A discussion Paper: In today’s turbulent times, how does building “resilience-enabled leadership” set the stage for success?
Resilience may be described as the integrated power to persist when things don’t work out as planned. It may also be described as the innate ability to bounce back adjusting and being flexible to difficult challenges. Considering the concept of resilience in the world of leadership, the following discussion paper introduces the topic of “Resilience-Enabled Leadership”.
Would you agree that great leaders who withstand the tests of time have probably been great in both good times and bad times? It’s easy in the good times, right? So, what is different about the leaders who are great in those challenging situations? Is it their natural skills and ability? Is it their personality? Is it their good luck? Is it their persistence? Is it that they have good people around them? Is it the culture they have nurtured in their organizations? Is it their resilience – that mystical quality tough to properly explain? Perhaps all of these and more contribute to their success when times get tough. In researching the topic to follow, I found that resilience is a common thread through all of the above leadership characteristics and is a key component for leadership success. Hence, the term “resilience-enabled leadership” was created.
The purpose of this document is tostimulate your thinking, outline for you some of the benefits of demonstrating a resilience-enabled attitude, share some tools for you to improve your resilience-enabled leadership, and encourage you to transform into action a resilience-enabled motivation within your leadership behaviours. It is also about benefiting from bringing from the subconscious into the conscious your being more resilient in your behavioural actions. It is this conscious focus on resilience by you and your organization where the difference to just another leadership skill lies. As the diagram in Fig #1 at the end of this paper suggests, by invoking a resilience-enabled leadership infrastructure, quality of life for you and/or your organization can be improved.
For purposes of this discussion, the term resilience-enabled leader may refer to an individual at any level in an organization including, of course, a person at a senior level who would be expected to demonstrate “leadership”. It may also refer to any individual at any level or within any situation taking on a role of leadership. Therefore, the term “Resilience-Enabled Leadership” is far reaching and may apply to an individual or group demonstrating leadership characterized by the resilience-enabled characteristics and behaviours outlined below.
Consider the following questions in the context of benefits to your organization:
· Does your leadership demonstrate that you can benefit from meeting and overcoming the challenge of today’s changing financial and political environment?
· Does your leadership have effectively measurable ways to adjust and benefit from the changing environment?
· Does your leadership consistently demonstrate the agility necessary to be competitive in challenging situations?
· Does your leadership benefit from demonstrating the ability to enhance capacity for learning.
· Does your leadership adapt to what seems to be a shrinking or more discerning customer base?
· Does your leadership demonstrate the confidence to know you will prosper from what the future may bring?
· And, does your leadership demonstrate that you have the integrated power to persist when things don’t work out as planned and to therefore benefit from the positive results?
Each of these can intrinsically be considered as a benefit. Can you answer a resounding “Yes!” to each of the above questions? On a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is hopeless and 10 is superstar, where does your leadership stand?
If the answer to each and every one of these questions is yes, then you and/or your organization probably have a certain level of resilience–enabled state of mind and should already be benefiting accordingly. Also, you and/or your organization may have a culture that encourages continuing development allowing its employees to thrive in today’s turbulent environment – does it? If so in other words, you and/or your organization may already have an attitude of resilience-enabled leadership. If so, great, and by implementing some of the ideas to follow, you may significantly improve your situation.
If you are not fully confident that you have a resilient organization, and you would like to experience the benefits of capitalizing on the changing business environment, and/or you would like to further develop your resilience, then read on to establish what you and/or your organization can do. Here you will learn about several approaches, all of which work in their own right. Each approach will show you in a slightly unique way how to address the tough challenges and benefit from building resilience-enabled people, processes, principles, standards, technology and leadership. It is up to you to take the appropriate action to plan, implement and evaluate your success and then move forward.
What are the qualities of resilience-enabled leadership and where may they be observed and practiced?
To answer these questions, we firstly need to review, as outlined below, some of the literature on the subject. However, while reviewing the following behaviours, tools and techniques, keep in mind what Albert Einstein said, “Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.” In other words, each of the following was useful information for the author but may not be for you. Rather, seek whatever works for you leaving the rest for others as none necessarily is perfect for you although is quite useful in their own circumstance.
Following your understanding of the context material already available, you then need to explore each of the domains in an organization (described below) where Resilience-Enabled Leadership may be demonstrated. Observing leaders in action demonstrating their behaviours, within each of the domains, will determine if the level of consciousness, thought processes and resulting behavioural actions are in place to support an environment of resilience-enabled leadership.
