Integer Leadership Consulting

As a professor of organizational leadership and resource management, I sometimes teach students in the areas of leadership development and human effectiveness in organizations. While other courses are offered in the OLRM discipline at Olympic College, the two mentioned above explore in detail the character of the leader and the personal and professional competencies required to succeed within the organization. It has surprised me that most published curriculum tends to virtually ignore the important factor of human resilience in discussions of these concepts. For example, of the texts required for these courses (Daft, 2008; Reece & Brandt, 2008), only 1 page (out of a total of 913 pages) addresses the topic of “welcoming failure” (Daft, pp. 185-186) and “resilience” (Reece & Brandt, pp. 343-344). These exceedingly brief treatments are cursory at best and offer little help in understanding what resilience is or how one becomes resilient. Nowhere in these explanations does the reader discover how to acquire resilience over time, how to learn critical coping skills that empower forward movement in the face of adversity, or why cultivating well-being is a critical component for success in the work environment, as well as life itself. The more I teach and interact with students, the more I realize that finding a way to communicate how an adult learns to be resilient is absolutely crucial to self-esteem and vocational drive.

The paucity of printed information about resilience and well-being is quite ironic, given the fact that we are attempting to facilitate learning for students who aspire to succeed in the complex and often grinding milieu of business organizations. In all of the courses I teach, students seldom understand much about the markers or characteristics of resilience. They may be marginally familiar with the definition of the word resilience but have no grasp of why it is vitally important to survival and success. To my query about the meaning of resilience, classes usually respond that it’s about “bouncing back” from difficult circumstances. Few students understand much more than that. They have no deep awareness that resilience is an experienced or lived phenomenon, that it is the challenging self-movement into and through failure despite overwhelming feelings of desperation, disappointment, and helplessness. Most definitely do not recognize how resilience could significantly impact their current and future lives.

Perhaps due to the condition of our economy and the rising tide of unemployment, coupled with the demographics of Kitsap County, many of the students I encounter seem too fixated on what they have going against them to be able to envision possibilities and opportunities. Perhaps this is true of the students you instruct as well. I often find myself inwardly blanching at the stories of hardship, despondency and indifference and self-engineered failure that have virtually locked-down students from believing in themselves or that they can achieve a better quality of life. I see the struggle in their eyes. I sense hopelessness in their voices. Despite their best efforts and loftiest aspirations, they see themselves making little to no progress in their lives. The headwinds seem too stiff and growing stiffer. The barriers appear insurmountable. And the odds feel increasingly stacked against them. They have come to believe that they lack the talent, the money, the pedigree and the connections that open the right doors for others but not for them.
I want to share with you the approach I have taken to provide a type of “immunization” against the soul-eating disease of negativity that too often derails students. In every course I teach, I build into the curriculum a minimum of one full lecture and discussion on three critical areas that directly address personal and professional growth in the face of adversity. These three related areas are resilience, thriving and posttraumatic growth: resilience addresses how to create an environment that promotes emotional health and a focus on opportunity despite adverse circumstances; thriving addresses how to foster change as a direct result of personal setbacks; posttraumatic growth addresses the positive gains that can emerge from traumatic and devastating events. Significant scholarly research supports the efficacy of all three areas, and my experience confirms the usefulness of these concepts. Thus, I would invite you to discuss with others in your discipline or academic department how students might significantly benefit from exposure to these three concepts. Even a basic foundation in these precepts would give students a compass to better navigate the unexpected vicissitudes of everyday life and professional advancement.

Best,

Jeffrey

Why do leaders need resilience in order to lead effectively? Because the work of leadership is difficult and often challenging to the point where a leader’s personal resources are exhausted. When exhaustion sets in so often does frustration and despair. If this sense of emptiness becomes a chronic state it can create a sense of defeat and impact-insignificance which then further erodes a leader’s ability to influence organizational vision, people and processes.

