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 By Nimira Harjee
Certified Change Practitioner and Change Coach
Over the last year in particular, we’ve all encountered significant change – changes in the economy, changes at work, changes in our priorities. All of us deal with change differently and in our own unique way. Many of us believe that the more change we go through, the better able we are to deal with it. While that may be somewhat true, what really differentiates how we succeed through change is how resilient we are.
So what is resilience and why does it matter? When we think of resilience, we often think of being flexible, nimble, being able to bounce back. While resilience comprises all of that, it also embeds within it our ability to recover quickly and effectively from significant change and adversity. It’s how quickly we are able to get unstuck, move forward and be productive again and it’s also able being able to find a way to transcend or learn from the experience or the event in a way that’s transformative, inspiring and renewing.
If you are wondering about how resilient you are, think about all the change you’ve experienced over the last year or so and ask yourself the following questions?
Overall -
• Do I feel energized or depleted?
• Do I have an optimistic outlook? (Is the glass generally half full for me or do I often feel jaded?)
• Do I feel I have the ability (skills, knowledge and experience) to move forward or am I doubtful?
• Do I have a good network of people who can help and support me?
• Am I able to step back, assess my approaches and consider alternatives or do I feel stuck?
• Am I generally open to change and do I go about initiating change?
• Am I able to reflect on my learnings and do things differently?
If your answers are tentative you may want to find out and learn more about building resiliency. Research indicates that resiliency depends significantly on factors such as our thoughts, our attitude, our outlook (ability to frame or reframe situations), our sense of optimism and our ability to reach out to others we feel we can count on. There are also resilience assessments that can tell you how resilient you really are, what characteristics you may be over or under-using and what you can do to further develop your resiliency.
Being resilient is crucial both personally and professionally. It is often what determines those who succeed from those who don’t and can be a significant career de-railer or life impediment if under-developed. Knowing about your own resiliency is also critical if you are a leader looking at navigating and mobilizing others through change and building organizational agility and nimbleness.
Nimira Harjee specializes in supporting organizations and individuals deal with change successfully and develop their resiliency. As a certified Change Practitioner and Change Coach, she has supported large scale change initiatives and worked with senior leaders to enable them to lead change effectively and build change and resilience capability in their organizations. Contact us at Vision Coaching to find out more about Assessing and Building your own Resiliency.
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