You will see included throughout the following discussion paper, self assessment exercises to help you establish just how “resilience-enabled” you and/or your organization think you may be. This is intended to provide you with a benchmark for resilience development in spite of the turbulent times experienced through your daily activities.
So, first, some tools you may observe in action and then practice to develop your resilience:
Today you will find there are more and more books and articles on the subject of resilience and resilient behaviours in personal and business contexts. Following are some tools, tips, behaviours and clues I have come across and have summarized with apologies to the authors, if required, for slicing to the bone their elaborate dissertations. All are well worth reading if you wish to be part of active resilience-enabled leadership development. Your gaining an understanding from the selected few I have included below and then putting these into practice will get you a long way to achieving a resilience-enabled attitude. Once you have captured the essence of these, I encourage you to embrace each of the challenges below to observe and/or practice within one or more of the domains of action in your context.
Having read so far you may feel that resilience is just something you have or not. Now, it’s time to be encouraged. There is hope for those who feel they don’t have and cannot develop their resilience. In their book “Resilience at Work”, the authors Salvatore R. Maddi and Deborah M. Khoshaba state that regardless of your current level of hardiness you can learn to be resilient. Through “transformational coping”, “supportive social interactions”, and “gauging the results” a significant list of personal and company benefits may be achieved by leaders practicing these tools on business and personal fields of action. The “Resilience at Work” authors have outlined a three C set of attitudes or behaviours. They are Commitment, Control and Challenge. In essence, it is suggested that by being committed to diving into a challenge and taking control of actions, the challenges and the resulting change will be transformed into just another challenge to stimulate development of your resilience.
Continuing on that theme, the book “The Adversity Advantage” by Paul G. Stoltz, PhD and Erik Weihenmayer portrays turning everyday struggles into everyday greatness. The message remains consistent. Define the challenge in measurable terms. Prepare to take on that challenge with required tools & techniques assembled in the form of skills, talents and strengths. Apply the principles and tools interacting, and integrating them with the help of others as necessary. Use a CORE approach (Control, Ownership, Reach, and Endurance). Attack each challenge with the same approach and they will each prove to be just another challenge to overcome and then move on to the next. Resilience is built on action and practice by just doing it more effectively each time learning from the experience.
A previous book by Paul G. Stoltz, PhD, “Adversity Quotient”, defines three types of people – quitters, campers and climbers. He shares a story stating that resilient people are planners, problem solvers and picker-uppers. They are climbers, not campers nor quitters. Some of the factors for success shared are: competiveness, productivity, creativity, motivation, risk taking, improvement, persistence, learning, and embracing change. Chapter 4 contains a way of measuring your Adversity Quotient and chapter 5 provides an interpretation of your results in terms of CORE explained above. Terrific reading is the Chapter 9 material explaining the high AQ organization. Of special interest to resilience-enabled leadership are the forty four ways to boost your follower`s AQ. The highlights are: purpose, values, climate, people, message, and coaching.
In his book “The Resiliency Advantage”, Al Siebert, PhD states simply that basically healthy people can be shown how to become better and better at handling turbulent change, nonstop pressure, and life-disrupting setbacks. In chapters two and three he presents quizzes to allow you to determine your current level of resiliency. I encourage you to get this book from the library or Amazon, etc to complete these quizzes as they cover the key abilities, attitudes, and attributes found in highly resilient people. Some examples would include your ability to tolerate high levels of uncertainty and learning from your and others experience. Some of the basic resiliency tools he suggests are: be calm avoiding fatigue, be a problem solver, be positive and playful yet understanding of consequences, be free of inner barriers, do not become a “victim”, use your natural desire to learn, and convert misfortune into fortune. A recurring theme is that resilience is achieved by learning from action.
In their book “The Resilience Factor – 7 keys to Finding Your Inner Strength and Overcoming Life’s Hurdles” the authors Karen Reivich, Ph.D. and Andrew Shatte, Ph.D. offer that there are 7 key attributes that contribute to a person’s resilience. These are labelled as Emotion Regulation, Impulse Control, Optimism, Causal Analysis, Empathy, Self-Efficacy, and Reaching Out. After conducting thousands of interviews, it is suggested by them that the most important of these is Reaching Out. This book also has a quiz to help you understand where your resilience measures up or not.
