Resilience in change

RESILIENCE is our ability to quickly and effectively recover from challenging situations.

When Change Leaders are resilient, they are able to adapt and overcome their natural stress responses. Instead of being overwhelmed and feeling victimised, they choose to stay motivated and keep a positive mindset. That gives them a sense of control. They commit and desire the future state. These Leaders rise to the challenge, driven to find the opportunities for business and personal growth during times of uncertainty. Commitment, Control and Challenge are the three C’s of you being resilient.

Without resilience, people lack the motivation to overcome obstacles. For example, we might sign up for a marathon, but when the training turns out harder than expected, we won’t show up on the big day.

When non-resilient people encounter obstacles during change, they find it hard to identify internal and external motivators, the so called ‘What’s in it for me?’ (WIIFM).

As the Covid-19 pandemic showed, uncertainty can overwhelm us and make us fight, flee or freeze.  Some people shut their eyes to the threat, others started hording toilet paper and others created a contingency plan and took action. People will hesitate, procrastinate, openly resist or opt-out from the required behavioural changes to conquer and adapt to their new situations. This damages our Change Leadership Shadow. Resilience will allow us to bounce back quickly and motivate others to do the same.Around the world people like the Roly Poly Doll. In German this toy is called a Stehaufmännchen [ʃteːˈʔaʊ̯fˌmɛnçən]. It literally translates to Get-up-mate. Germans also refer to resilient people as Stehaufmännchen because of their ability to overcome adversity and be successful.