Leaders Focus on Resilience and Results

Resilience is defined as the ability to recover from setbacks, adapt well to change, and keep going in the face of adversity. Organizational change relies on individual change and developing personal resilience. Building our resilience capacity includes accepting loss, developing habits of resilient thinking, and recognizing the role of attachment in learning to navigate and adopt the future state.

Whether a global crisis or daily operational disruptions, change creates stress, uncertainty, and anxiety which can result in difficulty with emotionally and productively adopting change. Failure to respond constructively and effectively in an environment of constant change and challenge increases the likelihood of potential negative long-term effects.

As an organizational change management (OCM) professional and PMP, I’ve focused on milestones & plans, relevant and relatable messaging and change management tools and techniques to help stakeholders adopt change. As I discover my own need to develop resilient habits and thinking, I find I’ve been guilty of downplaying the importance of emotional, psychological and physiological coping strategies and tactics needed to move into the future state.

Change, Project and HR Professionals are often leading change efforts, which is very different from becoming a willing or unwilling change participant. One of my PMO directors used to ask, “Why can’t we just tell ‘em what to do and they do it?” that’s a question from someone not impacted by the change. 

When we are impacted by change, everything changes. We have to remind ourselves that what was comfortable and familiar is now gone. We need to learn to take action to reroute the routine, and we must learn to accept the sense of loss and longing for what was. 

My mission is to help professionals add OCM powerskills to their skillsets, but that’s no longer enough. Leaders must incorporate resiliency as well. We owe it to those who experience the impact of change to learn how to overcome the overwhelm, reduce resistance, and build resilience to recover quickly and realize the benefit of change. Focusing on resilience as well as results is necessary to become project, change and HR leaders rather than simply managers.