Emmy Werner, author and researcher, building on the “reaching out” aspect comments: “When asked what helped them succeed against the odds, resilient children, youth, and adults overwhelmingly and exclusively gave the credit to members of their extended family, to neighbours and teachers, to mentors and voluntary associations and church groups.”
Additionally, and interestingly, according to Mike Jay, international master leadership developmental coach, in this context, if you reach out into yourself to better understand and raise your level of consciousness, you are reaching in but also reaching out – sounds corny but from personal experience it seems to work.
“The Power of Resilience”, by Robert Brooks, PhD and Sam Goldstein, PhD offers many suggestions to maintain a resilient mindset & lifestyle. Some useful suggestions: reframe negative scripts, define realistic goals, maintain personal control, become a proactive problem solver, anticipate possible obstacles, be stress hardy, take multiple perspectives, communicate effectively, be an active listener, validate communication, inject humour, accept yourself and others, be compassionate, become connected with people’s feelings, learn from mistakes, change what’s unsuccessful, validate assumptions and beliefs, build competence, develop self-control, and live a resilient lifestyle. You might be thinking all of these suggestions are intuitive and are common sense to today’s leaders. Yes, they are common sense, but they are also supported by scientific evidence. The Endnotes section lists the various scientific sources. The Appendices also contain worksheets for resilient living and helpful guidelines in point format.
Moving specifically to the workplace, where the above tools, tips, techniques, behaviours, and attitudes may be observed first hand and then practiced, Karl E. Weick and Kathleen M. Sutcliffe, in their book “Managing the Unexpected”, offer ideas to promote resilient performance in an age of uncertainty for reliable organizations. They state that a mindful and highly reliable organization infrastructure will contain the following items: tracking of even small failures, resistance to oversimplification, an attitude that remains sensitive to operations, maintaining resilience capabilities, being aware of and taking advantage of shifting pockets of expertise. Further, they offer nine audit points to help you become more alert to mindfulness and mindlessness. You are recommended to read the book to savour the details of institutionalizing mindfulness in your organization. However, suffice to say that the nine audit points in chapter 5 cover the above noted items (plus a few) with significant measurement of mindfulness or (lack thereof). What metrics do you subscribe to – quantity or quality? Do they reflect your ability to be resilient to the current challenge? Does your culture support the focus to resilience? These and more points to create and maintain a resilient reliable organization are also covered.
And now, a word from HBR. “Building Personal and Organizational Resilience”, is their “Ideas with impact” compilation of the following articles:
1) How Resilience Works,
2) Leading in Times of Trauma,
3) Crucibles of Leadership,
4) A Survival Guide for Leaders,
5) The Toxic Handler: Organizational Hero – and Casualty,
6) Leadership, in a Combat Zone,
7) September 11, 2001: a CEO’s Story,
8) The Enemies of Trust.
Suffice to say these great articles containing stories of resilient situations each have significant individual merit. Collectively the stories shared here represent the following points to consider: resilience is now a quality sought in employees, resilience determines who succeeds and who fails, resilience is a puzzle of human nature, contingency planning is a major part of business, values are more important for organizational resilience than are having resilient people, in times of crises keep an eye on the goal making do with what resources that are at hand, be compassionate to healing learning and adaption, seek meaning from chaos, model desired behaviours, learn from even the most trying of circumstances, engage others in shared meaning with a distinctive voice of integrity and an adaptive capacity (the ability to grasp context with hardiness), give space to the “toxic handlers” (I’ll leave that one for you to read on your own).
While researching this topic I have discovered that several of the above and other sources have very similar techniques to what I have been using for decades. In my personally challenging situations I use the “simple as PIE’s” technique to help me be consciously resilient and move myself forward. This simple to use tool has enabled me to develop myself and successfully overcome many challenges. The “P” of the “PIE” technique involves fully defining the Problem, Prioritize the various options, Plan a course of action, and Prepare for what the expected outcomes for a (Potential) situational agenda should/might be. The “I” of “PIE” involves Integrating tools, Initiating actions, and the seeking out to Involvement by the right people to address the situation. And, the “E” of “PIE” involves Evaluation of the results as measured against the Expected results, getting Excited, and Enthusiastic at the follow-up for potential additional PIE’s. By using this “simple as PIE” learning model I am better prepared to move forward to plan, initiate and evaluate actions. In essence, the technique involves creating as many “PIE’s” as possible to address and bring to resolution whatever might be the challenge at hand. Therefore, resilience may be developed by conscious awareness of what needs to be done to be resilient to a challenge and learning from measurable directed meaningful action. See Fig #2 below for a diagram outlining the concept.
