Resilience
Resist the change or harness its power to evolve? When I think of all the ‘Vision 2020’s’ that have been created over the past 15 years, it is hard to believe we’re actually here in Q4 of 2025! We don’t know exactly what this year is going to look like,…
In the wake of the Great Resignation, a seismic shift is occurring in the job market. Big bureaucratic organizations are witnessing an exodus of employees seeking greener pastures and more fulfilling work experiences. For midsize companies, this presents a golden opportunity to attract top talent and enhance their competitive edge.…
“Organizational Resilience” Takes Top Billing at Davos One of the most exciting things for me as an advisor to multinationals is comparing patterns I see to the themes at the World Economic Forum. Hearing about issues that CEOs and world leaders are working on gives me a jump on peeking…
As we face another year of adapting to disruption and driving growth in a landscape of rapid change organizations and leaders need these 3 strategies to set themselves up for success.
Here are 3 ways to build resilience by minimizing power struggles and equipping people to feel safe, heard, and able to give their all.
A Foundation For Resilience This is the Spit Bank Lighthouse. It doesn’t look like much, but this structure has stood in the middle of Ireland’s Cork Harbour since 1853 and there is an awful lot we can learn from it as we recover from a pandemic. It starts with core…
This season of uncertain times has reinforced my belief that resilience is the single most important character of a leader. Now more than ever, we all need resilience. As we drift farther and farther from what we knew as normal, it seems increasingly unlikely that whatever ‘normal’ was, will ever…
As the debate on when to ease restrictions wages on and we all get tired of hearing about this ‘new normal’ we can’t seem to define, many leaders are struggling with a lack of things they can control about their organization and team’s future and how to ensure leadership reengagement…
There’s no question, for most of us, these have been some tough weeks. For some, the impact has been minimal. Maybe you’re adjusting to working from home and dealing with the challenge of moving meetings around and trying to do things virtually. For others, the stress of quarantine, impacts on…
Leading virtually through disruption is tough. If you’re currently in that situation, there’s no easy way to get through it. It’s even more difficult if people are not on the same page, working in different spaces, dealing with their own family challenges related to the crisis, and you’ve got to…
Have you ever been driving a car headed towards your new home, having recently moved, only to find yourself suddenly turning down the familiar street towards your old home? How did that happen? I’ll tell you how. You were so busy thinking about something else – your conscious mind was…
It is no longer enough to do things better, faster, and cheaper. The challenges leaders face today are more complex and don’t have a simple solution.
Predictions tell us that 2020 will be the year of disruption. Is your team prepared? If your confidence is a bit shaky, now is the time to get ready.
Inclusion is About Food (and other things) There has been a lot of talk about inclusion. What is it? Do we need it? If you’re trying to increase organizational resilience, there is no time for debate. Building a resilient organization cannot happen without inclusion. When we hear “inclusion” we may…
Creating An Inclusive Culture We don’t know what is going to happen in the market in the coming years, but we do know this: it will be disruptive. Whatever happens in 2020 with the election, tariffs, and the global economy, there is a good chance it will require extra effort…
Today’s landscape is one of unprecedented, rapid, disruptive change. With little margin for error, leaders and teams are expected to adapt to change and react to setbacks quickly. In our experience, the only way to tackle these challenges and come back stronger is by building resilience yet very few people…
Defining Resilience Chances are when discussing the topic of resilience you have heard various definitions that paint a picture of “bouncing back” from stress, crisis, setbacks, etc. To test this concept, I tried bouncing a ball and realized something significant: After it hit the ground it rarely came back higher…
“An organization without purpose manages human resources, whereas an organization with purpose mobilizes people.” – Juan Carlos Eichholz Resilience Starts With Alignment Any healthy organization is formed with a specific purpose in mind. That purpose is usually defined by the organizational mission, vision, and values. However, over time an organization’s…
Resilience Begins With A Choice How many times have you made a choice that did not result in the outcome you intended? Did you even know you were making a choice? Often we unconsciously choose the path of least resistance. We default to what is comfortable and requires the least…
Guilt & Resentment Are you tired of corporate politics and drama? Some of us are better or more strategic in dealing with it and some organizations are more ‘political’ than others, but it’s not uncommon for there to be an unspoken or hidden layer of politics just close enough to…
