Management Thought of the Month

Brought to you by The Corporate Performance Institute

March 2003 Edition

Resilience:

As I continue to study the traits and abilities of high performing people and organizations, one thing has become very clear.

Resilience is a critical, must have skill.

So what is resilience?

It is the ability to pick yourself up off of the ground when you've been knocked down. Whether it was a knock out punch from a competitor, they tripped or pushed you behind your back, catching you unawares or maybe even you slipped on a piece of ice of your own making. It all adds up to the same problem.

Do you lay on the ground, feeling sorry for yourself, playing the victim if you will. Or do you catch your breath, dust yourself off and then try again (but perhaps with a different, better strategy)?

If the end of the path is to be a success, whether a business or personal one, then along the path will be the inevitable failures that test you and more importantly teach you.

The most successful people I know have also had the most failures. So maybe it is not that they hit the ball better or more often. Maybe the key is they keep on going up to bat.

Firstly, they increase their chances of success just by their volume of swings.

But, more importantly, they also observe, learn, adjust and mature so as they keep picking themselves up from the failures, they also say to themselves - how can I swing at the ball better this time? What do I change to increase my chances of having a hit?

To have success, you will have many failures. So the first challenge is to accept that it is part of the process and unavoidable. Secondly, learn and grow from each failure (perhaps even call these failures lessons?) and eventually you will join the ranks of winners.

Ross McBride
Managing Director
The Corporate Performance Institute

Mr. McBride does corporate education seminars, CEO/Executive coaching and keynote speaking engagements for successful organizations in North America, Asia and Europe.  He is an expert on subjects as diverse as Negotiation Skills, Leadership, Teambuilding and Sales.

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