My research encourages me to believe that a person and/or an organization with resilience-enabled leadership will embody and fully embrace fully the following 5 key characteristics of resilience:
1) “An ability to be consciously aware of our resilience and thereby to adjust more easily to a changing environment”;
2) “The integrated power to persist when things don’t work out as planned, solving those big challenges in the pursuit of our purpose”;
3) “An ability to enhance our competence through a heightened capacity for learning and adaptation, especially from the mistakes (ours + others)”;
4) “The confidence to know we generate results by handling whatever may come our way, communicated effectively”;
5) “Maintenance of a state of mind that encourages continuous personal and organizational development and allows ourselves to thrive in a changing environment”.
Consciously weaving into every aspect of your actions the “simple as PIE’s” technique as a problem solving and learning mechanism will be of great assistance to building your resilience-enabled leadership. As you explore the business domains below, I suggest you use the “simple as PIE’s” technique to advantage in your observations and actions.
The domains of business: “Resilience-Enabled Leadership” observed and/or practiced – a challenge:
So, does a particular person in a leadership role have the skills, abilities, attitudes, knowledge and associated behaviours to be a Resilience-Enabled Leader and to, therefore, more effectively contribute to corporate success?
The following is a suggested exploration of a set of defined domains within the corporate world where resilience-enabled leadership may be demonstrated. I will now challenge you to explore whatever domains make sense to you. Think in terms of the tips, techniques, behaviours, and tools outlined above, again that make sense to you. Then determine if your leadership measures up by consciously observing your leadership actions and behaviours:
1. Image/Profile:
1a. This is your domain of business presence. In other words, as a company, it defines who you are in the eyes of your employees and customers. It describes: what you stand for; why you exist to serve a specific purpose; who you are in terms of your values, principles and standards; and how you behave as people interacting with each other in the eyes of your employees and customers.
In terms of each of the resilience components above, a set of generic questions need to be identified, addressed and communicated such as:
How aware are we of our Image/Profile in the eyes of our employees and customers?
How well are we communicating our purpose to our employees and customers through our image/profile vehicles?
How competent are we at learning from our mistakes when we get feedback on our image/profile?
How well are we measuring up to our expected results of customer and employee surveys?
How well are we at thriving in the changing environment – are we living our image/profile?
1b. In this domain, a resilience-enabled leader regularly tests using resilience heightening awareness type questions such as the following and then puts in place actions by the right people to solve any issues before moving on to the next challenge:
· How in control am I (are we) of our image or profile?
· How do others see us?
· How likely is it that the image or profile could be tarnished or viewed as false?
· Do I (we) need to be in better control of how our image or profile is perceived?
· What does our organization stand for?
· What are the values of our organization?
· How well are the values communicated?
· What are the communication mechanisms in place?
· How well are the communication mechanisms working?
· What are we doing to adapt to support the image/profile and adjust to a changing environment?
· Is compassion a factor in our success?
· What principles guide our employees' actions in the form of standards when satisfying our customer’s needs?
· How do we want others to see us?
· How well are we living our purpose?
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· What other questions would you ask within your environment?
And then, for each of these questions, as appropriate, resilience-enabled leaders put in place quality metrics and customer focused feedback to ensure the right questions are getting the right answers to the right people. What are some of yours? As you perhaps can anticipate, the subject is not as simple as putting in place some basic metrics. The principles you define to operate by and the standards you put in place to support those principles are a cornerstone of how your customers will “see you”. The processes and technology to keep your good intensions on track will give you the data necessary to adjust your approach as appropriate towards what you define as success.
1c. On a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is poor and 10 is the best you can be – where is your organization? Why? What can you do to improve your score? When do you need to start? Who can help? How well is your stage set for success? What aspects of the “Simple as PIE” problem solving and learning mechanism would you use within this domain?
2. Operations & Business Processes:
2a. This is the domain that represents our effectiveness and efficiencies of getting the right things done correctly by the right people for the right reasons in the right timeframes. In this domain you define what work gets done, why it is required, how it is done for whom to deliver what products and services.
In terms of each of the resilience components above, a set of generic questions need to be identified, addressed and communicated such as:
How aware are we our business process and procedures are delivering to our customers’ needs, wants and desires?