When To Rethink Your Organizational Structure “Is it time for a new organizational structure?” This question does not always have an obvious answer. Organizational restructuring, by definition, can be disruptive, even when handled as smoothly as possible, and even with the best of intentions. There is always a risk that…
“Authentic leadership is revealed in the alignment of what you think, what you say, and what you do.” – Michael Holland Resilience Takes Authenticity When life is hard or any sort of disruption hits, we have a finite amount of energy with which to deal with it. Think of this…
The Case For Adaptive Leadership Do the challenges you face today seem more complex than they did, say, five years ago? Does it seem like they involve more people or that it takes more involvement from stakeholders to build a solution that works? Is it starting to feel like managing…
Why Resilience? Most athletes spend about 90% of their time training to be able to perform at peak levels 10% of the time. For example, professional football players train six days a week to play one game on Sunday. Business leaders are a different story. They are expected to perform…
Adaptive Challenges Have you ever wondered why things are a bit more difficult at work recently? Do the types of challenges your team faces every day somehow just seem harder and more complex? Does it take longer to get things done because you can’t get people’s attention on the real…
“Before anything great is really achieved, your comfort zone must be disturbed.” – Ray Lewis Comfort Zones Have you ever struggled to get out of your comfort zone? At one point or another, we are all acutely aware of our comfort zone – usually when we’re bumping up against it…
“The task of leadership is to create an alignment of strengths, making a system’s weaknesses irrelevant.” – Peter Drucker Imagine a company where everyone – from the CEO to the newest intern – shows up knowing EXACTLY what they need to do every single day, even on those days…
What Alignment Looks Like Is your team 100% aligned around your organization’s goals for 2019? Are you absolutely certain that you are making the right or “bests” projects to drive change and build organizational muscle? Can you deliver with what you have been budgeted, or less? If you are not…
Have you ever gone into a situation…maybe a tough conversation… with one intent in mind, only to come out having done or said something else? It happens to all of us and it can chip away at our resilience. We think we’ve got it, but it’s not easy to consciously…
“Define success on your own terms, achieve it by your own rules, and build a life you’re proud to live.” – Anne Sweeney The Path To Fulfillment If you plan to take a long journey, you need a compass or a map (or at least a GPS). The journey from…
“Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.” – John F. Kennedy Your Purpose As an avid outdoor kid, one of the first things I remember asking for at Christmas was a good multi-purpose tool. Back then it was a Swiss Army knife called the Huntsman. It had…
“A ship in the harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.” -William Shedd Our comfort zones are protective boundaries we construct over time. Most of our boundaries were imposed long ago for self-protection and have become coping strategies. We all use the coping strategies we have…
“Your authentic self is who you are when you have no fear of judgment, before the world starts pushing you around and telling you who you’re supposed to be. Your fictional self is who you are when you have a mask on to please those around you.” – Dr. Phil Authenticity…
“In the power to change yourself lies the power to change the world around you.” -Anwar Sadat Choices & Resilience How many times have you made a choice that did not result in the outcome you intended? Our choices define us. Improving our ability to make tough choices in the moment…
Resilience. It is the single most important characteristic of leaders today and almost no one is talking about it. We are. The journey to becoming a resilient person or organization begins with our window to the world, the way we see, sift through and interpret events, and our ability to…
Resilience Isn’t About Bouncing Back Today’s landscape is one of unprecedented, rapid, disruptive change. With little margin for error, leaders are expected to adapt to change and react to setbacks quickly. Unfortunately, the skills required to tackle these challenges, process quickly, and come back stronger require thinking differently in ways…
Uh oh. The topic everyone avoids in the work place. Faith. I did too until I realized how important it is to great leadership. Leadership is hard. It is lonely at the top and anyone who leads others gets stuck in difficult situations from time to time. It’s what leaders…
When you ask the question, what is resilience, the first and most common thing people usually say is, bouncing back. Or maybe, bouncing back from adversity. It seems to be the common understanding. It is also one I would dispute. Have you ever watched a ball bounce? Let’s just say…