Lean Quote: Effective Leadership Includes Being Resilient

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving, we get stronger and more resilient."   —  Steve Maraboli

Life is difficult, which means work is challenging. You can accept this or get aggravated, but you cannot change it. Every manager experiences stress and adversity, but must be able to bounce back in order to meet new challenges.

Resilience is the human capacity to meet adversity, setbacks and trauma, and then recover from them in order to live life fully. Resilient leaders have the ability to sustain their energy level under pressure, to cope with disruptive changes and adapt. They bounce back from setbacks.

Glenn Sanford, CEO SUCCESS Enterprises shares eight guiding principles for leading through challenging times. (excerpts from SUCCESS – September/October 2022).

1. Play to Win – Set a clear vision and mission with defined goals for your team to rally around together. (We’re pretty sure you’ve heard this before!)

2. Be Continually Learning – The best practices that worked a couple of years ago are probably irrelevant today . . . find new and innovative ways to succeed.

3. Break What Isn’t Broken – A comfortable business is one that will get left behind. Encourage your team to challenge, question, and scrutinize everything.

4. Don’t Under-Estimate Your Competition – Keeping your competitive advantage means iterating your product or service before the market requires it.

5. Know When You Have An Advantage and Double Down – Identify what makes your company unique and capitalize on it.

6. Balance Operating Expenses With Growth – Keep your costs low and your focus sharp.

7. Be Agile To Adapt – Leaders should create room for key team members to move in and innovate (and stay out of the way!).

8. Embrace Chaos To Drive Change – Get comfortable with chaos; it’s a byproduct of fast growing organizations.

Team resilience is crucial for high performance, but it's largely dependent on leadership resilience. Leadership resilience isn’t about toughing up. It’s the ability to recover from setbacks. To adapt to change. To keep forging ahead even in the face of adversity. It’s about getting comfortable with being uncomfortable, while still being able to lead others with empathy, courage and conviction.