How well are we communicating the purpose of our processes and procedures to our employees and customers?
How competent are we at learning from our mistakes when we get feedback on any errors or omissions?
How well are we measuring up to our expected results of product manufacturing, delivery and sales performance?
Are we so good at what we do that we are thriving in the changing environment?
2b. Within this domain, a resilience-enabled leader regularly tests using resilience heightening awareness type questions such as the following and then puts in place actions by the right people to solve any issues before moving on to the next challenge:
· How can the operational processes go wrong or off track?
· What are we doing to learn for any mistakes?
· How well do we educate our staff in operation of these processes?
· How well do we understand how to operate processes and procedures effectively and efficiently?
· How effectively do these operational processes support our vision and goals?
· How well are our processes documented, updated, measured and thereby providing consistent quality output?
· Are there up to date process maps used in planning future organization changes to better handle new or changing products and their delivery mechanisms?
· How important are these processes to me and to the successful delivery of a product of the quality required?
· How well integrated are the processes across business organizations?
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· What other questions would you ask within your environment?
With the analysis in place, the processes and technology to keep your good intensions on track will give you the data necessary to adjust your approach as appropriate towards what you define as success.
2c. On a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is poor and 10 is the best you can be – where is your organization? Why? What can you do to improve your score? When do you need to start? Who can help? How well is your stage set for success? What aspects of the “Simple as PIE” problem solving and learning mechanism would you use within this domain?
3. Corporate Culture:
3a. This domain is observed in the consistency of attitudes and behaviours of the employees with other employees and within their customer interactions. A set of well communicated values, principles and standards are strategic to having a culture of success and hardiness. To maintain a healthy culture, you need to define what are your values, why are they important, who must follow them and how will they be propagated.
In terms of each of the resilience components above, a set of generic questions need to be identified, addressed and communicated such as:
How aware are we our business culture supports us delivering to our customers’ needs, wants and desires?
How well are we communicating the purpose of our values, principles and standards?
How competent are we at learning from our mistakes when we get feedback on challenge resolution?
How well are we measuring up to our expected results of adherence to our values, principles and standards?
Are we so good at how we behave that we are thriving in the changing environment?
3b. In the domain of corporate culture, a resilience-enabled leader regularly tests using resilience heightening awareness type questions such as the following and then puts in place actions by the right people to solve any issues before moving on to the next challenge:
· How should the authority figures, the suppliers, and the clients behave in a variety of situations? Do they?
· Are we each modeling the behaviours expected in others?
· In what generic way do people in the organization behave towards each other?
· Are we living our values and principles or giving them lip service?
· Does the environment defining the culture support my personal vision and goals?
· Is the environment a source of stress for me, the people around me and/or for our customers?
· Do we have a state of mind that encourages us to continue our personal and organizational development?
· Do we allow ourselves to thrive in this changing environment?
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· What other questions would you ask within your environment?
There is no quick answer to put in place metrics and needed adjustments to the culture. A start to this, however, is to have or strive for answers to the question “What culture themes should be demonstrated in the behaviours?” And then put in place management and leadership initiatives to encourage and seek out the preferred behaviours. We believe that in today’s hard times, customers are open to some “soft” and empathetic yet pragmatic ways of dealing with the tough issues. Following that line of reason, the processes and technology, to keep your good intensions on track will give you the data necessary to adjust your approach as appropriate towards what you define as success.
3c. On a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is poor and 10 is the best you can be – where is your organization? Why? What can you do to improve your score? When do you need to start? Who can help? How well is your stage set for success? What aspects of the “Simple as PIE” problem solving and learning mechanism would you use within this domain?
4. Performance/Value/Viability:
4a. This domain represents the output dollar efficiency of our operations. This valuation embodies the measurement of the actual against the desired outcomes of the business products & services. Metrics in terms of cost, quality & timeliness in the eyes of the clients inside the organization and by your paying customers is a key ingredient. Defining what are the performance expectations, who needs to deliver them, why they are important and how will they be followed is key.
In terms of each of the resilience components above, a set of generic questions need to be identified, addressed and communicated such as:
· How aware are we that our business performance is delivering to our customers’ needs, wants and desires?
· How well are we communicating the purpose of our expected performance?
· How competent are we at learning from our mistakes when we get feedback on challenge resolution?
· How well are we measuring up to our expected results of adherence to our performance expectations?
