A Post a Day in May #19: Leadership by the letter

I have pledged to write a new post for this blog every day in May. 

The concept of leadership is much on my mind, as there is such a dearth of it in our world today. Yes, individuals are in positions of leadership, but that does not make those individuals leaders. For it is their actions, not their position, that make them so. 

L E A D E R S H I P: R is for RESILIENCE

The R could be for respect or reward, but I am making the R for RESILIENCE.

Every leader must have the gumption within themselves to take their people up and over the edge — when it’s obvious and easy, and also when it’s complicated and challenging. 

Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash

To overcome the critics, the naysayers, the heels-dug-in-crowd, a leader must have the courage of their convictions and the skill to articulate their vision. They must be confident and capable, able to withstand stress and defeat, and be willing to get up and try again when first they fail. This is how I understand resilience. 

The standard definition is “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; to have toughness or elasticity”. 

Search the internet and you’ll find endless articles about resilience; one describes it as a life skill, the ability to thrive and to fulfill potential in spite of adversity or difficult circumstances.

In my opinion, the value of resilience is that it sees you through the tough times when you’re uncomfortable, when you’ve failed outright or when you do not have a needed answer. It means that you’re aware enough to know what you’re feeling and you’re skilled enough to either park those feelings or to address them. Either way, those feelings do not immobilize you. 

• Years ago when I was in journalism school and on assignment with the local CBC TV station, I failed in an assignment given me by a reporter. I was devastated. I drowned my sorrows that evening, but the next day I was back in the studio trying again. #resilience 
• Not quite so many years ago, I placed the wrong ad into a publication for my employer. I was arrogant enough that I had not bothered to check the proof; the wrong ad appeared, and I ate crow in front of the vice-president. The next day, I returned to work significantly more humble. #resilience 
• For that same employer, I signed off on a massive print run that, it turned out, included the wrong dates on one page. This mistake was worth thousands of dollars. When I realized the problem, I girded my loins, breathed deeply, and confessed to the executive member. We reprinted the item and the only damage done was to my pride (and the budget). #resilience 

I learned from each of those incidents and I bounced back from each of them, too. I carry the lessons with me today — both in my head and my heart. 

We are only human. We will make mistakes. We do not know everything. Circumstances change and we may not have accounted for the impact. We have no hope of moving forward unless we are able to bounce back from our failures, our near-misses, our disasters. 

When we have resilience, when we have practiced coming back from behind and we end up landing ahead by virtue of having had the guts to acknowledge the problem, to own the mistake and then to get back in the saddle again — then, we have resilience. 

For leaders, whether in a formal or informal role of leadership, resilience enables us to say, “I’m sorry. I was wrong. This didn’t work. Let’s try again.” And when we can do this, we are leading from our core competence as a leader and not merely from our position at the head of pack.

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