As we emerge into 2022, bleary-eyed, hoping this will finally be the year of steady state (trying to avoid “new normal”), how are you feeling? Many of our clients’ report feeling weather-worn, buffeting by the effort of steering through Covid and all its storms and gales.
Your energy may be low, but maybe your heart is lifted and optimistic about the future if only you could gather yourself up and power on.
In times of turbulence, we often stretch to behaviours and skills that are not natural. This is tiring and takes concentration and is maybe why we feel our reserves are low. As a result, some of us may be tempted to move on from our current roles to feel like we are breaking the habits and renewing ourselves, gaining a sense of doing something different.
One way to reinvent ourselves is a little closer to home, though. Resilience has been at an all-time high in the past few years. It has brought invention, creativity, tenacity and let’s not forget pivoting. So maybe a way to rejuvenate ourselves is to step back and do a good old-fashioned review of our resilience and what it has done for us.
We have been coaching individuals and teams around resilience for many years and one of the crucial things to realise is that it isn’t about gritting teeth, never moaning or not owning up to finding times tough. It is quite the opposite, in fact. Resilience teaches us to speak up if we need help, actively seek out people that know more than us and purposefully rest and recover.
Have a go at thinking through three of the six resilience factors and how you have benefited from using them.
Determination – the ability to dig deep and welcome challenges. How many times have you done this recently? Have you delayed instant gratification and instead dug in and produced your best work? What satisfaction did you get from that and what have you learned about yourself? Did you have a mantra for tough times that you can still use today? For example, “If a job is worth doing, it’s worth doing well”, “head down, keep walking”, “5 o’clock will come”. Using mantras can keep our spirits up and team mantras are potent. For example, one of our clients used to work for Cadburys in the IT team. After a tough week of transforming and developing, the team would say, “now let’s go make great chocolate”. Love this. It reminds them why they have done their best that week and that it was for the good of the whole organisation and themselves. Oh, and for all of us who love chocolate!
A sense of purpose – how much has the last year moved you towards where you want to be in life. It may even have fast-forwarded it. We always knew we should embrace digital online learning but kept putting it off. Several lockdowns later and we feel like we have been doing it forever – have you done something like that? Have you gained experience in one year that might have taken you four if there hadn’t been a crisis?
Connections – who have you networked with recently? How many online coffees have you had with colleagues across your organisation that would never have happened in the office? What have you learned from them that helps you now and in the future? Have you gained a broader understanding of your organisation from all those pub quizzes you attended, humanising colleagues from all functions?
Those are just three resilience areas. Use them to reframe last year as rejuvenating, stretching, challenging rather than tiring.
Last year could have been 100% tiring or 100% inspiring!
Get in touch if you want to know more about building resilience for yourself and your teams