· Are we so good at what we do that we are thriving in the changing environment?
4b. In this domain of performance, a resilience-enabled leader regularly tests using resilience heightening awareness type questions such as the following and then puts in place actions by the right people to solve any issues before moving on to the next challenge:
· Are we measuring the “right” things?
· Do I understand the need to be in better control of our viability?
· Do our people have the ability to adjust performance requirements to the changing environment?
· Do we have the integrated power to persist delivering value to our customers?
· Are we learning from our losses as well as from our wins?
· Does the balance of dollar output to value for the customer support our corporate and vision and goals?
· Can the balance go wrong or off track given the current processes and procedures and enabling technology?
· Am I in control of the value mechanisms and/or what do I need to do to be in better control of them?
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· What other questions would you ask within your environment?
Keeping production performance aligned with value, the processes and technology to keep your good intensions on track will give you the data necessary to adjust your approach as appropriate towards what you define as success.
4c. On a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is poor and 10 is the best you can be – where is your organization? Why? What can you do to improve your score? When do you need to start? Who can help? How well is your stage set for success? What aspects of the “Simple as PIE” problem solving and learning mechanism would you use within this domain?
5. Jobs/Skills/Org Structure:
5a. In this domain we find the representation of the work people undertake within theirorganization. How the company is organized to address market needs is expressed in organization charts, job descriptions (if used) and understanding what skills are required to fill the job requirements to deliver to the customers what they are expecting. Why is it important who does what work is explained clearly so everyone does not trip over others to get done what work is necessary to fulfill each purpose for being part of the team.
In terms of each of the resilience components above, a set of generic questions need to be identified, addressed and communicated such as:
· How aware are we that our business performance is delivering to our customers’ needs, wants and desires?
· How well are we communicating the purpose of our expected performance?
· How competent are we at learning from our mistakes when we get feedback on challenge resolution?
· How well are we measuring up to our expected results of adherence to our performance expectations?
· Are we so good at what we do that we are thriving in the changing environment?
5b. This is a domain of matching skills in hand to skills required and the persistence to get results. Being aware of pockets of special skills to be focused on a specific task in the face of a particularly challenging situation, and then deploying them is a key component of having a flexible and successful organization.
In this domain, a resilience-enabled leader regularly tests using resilience heightening awareness type questions such as the following and then puts in place actions by the right people to solve any issues before moving on to the next challenge:
· Do our people have the integrated power, the “let’s get it done” teamwork attitude to persist when things don’t work out as planned?
· Have we an innate ability to enhance our capacity for learning and adaptation in the face of change?
· Are we learning from our failures as well as our successes and rewarding that awareness publicly as an example of the behaviours being encouraged?
· Have we defined in our job structure the flexibility to recognize and reward the ability to adjust what we do to more easily adapt to a changing environment?
· Do we reward this?
· Have we the right skills in place and/or are we constantly redefining what skills are necessary to meet today’s challenges not yesterdays challenges?
· Do the people systems effectively match up the skills of the workforce with the tasks necessary to efficiently deliver the products and services in our portfolio?
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· What other questions would you ask within your environment?
Given the processes and technology are in place to keep your good intensions on track, you should have the data necessary to adjust your approach as appropriate towards what you define as success.
5c. On a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is poor and 10 is the best you can be – where is your organization? Why? What can you do to improve your score? When do you need to start? Who can help? How well is your stage set for success? What aspects of the “Simple as PIE” problem solving and learning mechanism would you use within this domain?
6. Management Systems:
6a. This domain includes the characteristics and qualities of both Leadership and Management. Defining what the current challenges are, defining who is designated as prime to address them, defining why they are important and how they get solved requires teamwork and a juggling between leadership and management. Successful organizations know the difference and know when to enact each as appropriate to support the people getting the work accomplished through the thick and thin of their daily challenges.
Remember the stories of the resilience of the Knights Templar who, after each failure and catastrophe of the Crusades for 200 years from the year 1129 on, dusted themselves off and returned to the fray. Deep pockets in the background were tested regularly. Not that it should take that long, but you, hopefully, get the point. Resilience and resilient-enabled leaders press on in the face of challenges. They are given the support and the opportunity to fail, learn from that failure and move forward until they succeed; or change their purpose to a different focus to better be in alignment with a new reality.
In terms of each of the resilience components above, a set of generic questions need to be identified, addressed and communicated such as:
· How aware are we that to achieve business performance we require leadership vs management?
