The Leader’s Guide to Resilience

Resilience is innate. Learn how to unlock it.

You have innate resilience – the ability to survive, recover and flourish amid adversity.  When you feel unable to cope with difficult situations, you can tap into your resilience, nurture it and restore it. Being resilient means accepting the reality of your situation and learning from your mistakes. It requires being “self-ish” – reflecting on your choices, behaviors and needs, and cultivating the self-awareness to avoid reacting ineffectively or alienating potential allies. 

To expand your resilience, focus on healthy collaboration and foster supportive relationships. Understand your value as an individual contributor and your capability to create and co-create solutions. Reflect on your sources of inner strength – your unique “pillars” of resilience. Are you neglecting your pillars? If your family members, for example, constitute a pillar of resilience for you, then nurture your connections with them. Strengthen the pillars that need your attention.

Psychologist Kathryn McEwen suggests these steps to help you sustain long-term...