Resilience in leaders

“I couldn’t give up. I kept telling myself to smile, soak up the energy of the incredible crowds and just put one foot in front of the other."
- Rose Harvey

One of the stories from the Olympics that caught my (Andy's) attention was of Rose Harvey who was one of GB’s marathon runners.  She only finished 78th in a time of 2hr 51min 3sec, but the amazing thing was that she did so with a broken leg!  The question I ask myself is, where does someone get the resilience to do something like that?  She said that she knew something was wrong with the pain she felt after a few miles and she carried on only because she had trained so hard for this one race that she just couldn’t waste all that effort she had put in.  
 
Leaders all need resilience.  Maybe not so much physical resilience but certainly emotional resilience that enables us to ride the inevitable waves of pressure, success, failure, setbacks and breakthroughs.  In fact, in Brené Brown’s research she found that one of the key attributes of leaders is what she calls ‘learning to rise’ – being able to get up on our feet after a fall. She discovered that when leaders know how to rise they are more able to take the risks, embrace vulnerability, and make the hard decisions that are often required of those who lead.
 
So, how can we develop our resilience?  In my experience, resilience is developed gradually over time.  In our early days of leadership we may face smaller setbacks (although they may seem huge to us at the time) and through them learn ways of helpfully processing our emotional disquiet.  We may learn that the worst doesn’t often happen; that we need people around us who can help us understand and process our emotional responses; that perspective is essential to coming through the setbacks we face.  The lessons we learn in our early years of leadership will set us up well for the time when the stakes are higher and the setbacks bigger. This is because we build resilience if we learn to respond appropriately when our existing levels of resilience are tested.  
 
Back to Rose Harvey.  One of the things she said that kept her going was not to focus on the end but to take a short-term view.  That may not be a good response in all circumstances, but when facing difficulty, it is very appropriate.  “One more mile” is what she constantly repeated to herself and after doing so for the majority of the 26 miles, she finished!  That’s a great lesson.  In our setbacks and crises, focusing on what’s immediately in front of us can be a really helpful approach to take.

Andy Matheson
 
Read the article here

Questions to ponder:
 

1. What am I finding difficult in my leadership in this season?
2. What are some of the good things that are also going on which I can find some hope, courage and inspiration from?
3. What could "one more mile" look like for me in my context?
4. Who can I ask to be on my support team while I work through some of the difficulties?