· How well are we communicating the purpose of our expected performance?
· How competent are we at learning from our mistakes when we get feedback on challenge resolution?
· How well are we measuring up to our expected results of adherence to our performance expectations?
· Are we so good at what we do that we are thriving in the changing environment?
6b.In this domain, a resilience-enabled leader regularly tests using resilience heightening awareness type questions such as the following and then puts in place actions by the right people to solve any issues before moving on to the next challenge:
· How effectively are our leaders demonstrating the ability to adjust more easily to a changing environment?
· How effectively are our leaders demonstrating an ability to enhance our capacity for learning and adaptation?
· How effectively are we demonstrating that we have the confidence to know we can handle whatever may come our way?
· How effectively are we demonstrating we have the integrated power to persist when things don’t work out as planned?
· How effective are we at learning how to thrive in this changing environment?
· What are the accountability vehicles for the leadership and/or the management to use?
· Are our management and our leadership ensuring all the wheels are going around at the right pace allowing them to meet defined expectations?
· Is there a viable succession plan in place IE: the baby boom impact is already underway?
· Are the definitions of resilience being aligned with performance targets?
· Is there consistent communication around the requirements for resilience?
· Are we learning from our failures as well as our successes and rewarding that awareness publicly as an example of the behaviours being encouraged?
· Are we modeling the behaviors expected from others?
· Are the appropriate quality metrics in place to evaluate the challenge of the changing economic climate?
· Are the products and services offered in alignment with the challenge of the changing economic climate?
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· What other questions would you ask within your environment?
Given the processes and technology are in place to keep your good intensions on track, you should have the data necessary to adjust your approach as appropriate towards what you define as success.
6c. On a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is poor and 10 is the best you can be – where is your organization? Why? What can you do to improve your score? When do you need to start? Who can help? How well is your stage set for success? What aspects of the “Simple as PIE” problem solving and learning mechanism would you use within this domain?
7. Enabling Technology:
7a. This domain represents the use of existing technology or development of new technology to supplement, support and enable all of the above. These technologies could be the use of the telephone, cell-phone, fax, e-mail, work queues, automated process functionality, data bases, computer applications, and any of a myriad of personal productivity and/or communications devices, etc. Defining what technologies will be implemented, agreeing on who is prime to action them, why they are used in a challenge and how they are used to resolve that challenge is key in this domain. Too often in today’s companies, one organization must do it their way failing to recognize that there is a team with unique skills and techniques to be brought to bear. Being aware of this uniqueness to attack a challenge with a common purpose with the right resources in a team effort to gain the desired results is a true test of the resilience of an organization.
In other words, while being aware of what is important, in terms of each of the resilience components above, a set of generic questions need to be identified, addressed and communicated such as:
· How aware are we that to achieve business performance we require systems that work?
· How well are we communicating the purpose of our expected performance?
· How competent are we at learning from our mistakes when we get feedback on challenge resolution?
· How well are we measuring up to our expected results of adherence to our performance expectations?
· Are we so good at what we do that we are thriving in the changing environment?
7b.In this domain, a resilience-enabled leader regularly tests using resilience heightening awareness type questions such as the following and then puts in place actions by the right people to solve any issues before moving on to the next challenge:
· How well does our enabling technology have the ability to adjust to a changing environment?
· Does our enabling technology give us the confidence to know we can handle whatever may come our way?
· Are we learning from our mistakes?
· How can this go wrong or off track?
· Is this recurring situation a source of stress for me or others?
· Does this result support my personal and/or the corporate vision and goals?
· How important is this to me and to the success of the company?
· How would this affect me if this were lost or broken?
· Am I in control of this?
· How likely is it that this could be lost or broken?
· Do I need to be in better control of this?
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· What other questions would you ask within your environment?
Given the processes and technology are in place to keep your good intensions on track, you should have the data necessary to adjust your approach as appropriate towards what you define as success.
7c. On a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is poor and 10 is the best you can be – where is your organization? Why? What can you do to improve your score? When do you need to start? Who can help? How well is your stage set for success? What aspects of the “Simple as PIE” problem solving and learning mechanism would you use within this domain?
Conclusion:
A company or an individual demonstrating resilience-enabled leadership, therefore, regularly tests the awareness of resilience within their state of thinking. They explore the resultant behaviours demonstrated in the various domains. They gain strength from the teamwork achieved from reaching out to their organizational partners to solve with purpose their common challenges.