If you’re not sure what resilience means, take a moment to ponder this. Ryff and Singer (2003) defined resilience as “the capacity to either maintain or regain multiple aspects of positive psychological functioning in the face of difficult life circumstances or demanding transitions” (p. 185). Ryff and Singer tracked individuals confronting behaviors within the context of “naturally occurring life challenges, such as normative life transitions, critical and unexpected events and chronically occurring difficulties” (p.185). The dominant resilience question that guided the work of Ryff and Singer as they explored behaviors across these contexts was, “who stays well in the face of challenging events” (p. 185). In a similar approach, Carver (1998) defines resilience as denoting “the capacity to recover from a downturn to a former state of relative well being” (p. 247). This “bounce-back” capacity can improve over time as repeated instances of challenging events produce less severe downturns and increasing quicker recoveries (Carver, p. 248). Experience with disruption over time, as Carver views it, actually leaves individuals more capable of repairing the disruption than they were when they first encountered the disrupting event (p. 249). Masten, Best, and Garmezy (1990) define resilience as “the process of, capacity for, or outcome of successful adaptation despite challenging or threatening circumstances.”

These definitions of resilience suggest that, for leaders, you get stronger or more “immunized” against steep downturns the more you actually experience them. Resilience means that you regain your footing and regain your professional balance and equilibrium as you confront the challenges that knock your knees out from under you. Resilience does not mean you are impervious to setbacks. Rather it means you experience the full emotional impact of setbacks and the discouragement that comes along with those setbacks, yet, you work to recover and regain your perspective. Furthermore, the more you slog through the experience of working out of the difficult seasons the more capable you are of dealing with them when they confront you down the road. May this be good news for those leaders who are seeking to catch a glimpse of how to rightly perceive (or cognitivley understand) and recover from the setbacks that come with the territory of responsible leadership.

Best,

Jeff

Were you aware that resilience is a capacity that one possesses rather than a choice that one makes? Resilience as a choice implies that you can choose to be resilient in the face of difficult circumstances or situations…like putting on clothing or choosing an item on a menu. Resilience, so it would seem, is like throwing a light switch from off to on. Well, unfortunately, resilience does not seem to work in this manner. Resilience is a learned behavior, absorbed over time, the result of navigating tough life circumstances and emerging from them as a survivor. Much of the resilience research has focused on children. Children who have survived early childhood traumas, for example, the divorce of parents and subsequent disruption of everyday life, and emerge into adulthood as people who can survive and “find their way through the pain and setbacks of life.”

Yet, I also believe that resilience can be learned as adults but this learning process must be accompanied by very specific events and actions. What I mean is that if you, as an adult, are to learn to be resilient when confronted by intimidating and potentially overwhelming circumstances, you are well-served to take the following actions:

1. Acknowledge the dilemma. Don’t pretend or lie to yourself. See your reality for what it is. This “truth-telling” is the first step in learning to become resilient.

2. Study and understand what exactly is going on. Learn the details, the issues, the facts, and the people that are involved. Don’t magnify how bad things are by overstating what you “think” is happening to you. Find out exactly what the issues are.

3. Surround yourself with people who can see your situation from different perspectives. Here the key is getting other eyes on your situation in addition to your own. When you are “in the soup” you are massively subjective and biased and therefore easily and quickly lose the ability to see unemotionally and objectively. So, choose a small circle of friends whom you trust, whose wisdom you respect, and ask them to coach you and to speak wisdom into your situation. You often find, and research shows that when it comes to resilience, that you can’t make it through the most difficult of life’s circumstances alone.

4. Get the professional help you need in addition to # 3 above. Abrupt and difficult life-events can cause emotional trauma and this emotional impact “can” cause longer-term damage if it is not specifically addressed. Ask around and get the names of community professionals who are respected. Most will have sliding scales that will work with your budget.

5. Be patient….very patient. This process of recovering takes time…not days or weeks but months and perhaps years. Don’t short-circuit this process by succumbing to short-term or quick fixes.

6. Journal, read and write. Cultivate your spirituality. Each of the major spiritual traditions speak powerfully to the value and positive impact that personal setbacks can bring. Each often speak to keeping hold of faith and hope.

7. Keep moving ahead…one step at a time. Don’t quit or give up. Some days the progress is significant while other days it is extremely incremental and perhaps more of a slight retreat. You will have hard days and days of small victories…this is to be expected.

