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AN IDEAS INTO ACTION GUIDEBOOK

BuildingResiliencyHow to Thrive inTimes of Change

IDEAS INTO ACTION GUIDEBOOKS

Aimed at managers and executives who are concerned with their own and

others’ development, each guidebook in this series gives specific advice on

how to complete a developmental task or solve a leadership problem.

LEAD CONTRIBUTORS

CONTRIBUTOR

GUIDEBOOK ADVISORY GROUP

DIRECTOR OF PUBLICATIONS

EDITOR

WRITER

DESIGN AND LAYOUT

CONTRIBUTING ARTIST

Copyright ©2001 Center for Creative Leadership.

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in aretrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of thepublisher. Printed in the United States of America.

CCL No. 413ISBN No. 1-882197-67-4

CENTER FOR CREATIVE LEADERSHIPPOST OFFICE BOX 26300

GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA 27438-6300336-288-7210

Mary Lynn PulleyMichael WakefieldEllen Van Velsor

Victoria A. GuthrieCynthia D. McCauleyRuss S. Moxley

Martin WilcoxPeter SciscoRebecca GarauJoanne FergusonLaura J. Gibson

AN IDEAS INTO ACTION GUIDEBOOK

BuildingResiliencyHow to Thrive inTimes of ChangeMary Lynn Pulley and Michael Wakefield

The Ideas Into Action Guidebook Series

This series of guidebooks draws on the practical knowledge that theCenter for Creative Leadership (CCL) has generated in the course ofmore than thirty years of research and educational activity conducted inpartnership with hundreds of thousands of managers and executives.Much of this knowledge is shared – in a way that is distinct from thetypical university department, professional association, or consultancy.CCL is not simply a collection of individual experts, although the indi-vidual credentials of its staff are impressive; rather it is a community,with its members holding certain principles in common and workingtogether to understand and generate practical responses to today’sleadership and organizational challenges.

The purpose of the series is to provide managers with specific advice onhow to complete a developmental task or solve a leadership challenge. Indoing that the series carries out CCL’s mission to advance the under-standing, practice, and development of leadership for the benefit ofsociety worldwide. We think you will find the Ideas Into Action Guide-books an important addition to your leadership toolkit.

Other guidebooks currently available:• Ongoing Feedback: How to Get It, How to Use It

• Becoming a More Versatile Learner

• Reaching Your Development Goals

• Giving Feedback to Subordinates

• Three Keys to Development: Defining and Meeting Your Leadership Challenges

• Feedback That Works: How to Build and Deliver Your Message

• Communicating Across Cultures

• Learning from Life: Turning Life’s Lessons into Leadership Experience

• Keeping Your Career on Track: Twenty Success Strategies

• Preparing for Development: Making the Most of Formal Leadership Programs

• Choosing an Executive Coach

• Setting Your Development Goals: Start with Your Values

• Do You Really Need a Team?

Table of Contents

7 What Is Resiliency?

9 Why Is Resiliency Important?

9 Becoming Resilient

22 Resiliency Worksheet

24 Suggested Readings

24 Background

25 Key Point Summary

Ideas Into Action Guidebooks

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Executive Brief

It may be human nature to resist change – particularly whenit’s delivered as a hardship, disappointment, or rejection. Butby developing resiliency managers can not only survivechange, but learn, grow, and thrive in it. In fact, for leaders,developing resiliency is critical. Resiliency helps managersdeal with the pressures and uncertainties of being in charge inorganizations today.

This guidebook defines resiliency, explains why it’simportant, and describes how you can develop your ownstore of resiliency. It focuses on nine developmental compo-nents that, taken together, create a sense of resiliency andincrease your ability to handle the unknown and to viewchange – whether from disappointment or success – as anopportunity for development.

Building Resiliency: How to Thrive in Times of Change

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What Is Resiliency?Resiliency provides the ability to recover quickly from change,hardship, or misfortune. It’s associated with elasticity, buoyancy,and adaptation. Resilient people demonstrate flexibility, durability,an attitude of optimism, and openness to learning. A lack of resil-ience is signaled by burnout, fatigue, malaise, depression, defen-siveness, and cynicism.

Resiliency is the product of a broad perspective. You canbolster it with a supportive network of professional and personalrelationships, and use it to become comfortable with change. Resil-iency taps into your ability to adapt even as it relies on your ownknowledge about yourself – your values, confidence, and opti-mism. And it’s a key element to success on all levels and in allaspects of your life, from professional career development andleadership opportunities to the pursuit of personal goals andwell-being.

People often have the view that resiliency means being un-flappable, strong, or unaffected. Most of us have heard the saying,“When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” But resiliencyisn’t simply a matter of “toughing it out.” Bearing up under pres-sure is certainly part of being resilient, but just one part. Marathonrunners, for example, have to be tough to endure a grueling 26-milerun, and yet it’s often their ability to handle the intangibles(weather, unknown competition, attitude about ability, a slight butnagging injury at the 20-mile marker) that puts them across thefinish line and in the winner’s circle.

