Resilient leaders understand that high levels of chronic anxiety mitigate against an organization’s ability to be nimble, innovative, and resilient.
Stay Calm. Resilient Leaders also realize the irreplaceable role they play—by managing their own anxiety—in helping their organization to be less anxious and more thoughtful. We capture these insights with the two slogans, “Be a Less Anxious Presence” and “Act as a Step-Down Transformer.”
Stay the Course. Resilient leaders are clear within themselves about the vision, values, and principles that guide their life course, both personally and professionally. They know that to remain true to themselves, they must sometimes take risks, and they are not afraid to make bold, self-differentiating moves. They also realize the inevitability of the resistance or sabotage those moves will encounter from a reactive system that seeks, naturally, to maintain its status quo. But, though faced with resistance, they remain thoughtful and can distinguish between reactive complaints and productive complaints, listening openly to the latter and ignoring the content of the former.
Stay Connected. Resilient leaders understand that they are able to exert a positive influence on the system they lead only if they are connected to it in a balanced, healthy way. It is the quality, not the quantity, of their connection that matters. Because all of us get anxious at times, resilient leaders have learned to recognize whether their default tendency under stress is to withdraw (cut off) or move overly close (fuse). The key, they know, to showing up with just the right kind of leadership presence is captured in the phrase “close enough to influence yet distant enough to lead.”
Of the three Resilient Leadership imperatives described above, which one are you the strongest in, and which one do you most want to strengthen at this time?
How to Be
“Stay Calm, Stay Connected, Stay the Course.”
Jim Moyer
To learn more about self-differentiation and reducing chronic anxiety and doubt with Resilient Leadership concepts, contact Jim at jimm@resilientleadershipdevelopment.com.
Some People We've Coached and/or Trained
