Reimagining Leadership and Resilience

Leadership is 20% about observing and understanding what is happening now and 80% about being prepared to anticipate and deal with the future. It is important and necessary to navigate effectively through current chaos, but this more involves managing things that represent current conditions than leading people through the unpredictability. In other words, it is mostly too late for leadership.

Being prepared for what comes next is tantamount to sustainable success. The idea that what got you here – won’t get you there – is more than a rally-cry – it speaks to the underlying dynamics of constant change that exists as forces of nature. Change is constant and inevitable, even when it is barely perceivable.

We know that in the long-run everything changes, but the dynamics of exceptional organizational leadership include being prepared to perceive things changing before others do – and ideally before you have to react to them. This is how resilience defines performance in your organization.

Resilience exists at the intersection of capacity and accomplishment.

Being resilient requires more than the ability to recover from a collision with adversity; you must actually forge readiness for what comes next and then use your potential to execute what you have prepared for.

Planning and preparation are largely necessary for succeeding in accomplishing worthwhile aims, but alone they are not sufficient. Similarly, while ideas without action are worthless, taking action only yields value if you take the right action. It all boils down to execution. It a matter of having the right idea, taking the best or most appropriate action, performing the action properly - and getting the results that are needed. Anything that falls short of accomplishing something that matters is a failure.

There is a critical difference between having the ability to do something and getting it accomplished. Ability is potential energy. It is only valuable when it can be placed in action. Evidence of effective leadership is realized by what is accomplished through the actions of those being led. Great leaders are not measured by the potential of their team, but by the absolute quality of the results attained.

People accomplish things given two conditions: because they can and because they feel they have to. It is obvious that no one has ever accomplished anything that cannot be done. But what is less obvious is that people rarely accomplish things they perceive to be difficult – unless they feel it is necessary. It is why, as Dr. Lee Thayer wrote, “people prefer problems they cannot solve over solutions that they do not like.” How often have you seen people who are perfectly capable fail to take the action that they have been properly trained and tasked with?

A leaders task is to ensure that those who need to execute whatever it is they must get done, see for themselves that it is both possible and necessary to do so.

The saying, “whether you believe you can or can’t – you are correct” bay in itself be thin and tired, but the truth is inescapable. Effective leaders don’t simply explain to others what they need people to believe, they ensure that they can and do. 

Your Actions Are Informed by Your Beliefs

You have no doubt heard the expression, “you can believe what you want to believe.” It speaks to the futility of changing what other people believe. Yet leaders make their bones by influencing the behavior of others.

You cannot change what others believe, you must instead make it possible and necessary for them to change their own beliefs. Being an effective leader means that you have sufficient influence over others such that you can cause them to perform in a way that serves the objectives being sought.

There are core beliefs that are rooted in your personal values. They tend to be indelible. Sometimes they are referred to as a person’s “true north,” a magnetic-like pull in a single direction towards an absolute point. These are powerful, almost unshakable beliefs that you don’t hold: they hold you.

Then there are strongly held beliefs that are more situational. At the moment you may believe something is unlikely, even impossible, but given more information to process you see the situation differently. These kinds of beliefs may feel like unshakable convictions, but given the right information become highly malleable. This is the foundation of formal education and training. You can predictably change what people believe by artfully engaging their thinking with relevant information.

You can also scientifically impose beliefs through psychological manipulation. So-called brainwashing techniques systematically apply intense pressure to force a subject to change beliefs they would otherwise be unwilling to change. At the extreme they are coercive and even abusive as in the case of a kidnapped captive. Or they might be subtle and pernicious as can often be seen the influence cult-leaders have over their followers. The change still occurs because the subject ultimately chooses the new belief over whatever beliefs they had formerly held – not because the new beliefs were somehow inserted into their target’s minds.

Leaders are skilled in the art of influencing the beliefs of those they lead – by creating a shared sense of purpose. It is clear – beyond the scientific evidence – that people who posess a shared sense of destiny collectively become a powerful force. While this force often becomes self-sustaining – growing stronger as it spreads, it can be sparked by a single, powerful idea that is well communicated. Exceptional leaders are highly effective at creating meaning around a purpose that becomes widely and easily adopted. This force is the power that a good leader wields. The power of leadership is more a matter of fuel than a function of a harness.