8. Remember…the way forward is the way through.

Which is better for leaders who have experienced a significant failure in leadership: Resilience or posttraumatic growth? The reason this question is central is due in large part to the end result of either option. Resilience is often the right choice when a leadership failure or challenge is not catastrophic meaning it does not result in the loss of employment (even though the event does result in emotional bruising and professional embarrassment). Here resilience is about the decision to “make your way back” to a level of efficiency and leadership influence which existed prior to the event. This decision is about determination, perseverance, overcoming the odds, proving your metal and proving other’s wrong. Resilience, when viewed from only a utilitarian perspective, is about self-vindication. It can be characterized by an impatient and irrepressible urge to scratch and claw one’s way back to a position of leadership status and power.

The danger that lies with this understanding and experience of resilience is that little internally changes. By this I mean that while you can regain your footing professionally little in your cognitive and emotional infrastructure changes when, in fact, it may need to change. Why is this significant? Because the rare opportunity that failure provides the leader is to examine the reasons or rationale that gave rise to the action which led to the failure in the first place. This is the where the richness and value of resilience coupled with reflection lay. The reality, however, is that many leaders bypass this critical evaluative opportunity and move right through to the re-establishment and re-stabilization of their positional power. While one’s position and hegemony may be recovered, the risk is high that at some point in the future the failure will be repeated.

Next installment…why leaders can so easily bypass (ignore) the opportunity to reflect and learn from their organizational failures and why this increases the risk of additional leadership failure.

I am beginning a series on Resilience and Posttraumatic growth as it relates to those in positions of organizational leadership, in particular, those who are key decision-makers from senior executives, to mid-level management to those who are just emerging as talented and gifted leaders in their organizations.

This discussion will focus on the meaning of resilience as it applies to leadership under pressure and with high expectations and secondly, the meaning of posttraumatic growth for leaders who have experienced catastrophic job loss leading to a major crises. The question I am raising is this: what does it mean for leaders to “rebound” or “make their way forward into new forms of leadership” after dealing with a major career derailment and setback?

Any review of the literature available today in major book retailers will tell you that, with very few exceptions, business leaders face daunting expectations. Not only are decision-makers under a great deal of pressure, not only are they dealing with significant and often unrealistic expectations both internally and externally, they also have a poverty of resources to turn to when they fail. Failure is a common theme within the ranks of non-profit and for-profit organizational leadership. With very little recourse and no road map to chart their way through exceptionally difficult terrain, these leaders can find it hard to regain their footing and move through the most difficult personal and professional season they will most likely ever face.

In the next post: Understanding the meaning of Resilience and the Nexus with Organizational Leaders.

The Three Disciplines of Self-Leadership are….

1. Cultivating Inner Personal Meaning

Deepening Self-Awareness

The capacity to be vigilant about and grounded in your own strengths, limitations, uniqueness, history and emerging identity regardless of external pressures to detach from what you know about your deepest truth(s).

Maintaining spiritual moorings

Sustaining a dynamic connection with a spiritual foundation that provides an interpretation or story of your purpose and journey.

Depth Perception of others

The ability to identify and celebrate the deeper value, worth, dignity and longings of others and to contribute toward their growth and personal discovery through service and empowerment.

Commitment to growing forward regardless

The relentless and indomitable pursuit of forward movement into and out of the vicissitudes and vagaries of life .

3. Constructing an engaging Personal Vision

An engaging vision for yourself

A vision that encompasses your passions and dreams, is aligned with your uniqueness and your present realities and invites you to reach, stretch, and extend but not grasp or claim. A great resource to read for an indepth reflection on personal vision and passion is Parker Palmer’s Let Your Life Speak

A courageous vision for your leadership in the organization

Since leadership is fundamentally about relationships of influence, keep clarity about how your exercise of leadership will advance, strengthen and transform the organizations in which you serve. This includes an ongoing professional development plan driven by a strong internal locus of control.

4. Assessing Personal Impact

Living with Humility and abandoning hubris

Remaining open, teachable, malleable, rather than hardened, closed, rigid, and protected.

Learning from rather than resisting seasons of failure

Becoming resilient by allowing life’s failures to dismantle false constructs and illusions and to deepen understanding and wisdom and enlarge the capacity for love and courage.