Resilience. What the heck is it, anyway?
I often felt it was an often over used word to almost encapsulate many things; determination, blind faith, stubbornness even. But when we take a step back to observe what resilience looks like in our lives, what do we see?
As with many things I find that to use the business lens to observe personal application I can see that business resilience is the power to adapt, it is the power to hold the line and move steps closer to your defined end goal despite punches, kicks and bumps from the side of our chosen path. It’s fair to say there have been many a blocker in our business lives since March 2020 and for those who are still operating, evolving or thriving – bravo to you! I think as we emerge from this washing machine of an environment and appear dazed, shaken up, a little dizzy perhaps, we can say we made it this far.
We made it this far and we’ve not only made it but we have emerged with a layer of armour I think we can call resilience.
But what about those at home? How has your family unit been affected by this?
If we can hop over to our personal side for a moment, what do we think personal resilience means? From my perspective I find it challenging – more so in the past – to accept external pressures outside of my control as simply opinion based on a perception of theirs, not mine.
Rob should do this. Rob should do that. Why is Rob doing this? Rob should sling his kids, Rob should be on school runs, at home, at work and be around for pick up! These are all the little pokes and jabs from the side of the path I mentioned before…I’m certain you have your own examples of the often seen should gremlin!
Look after what matters.
What does matter to me is the opinion of those in my family unit. In our chat with Andrew Miller, Business Enjoyment specialist, he suggests the running a business or progressing your career is a journey of self. What a fascinating perspective. A perspective that allows m to see my business as a contributing factor to the family unit, not the family unit contributing the business – ie, everything must stop to allow business projects to run, rather, how is my business activity contributing to the family unit on a wider scale.
Family stakeholders for family resilience.
We spoke to Sophia Ali who is an expert in innovation and resilience and we were delighted to share the space with her. The chat left me wondering about my own household and how I can check in and get agreement with them all that we are all on track to where we need to be. Do we even know where we need to be?!
As my worklife becomes more demanding on travel, time away, pressures to innovate, create, deliver the projects, this has an impact on the home unit whose rhythm itself has been affected.
There is much less home working, no more PE With Joe! As with many people, our lives found a rhythm that suited the environment at the time, and now that rhythm has changed; it’s not a bad thing, but with it comes new challenges, logistical issues but overall, incredible opportunities.
How to build resilience
8 steps to building your resilience
So please take some time to listen to our chat where we discuss business resilience, personal resilience, but moreover – family resilience.