Dwight D. Eisenhower described leadership as “the art of getting someone else to do what you want done because he wants to do it.”

Exceptional leaders don’t harness the power of the people they lead, they enable their followers to learn how to harness and use that power themselves. If you watch a highly-effective leader you notice that they not only don’t hold tightly to the reigns – they tend to let go and step back. It’s not that they yield control through trust – but that they understand that they do not have the power to control. People choose to be led, and refuse to be managed. Leaders that fail to understand this nuance are doomed. But those who can capture the imagination of others and enable them to inspire themselves – are the leaders to shape the future.

The Resilience of an Organizations is Determined by the Conscientiousness of Its People

Conscientiousness literally refers to operating in accordance with your conscience. It speaks to having a sense that your actions are measured by some sense of a greater good – rather than only considering your own needs and desires. People tend to need to understand a sense of purpose driving what is asked or expected in order for them to perform to their potential – and even strive to expand their potential.

Conscientiousness informs grit, which is the ability to get comfortable with the idea of being uncomfortable.

Grit is what describes the performance of people who are willing to push themselves beyond their comfort zone. Grit impacts your physical performance by enabling you to work harder or longer and do the heavy lifting. Grit impacts your mental performance by allowing you to think harder and more deeply than you are accustomed to, or to remain focused and engaged in the face of distraction. Grit is how individuals and organizations raise the bar on their own performance – and set standards for others to follow.

The ability of a leader to create resilience amounts to ensuring that there is a strong sense of purpose that permeates the organization and informs the individual conscientiousness of the performers. This is what defines and separates high-performers from mediocre ones and high performance organizations from dysfunctional ones.

People who fail to be inspired – or choose not to perform have no place in a high-performance organization. They work perfectly well in dysfunctional organizations where performance is measured by attendance rather than competence – and resilience is not possible.

Many people (all highly competent leaders) are self-sufficient in terms of connecting to their own sense of purpose – and finding the inspiration to perform conscientiously. They do what must be done – without the need for external reward or punishment. They are fully competent at leading their own lives, performing their lives as virtuosos.

The need for competent leaders addresses the remainder of society that lacks either the will or means to self-direct and lead themselves and instead depend on others for guidance.

For some of these people – a small degree of capable guidance is all it takes to spur them onto to realize the means to discover and experience satisfaction in what they pursue. They find joy in the contributions they make and recognize that continuous self-improvement leads to more and more joy in their lives. They look to leaders to increase for guidance as to what more is possible – and to reinforce what they already know is necessary.

Others either find themselves (most often by choice) to be incompetent and unconcerned with making any kind of meaningful contribution to anything but their own interests. Some are malignantly narcissistic and lack the essential make-up that causes most of us to care about the need of others. Others are lulled into meaningless existences by virtue of there being little consequence to choosing to be comfortable being incompetent and a burden to others.

There are, of course, some people who for no fault of their own lack the physical or mental facility to succeed in supporting themselves. We should offer a safety net for children, the elderly and the infirmed. Caring about people sometimes necessitates caring for them, but in the larger picture – caring for people is a matter of enabling behaviors that are self-destructive and disabling.

Balancing the Desire for Safety and the Need for Risk

Getting comfortable being uncomfortable is critical for realizing your personal human potential. This is equally true of training for physical contests and mental or intellectual challenges. It’s not simply applying the concept of “no pain, no gain” as a means of motivating hard work, it’s a matter of confronting competing instincts that guide safety and survival.

Fight-or-flight behaviors are hard-wired survival mechanisms supported by the autonomic nervous system. At the root they are entirely instinctive. The desire for safety is more a matter of learned habits. There are many conditions where absolute safety is simply not an option. There are threats we cannot hide from. On the other hand – people who deliberately place themselves in danger are often admired – and rewarded. A sense of adventure stands in absolute contrast to a need for safety.

