What is resilience in leadership?

Resilience is often thought of in terms of toughness, strength and infallibility. Many people picture a resilient leader as someone who never fails, is always right and unwaveringly follows through with plans. In fact, the true definition of resilience revolves around persistence in the face of turbulence.

A resilient person is able to keep making progress in the face of adversity—they aren’t immune to it. They maintain composure, rather than being infallible, and are able to remain focused on bigger-picture goals rather than getting lost in negative emotions.

Anyone can work to develop more resilience and be increasingly comfortable outside their comfort zone. By seeing failures and challenges as opportunities for learning and development, rather than reasons to assign fault and blame, you can make effective, agile changes and turn potential losses into wins.

Types of leadership resilience

As a leader, you might already excel at one type of resilience but need more work in another. Let’s explore the various forms you can draw upon to become a better decision-maker and motivator:

• Social resilience: Leaders with social resilience build strong professional support networks and feel comfortable seeking advice from trusted people during turbulent times.
• Interpersonal resilience: A leader who can inspire people, communicate well with others and resolve conflicts under challenging circumstances has interpersonal resilience.
• Psychological resilience: Being able to maintain self-belief and confidence in the face of setbacks is essential as a leader, and it’s the essence of psychological resilience.
• Cognitive resilience: Stress can make it harder to function cognitively, meaning you might make more mistakes. You can build cognitive resilience by learning how to take a step back and remain calm under pressure.
• Purposeful resilience: If you possess purposeful resilience, you’re working toward a bigger goal that keeps you motivated during unfavorable circumstances.

There’s overlap between some definitions, but breaking the concept of resilience down into its component parts facilitates a deeper appreciation of it. Understanding the different types can help you develop resilience in leadership and reach your full potential.

Top 8 traits of resilient leaders

Cultivating the following eight traits can help you navigate the inevitable challenges and uncertainties that come with being a leader.

1. Adaptability

Rapidly changing market conditions, shifting consumer demands and unforeseen workforce challenges are part of daily life as a leader, and being adaptable is essential.

Tips for cultivating adaptability:

• Embrace change and frame it as an opportunity to improve, rather than something to fear when communicating with employees.
• Stay updated with the latest industry news, so you can preempt market shifts and adapt to consumer demands.
• Encourage pushback from other managers and demonstrate flexibility in decision-making to ensure you don’t persist with ineffective strategies.

2. Confidence

Exuding confidence is crucial for leading your team through challenges and setting a strong example in the face of adversity.

How to show more confidence:

• Master your craft: By taking a continual approach to learning and ensuring you excel in your field, you can lead with confidence because you’re inherently equipped to face setbacks.
• Plan and prepare to succeed: When you carefully plan what you’re going to say when talking about important topics, you come across as competent and confident.

3. Humility

Because true confidence is about demonstrating competence—not bravado—humility is just as important a skill to master when it comes to resilience. Without humility, it’s impossible to be a resilient leader because you must be able to admit when a strategy isn’t working so you can change course.

Developing humility involves:

• Seeking feedback from mentors and employees, taking on board what other people say and trying to see yourself through other people’s eyes.
• Being authentic, admitting when you make mistakes and taking full responsibility.
• Fostering a culture of appreciation in which people congratulate each others’ contributions.

4. Resourcefulness

Resourcefulness is essential for resilience because it prevents you from dwelling on a problem and compels you to focus on finding solutions.

Tips for developing resourcefulness include:

• Find ways to think more creatively by pursuing a creative hobby in your spare time.
• Build a vast network full of people with different strengths and talents and learn from them.
• Always find ways to maximize ROI on your current resources, and have contingency plans ready for turbulent times.

5. Open-mind

Resilience in leadership requires that you have an open mind and value diverse perspectives and collaboration. It’s not possible to have all the answers all the time—and open-mindedness means you’ll prioritize getting the right solution, rather than the most familiar or palatable one.

Here’s how you can learn to be more open-minded:

• Practice active listening to ensure you approach new solutions with a curious mindset rather than a judgmental one.
• Challenge your own assumptions in case they’re holding you back.
• Encourage employees to provide feedback on their experience of working for you, so you can learn from them.

6. Risk-taking

As market conditions change faster than ever, you’ll need to learn how to take risks, so you can navigate new technology and consumer demands.

Getting better at risk-taking involves:

• Using cost-benefit analysis to evaluate risks against their potential reward and moving forward, even if there’s a level of uncertainty.
• Starting with small risks and building up—for example, adopting a new piece of technology or delegating a closely guarded task.

7. Determination

Sometimes, the only thing keeping an effective leader going through times of hardship is sheer determination to reach their goals. With enough persistence, you can be resilient enough to overcome any setback.

Cultivate determination by:

• Setting clear goals, remaining focused on them during times of adversity and maintaining a consistent level of commitment.
• Nurturing a growth mindset, which helps to reinforce your belief in your ability to overcome challenges and achieve your goals under any circumstances.

8. Calm demeanor

As a resilient leader, your team looks up to you to set the example of how to behave. Remaining calm under pressure is a primary component of leadership resilience and influences how your company operates under challenging circumstances.

Tips for demonstrating a calmer demeanor:

• Manage your time effectively by organizing tasks in order of priority and never letting work back up.
• Delegate the right jobs to the right people to lighten your workload and develop your team.
• Develop healthy self-care techniques, exercise regularly and eat plenty of unprocessed foods to minimize stress and regulate your mood.

Inspire your team

One of the most rewarding elements of demonstrating resilience in leadership is the knock-on effect it has on your team. Developing a culture that prioritizes swift recovery in the face of adversity and sees setbacks as opportunities for improvement benefits everyone. Learn from mistakes, deliver targeted training opportunities and provide opportunities for feedback to inspire resilience in your team and yourself.