient organizations that serve as a strategic, operational, and cultural guidepost. The survey suggests that organizations that deliberately build the following attributes into their operations and cultures are better positioned to overcome disruptions and help usher in a “better normal.”
They are:
Prepared. Successful CXOs plan for all outcomes, both short- and long-term. More than 85% of CXOs whose organizations successfully balanced addressing short- and long-term priorities felt they had pivoted very effectively to adapt to the events of 2020; fewer than half of organizations without that balance felt the same.
Adaptable. Leaders recognise the importance of having versatile employees, especially after a year like 2020. To that end, flexibility/adaptability was, by far, the workforce trait CXOs said was most critical to their organizations’ futures.
Collaborative. CXOs indicated the importance of collaboration within their organizations, noting that it sped decision-making, mitigated risk, and led to increased innovation. Removing silos and increasing collaboration was one of the top strategic actions CXOs took before and during 2020.
Trustworthy. CXOs understand the challenge of building trust. More than a third of responding CXOs were not confident their organizations had succeeded in developing trust between leaders and employees. Those who are succeeding are focusing on improving communication and transparency with key stakeholders, as well as leading with empathy.
Responsible. Most CXOs acknowledge that the business world has a responsibility beyond the bottom line. Eighty-seven percent of surveyed CXOs who said they have done very well at balancing all of their stakeholders’ needs also felt that their organizations could quickly adapt and pivot in response to disruptive events. That’s nearly 50 percentage points more than the proportion of CXOs who said the same at organizations that haven’t done well at balancing their stakeholders’ needs.
The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology describes how resilient individuals use positive emotions to bounce back from negative emotional experiences. Psychological resilience has been characterised by the ability to bounce back from negative emotional experiences and by flexible adaptation to the changing demands of stressful experiences. This definition captures a psychological frame of mind that is associated with a variety of behavioural and psychological outcomes. A convergence across several research methodologies indicates that resilient individuals have optimistic, zestful, and energetic approaches to life, are curious and open to new experiences, and are characterised by high positive emotionality. Additional evidence suggests that high-resilient people proactively cultivate their positive emotionality by strategically eliciting positive emotions through the use of humour, relaxation techniques, and optimistic thinking. Positive emotionality, then, emerges as an important element of psychological resilience.
Here are 8 tips for developing resilience:
1. Have the courage to be imperfect
Too often in life, we aim for ‘perfection’. Aim for performance excellence, but not expecting perfection. By not feeling the need to be perfect, people are more likely to ‘have a go’, which often leads to the most effective performances.
2. Have a positive outlook
This refers to being open to new experiences, new ways of doing things. Try not to be afraid to try out new activities or new routes to achieve your life goals.
3. Know what you want to achieve, why and how
It is important to be clear about what you would like to achieve, why you want to achieve it and, something often neglected, how you plan to achieve it. Having a plan — a process — is important. Using the SMART principle may help you with such goal setting
4. Seek out social support
Do not be afraid to ask for help. The most successful athletes, teams, business people, indeed performers of any kind, most often have a team of people who help them to reach their targets. Asking for help is not a sign of weakness, it is a sign of confidence and strength.
5. See your decisions as active choices
Too often we use the word ‘sacrifices’ to describe the decisions we make to achieve goals. While the effort required to achieve many goals in life are physically and mentally challenging, they are active choices you make. See them as such, not something you are being forced to do by others.
6. Take control and take responsibility
Take control of your feelings, thoughts and actions. We often say things like ‘he/she made me feel….’. In reality, we allow the remarks and actions of others to impact on us — Take back that power! Have some helpful ‘self-talk’ phrases ready to say to yourself to remind you that you do not have to let another person make you feel a certain way, especially if they are being unkind or judgemental regarding your life goals.
7. Focus on your own personal development
We often make too many comparisons between ourselves and others. What someone else has achieved in life may not be right for you. Focus on yourself, on your own performance, as that is all you can really control.
8. View setbacks as opportunities for growth
You can learn valuable lessons from difficult experiences in life. Being able to cope with the physical and mental pain of such situations allows you to gain strength from these experiences. You can take these lessons into other challenging situations you experience, to remind you that you can cope with adversity when required to.
“Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even.”
Muhammad Ali