The desire for safety often amounts to a luxury rather than a necessity. For example, isn’t it ironic that having great material wealth both creates the need and the means for buying the means to protect what you have accumulated – as well as providing for personal safety? The risk of dying hungry in the cold is replaced with the risk for being robbed or even murdered.

Allowing yourself a false sense of safety actually increases your exposure to danger. Getting cozy and comfortable by a warm fire doesn’t prevent you from becoming a predator’s next meal. Ignoring signals of impending danger is even more precarious than imagining threats that do not exist.

So why are people attracted to comfort? Is it a product of social norms? Is it because land barons and kings draped themselves in luxuries to the envy of the peasants they controlled? Or is it tied to your survival instincts?

Comfort can be experienced in entirely superficial ways. Comfortable clothing means it doesn’t restrict your movement, fit too tightly or chafe your skin. But having comfortable, well-fitting clothing doesn’t make you comfortable in your skin. That kind of comfort amounts to a perception of being safe. It is emotional rather than physical.

Discomfort is generally either a fully rational early warning of actual danger (smelling smoke or seeing a storm on the horizon) – or else a product of an active imagination. People are more than capable of conjuring all sorts of irrational reasons to worry and be fearful. It may be a precursor to the more heightened instinctive response you have to life-and-death situations.

Your survival instincts direct you to ensure your safety by making it possible to do what is necessary to survive in critical situations.

Adrenaline short-circuits rational thinking and takes over your bodily functions in response to perceived threats – even ones simply imagined. The rational mind is what tends to inform strategies to avoid threats.

Children either learn to avoid contact with hot stoves by understanding and taking heed of warnings or by burning themselves once. You don’t need to burn yourself to learn how to avoid being burned. Either way you develop a respect for the danger sufficient for the brain to perceive this to be a threat – and trigger your autonomic nervous system to keep you from avoidable accidents. Unfortunately your instincts will not prevent you from being careless and having avoidable accidents. Some degree of cautiousness is instinctive, most is learned – and in all cases is a matter of practice and ultimately a product of choice.

As a practical matter, at some point you override the healthy fear of brining yourself and learn how to use a stove safely. This awareness and capacity is associated with the naturally developing maturity we expect to see in children. You reprogram you thinking around safe practices. The stove is no less of a threat, but the usefulness overweighs the danger and you learn to manage the risk by being careful.

You may still occasionally burn yourself – but it tends to serve as a reminder – not a shocking surprise. 

Resilience Requires Leaning Into Fear

Success in most areas of life isn’t a matter of avoiding risk – but embracing and managing it. What we commonly refer to as success always amounts to managing some level of perceivable risk.

There is little value in only doing what is safe and predictable.

Being fearless isn’t a matter of not knowing fear – but learning to work with it. You become fearless by understanding the source of your fear and find that there is power in harnessing threats. The experience is sometimes described as learning to lean into your fear. You use the fear to heighten your awareness to sharpen your preparation and attenuate your resistance to danger.

Being resilient requires that you lean into the fear that would prevent you from being ready for whatever is next. Being prepared to accomplish what matters most means that you remain rational in the face of the dangers you can manage – and agile in avoiding those you cannot.

People often learn to become resilient om the face off difficult challenges. It is possible to discover things about yourself that you never knew you had in you. People who are purposeful, mindful and naturally conscientious may take their own resilience for granted. They couldn’t imagine living their lives any other way.

But creating resilience in an organization takes leadership. Leaders drive resilience by both demonstrating it – and more importantly – demanding it of their organizations. Resilience is not something left to change. Leadership is needed to drive resilience.

A lack of leadership and even poor leadership makes it nearly impossible for organizations, institutions, communities and even societies to stand ready for whatever comes their way. 

Fortunately we have seen that in times of crisis – poor leadership becomes exposed and exceptional leaders can emerge.

This is because the human race is naturally resilient. Natural selection goes to work to cull the defects and weaknesses that threaten the survival of humanity. We may not be invincible, and are exceedingly vulnerable – but we have something within us that enables us to adapt, evolve and survive.

The question comes down to which side of the sorting do you want to find yourself on? Will you be culled and discarded – or become a force for creating a better future? The good news is that you get to decide.