This may be observed collectively by people enacting resilience-enabled leadership roles. Within each of the domains, resilience-enabled leaders have put in placethe following 5 key characteristics of resilience:
1) “An ability to be consciously aware of resilience and thereby to adjust more easily to a changing environment”;
2) “The integrated power to persist when things don’t work out as planned, moving on to solve those big challenges with their partners in the pursuit of a common purpose”;
3) “An ability to enhance competence through a heightened capacity for learning; especially from the mistakes (ours + others)”;
4) “The confidence to know results are generated by handling whatever challenge, communicated effectively”;
5) “Maintenance of a state of mind that encourages continuous personal and organizational development and allows ourselves to thrive in a changing environment”.
A study is currently underway to evaluate a select group of companies to determine their level of Resilience-Enabled Leadership. In terms of the 5 key resilience characteristics and the concept of a resilience-enabled leader, these companies are being encouraged to identify what the practice of their resilience-enabled leadership behaviours are doing to make a difference. Results will be shared as they become available and sharable. In the meantime, a question for the reader - how well do you and your company measure up to the concept of resilience-enabled leadership?
How well is your stage set for success? On a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is poor and 10 is the best you can be – where is your organization? Why? What can you do to improve your score? When do you need to start? Who can help? What aspects of the “Simple as PIE” problem solving and learning mechanism would you use within your organization?
A request and an offer to contribute:
If you would be interested to contribute to the study, any feedback, comments, questions, and/or queries are most welcome. Did the material make any sense? Was it useful to you? Will it help you be more resilient in your attitude to your environment? Do you observe any Resilience-Enabled Leadership characteristics in your day-to-day interactions? Since reading the discussion paper, do you notice any Resilience-Enabled Leadership characteristics in yourself and/or in your situation?
Yes, I would like you to be part of my book on the subject. Please review the questions following and provide your feedback in narrative format. What I will then do is conduct a short interview over the phone or over a (virtual) coffee with you to determine what is necessary to move your material forward into book chapter content. Your role would be one of contributing to one or more chapters, with your name credited in the book and some compensation royalty %age TBD based on profits once the book starts to sell. My goal for this first book is to net-zero-profit with the proceeds going to the contributors once expenses are covered.
Your thoughts in a minimum of 500 up to 1,200 words, ultimately to be shared in book or workshop form, would be welcome in the context of the followingexploration into thesubject of Resilience Enabled Leadership.
1. How would you define resilience, if differently from above?
2. Given that some aspect of resilience is in everyone, in your opinion, how does your personal resilience play a factor in your contribution to your success and your company’s success?
3. Given the above 5 key characteristics and 7 business domains, and as a leader (within a presumably successful company) what do you see as evidence of resilience in yourself? In your company? In your organization’s leaders as key contributors to that success?
4. On a scale of 1 to 10, how resilient would you say you are? And your company? Why?
5. What do you feel are the key factors that make you more or less resilient within the personal domains of resilience?
6. What do you think are the key factors that make your company more or less resilient within the corporate domains of resilience?
7. What connections do you see, if any, between your resilience and that of the company?
8. Do metrics play a role in your resilience? If so, what metrics do you use? If not, what metrics would you consider? Why?
Additional questions I found interesting tabled at a Webinar by Elliott Masie, internationally recognized futurist, analyst, researcher and humorist:
1. What are the changes organizations are making particular to learning in a climate of economic uncertainty?
2. Where are the greatest opportunities for learning innovation over the coming months?
3. How can organizations supercharge their learning strategies with social/collaborative learning?
4. How can organizations better map learning to rapidly changing roles, tasks and competencies?
Many thanks, in advance, for your candid and timely response. If you have any questions about the definitions or any other aspect of the subject, please just ask, with thanks.
How to contact the author:
Sincerely, Michael Groves
Providing personal and multi-levels of corporate leadership Transition Resilience workshops and programs such as:
· Resilience-Enabled Leadership
· Strategy Focused Goal Alignment
· Channeling Personal Resilience
· Resilient Retirement
· One-on-one or group/team developmental coaching
· Coaching Skills for Managers course including practical application practice coaching labs.
This document in its entirety is Copyright (C) 2010 Retirement & Transition Resilience Enterprises, Inc
Selected portions of this discussion paper may be reproduced only as long as credit is given to the author.
Figures #1 & #2 follow....