Personal Resilience in Difficult times

Tony Okotie

In the next hour….

• What is personal resilience?

• Why is it important now?

• How do we build it?

What is personal resilience?

What is personal resilience?

• The ability to…

• perform effectively under pressure

• Bounce back from difficult circumstances

• Manage our overall health & wellbeing

• Understand how to achieve optimum performance

On a scale of 1 to 10, how resilient do you feel?

10 = Extremely resilient

1 = About to break!

Why is it important now?

Why is it important now?

• The world is increasingly VUCA:– Volatile– Uncertain– Complex– Ambiguous

• Pace of change increasing• Current economic climate• Greater expectations – more for less• Technology • Stress & burn out on the increase• Effectiveness of ‘training’

• Resilient organisations are made up of resilient individuals

So how do we build resilience?

What do you observe about yourself when you are resilient?

9

What happens the rest of the time?

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Internalizing success / externalizing failure

• Resilient people are better at internalizing their successes. This is to say that they attribute positive outcomes to their own input.– “This project went well because of all the hard work

that I did.”

• Resilient people also tend to be better at externalizing failure – they attribute negative outcomes to external sources.– “This project failed because the economy collapsed

just as we were getting some traction.”

Strong relationships

• Resilient people are much more likely to have a close circle of strong relationships – bonds that are based in high trust and frequent communication.

• In the work environment, this translates into strong relationships among team members, and can be a challenge in situations where teams are quickly formed and disbanded as projects are completed.

PERSONAL RESILIENCE

Personal mission

Alignment to the workplace

Social involvement

Physical wellbeing

Problem solving skills

Emotional management

Concentration and focus

Build mental toughness

• The ability to train your mind to perform regardless of the circumstances in which you find yourself.

• The power of habits can provide a tremendously useful platform for mental toughness

– use habit to train your mind to act in a certain way despite disruptions and unexpected challenge.

Build mental toughness

1. Build identity

2. Focus on small behaviours, not life changing events

3. Develop a routine that will overcome low motivation

4. Stick to the schedule, forget the results

5. After a slip, get back on the horse

10 steps

1. (Re)find your sense of purpose 2. Develop your problem-solving strategies 3. Be self-aware 4. Keep on learning 5. Embrace change 6. Understand what you can control 7. Enjoy yourself 8. Get enough sleep – look after your body 9. Manage your emotions10. Build support networks

Work out what works for you

• Plus….• Performance Coach (sometimes!)• Professional peer network• Memories - positive feedback