Hi there,
I hope you've had a wonderful week.
I’m in the process of writing a workshop on resilience training for managers and, I’ve got to be honest, I struggle a bit with the term.
Resilience. The old adage that ‘it’s not what happens but how you react to it’. I think it’s meant to be a positive sentiment. But is it? It insinuates that something negative is happening to you and therefore that you need to be resilient to it. That you’re passive. Or submissive. Or, even worse, a victim. And that never energised or empowered anyone.
So, is there another way of looking at the situation?
When anything happens in the world, it’s fair to say that how much you’re affected by it, correlates with how much you interact with it. The less you interact with it, the less you need to defend yourself from it.
Here’s an example:
Agency A ‘Bilbo Baggins's Britches’ pitches for a new client.
They lose the pitch. They've put everything into the pitch. They’ve pinned all of their hopes for the new year on it. They have no other plans to focus on. They get together the following week to talk about and think about all the things that probably went wrong and worry about the impact on the agency. They take months to recover.
Agency B ‘Bilbo Baggins's Boots’ pitches for a new client.
They lose the pitch. They put a lot into it but were also keeping an eye on new tenders the whole time. They get together straight after to focus on what they can take to share with their current clients. The pitch team goes out to celebrate how well they worked together. They choose a ‘pitch star’ to communicate what they learnt with the whole agency to use in the next pitch. There is nothing to recover from.
Look, I'm not naive. Of course different things can ‘feel’ more painful and fearful vs safe and positive. However, our everyday behaviours will always affect our experience. And, if we have a goal of internal daily peace vs external success (or loss), then we have the chance of a much better personal and work life.
So, what can you do to feel more safe, empowered and energised - no matter what happens?
- Focus on brilliant daily behaviours not uncontrollable outcomes
- Build a culture of reflection and learning
- Make time for connections, always
- Remember that you NEVER know what will happen next
- Invest in employee resilience training
Now, on to this week’s TikTok. It’s something that I am hearing so much from the brilliant managers that I coach - burn out, overwhelm and being locked in the “doing” not the leading! And you know what I’m often seeing is the culprit? Meeting overload! Here are some ideas to help you get out of inaction, and into action.
As always, I hope it helps and hit me up with any questions, feedback or thinking!
Follow me on TikTok for more.
Cate x
Hi there,
I hope you've had a wonderful week.
I’m in the process of writing a workshop on resilience training for managers and, I’ve got to be honest, I struggle a bit with the term.
Resilience. The old adage that ‘it’s not what happens but how you react to it’. I think it’s meant to be a positive sentiment. But is it? It insinuates that something negative is happening to you and therefore that you need to be resilient to it. That you’re passive. Or submissive. Or, even worse, a victim. And that never energised or empowered anyone.
So, is there another way of looking at the situation?
When anything happens in the world, it’s fair to say that how much you’re affected by it, correlates with how much you interact with it. The less you interact with it, the less you need to defend yourself from it.
Here’s an example:
Agency A ‘Bilbo Baggins's Britches’ pitches for a new client.
They lose the pitch. They've put everything into the pitch. They’ve pinned all of their hopes for the new year on it. They have no other plans to focus on. They get together the following week to talk about and think about all the things that probably went wrong and worry about the impact on the agency. They take months to recover.
Agency B ‘Bilbo Baggins's Boots’ pitches for a new client.
They lose the pitch. They put a lot into it but were also keeping an eye on new tenders the whole time. They get together straight after to focus on what they can take to share with their current clients. The pitch team goes out to celebrate how well they worked together. They choose a ‘pitch star’ to communicate what they learnt with the whole agency to use in the next pitch. There is nothing to recover from.
Look, I'm not naive. Of course different things can ‘feel’ more painful and fearful vs safe and positive. However, our everyday behaviours will always affect our experience. And, if we have a goal of internal daily peace vs external success (or loss), then we have the chance of a much better personal and work life.
So, what can you do to feel more safe, empowered and energised - no matter what happens?
- Focus on brilliant daily behaviours not uncontrollable outcomes
- Build a culture of reflection and learning
- Make time for connections, always
- Remember that you NEVER know what will happen next
- Invest in employee resilience training
Now, on to this week’s TikTok. It’s something that I am hearing so much from the brilliant managers that I coach - burn out, overwhelm and being locked in the “doing” not the leading! And you know what I’m often seeing is the culprit? Meeting overload! Here are some ideas to help you get out of inaction, and into action.
As always, I hope it helps and hit me up with any questions, feedback or thinking!
Follow me on TikTok for more.
Cate x