Developing resiliency requires that you pay attention to thecomplexities of your experiences, listen to your emotions, and bewilling to learn from disappointment as well as success.


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A Tale of ResilienceStraight out of college, Matt began working for a national grocerychain. For 16 years, he did very well. Shortly after accepting asignificant promotion, things began to change. Struggles with hisnew supervisor overshadowed his work for the next two years,whittling away at his confidence and job satisfaction. Eventually, hisjob was eliminated and he was laid off.

Matt did not rush immediately into a rigorous job search. “I dida lot of self-evaluation in terms of where I was and how marketable Iwas … I tried to step back and not rush into anything,” he says. Hespent more time with his family and began getting involved in thecommunity and with his church.

After a three-month break, Matt felt rejuvenated and began adiligent, focused process of networking and job searching. Through aseries of contacts, he was offered a job in a related field. Over time,Matt began to see how much he learned from the loss of his job. Onthe work front, he realized he needed to do a better job of “managingup” – communicating with his boss and his boss’s boss. Personally,he learned that maintaining a more balanced life is an effective long-term way to cope with life’s ups and downs. After two years on thenew job, he had grown his region’s business by 20 percent, while atthe same time continuing his focus on family and community.

Matt believes losing his job was a blessing in disguise: “It wasnot a catastrophic event. There was a paradigm shift, but it wasn’t acatastrophe.”


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Why Is Resiliency Important?In 1984 CCL conducted a study on the “key events” that contrib-uted to leaders’ development. Twenty percent of respondents saidthey learned significant lessons from hardships, such as a job loss,career setbacks, mistakes and failures, or personal trauma. Theresearch was repeated in the late 1990s. At that time 34 percent ofrespondents cited hardships as key learning experiences. That 14percent increase reflects an increasing complexity and turbulence –and it underscores the importance of developing resiliency.

Resiliency is important because change is so pervasive. Thinkfor a moment about the kinds of changes today’s organizationtypically encounters and how they might affect your leadershipskills, your managerial performance, even your career. Organiza-tions can change mission, strategy, or global focus. Outside andinside business environments, as well as markets, can shift.

How does a manager flourish, even survive, in a current ofconstant and complex change? By building skills in resiliency, bybroadening perspectives and competencies so that organizational,personal, and career changes can be absorbed and contribute toyour leadership development.

Becoming ResilientBeginning early in life you have developed behaviors and perspec-tives that have enhanced or hindered your ability to be resilient andadaptable as an adult. Yet resiliency can be developed. It’s possibleto change your views, habits, and responses by modifying yourthoughts and actions in nine areas: acceptance of change, continu-ous learning, self empowerment, sense of purpose, personal iden-tity, personal and professional networks, reflection, skill shifting,and your relationship to money.


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These nine areas aren’t separate facets of resilience but inter-twined and interrelated themes. Each builds on the others, influ-ences the others, and in concert with the others can bolster yourresiliency and your skill in handling change. By improving in all ofthese areas you broaden your outlook and become less narrowlyfocused – more able to adapt to change.

Acceptance of ChangeChange is constant and inevitable, and to

some managers it brings an overwhelming dis-comfort. The roots of that discomfort can some-times be traced to such feelings as fear (How can Icontinue to succeed when the rules have changed?) ora need to exert control (If I don’t do it my way, theway I have always done it, then it won’t be doneright). Other managers try to deny change byfocusing on the skills that have brought thempast success and ignoring gaps in their leadershipcompetencies. But sooner or later a change for which they are notprepared results in a mistake with serious consequences – a missedpromotion, negative appraisal, demotion, or termination.

Successful managers accept change and adapt to it. If you findyourself uncomfortable with the idea of change, you can increaseyour resiliency in this area by creating an accurate portrait ofyourself and an accurate picture of your environment. Here arethree actions you can take to build up your resiliency by becomingmore accepting of and adaptable to change.

1. Pay attention to the people and the work around you.Don’t bury yourself in a narrow channel of work or yourisk being blindsided. Seek out new challenges that stretchyour skills or that minimize your weaknesses.

2. Pay attention to your physical and mental well-being. Ifyou feel discomfort, which is natural when changes occur,

“He couldn’tchange. He hada rigid andoutdatedmanagementstyle. He wasinflexible andpeople got tiredof it.”


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take that as a signal tofurther explore yourfeelings and thoughtsabout the change. Use theResiliency Worksheet onpages 22 and 23 as a guideto exploring your reactionto change.

3. Examine change on itsown terms. Decide whichchanges you can controland which changes youcan’t control. For example,if your organization givesyour team a new perfor-mance mandate, youmanage that changethrough your team leader-ship. But if your organiza-tion undergoes a down-sizing or reacts dramati-cally to a market shift, thatkind of change is beyondwhat you can control. Inthat case it’s better tomove your energies awayfrom the anxiety spawnedby the change and toward developing new skills andbolstering current strengths.

Accepting ChangeIs Crucial

According to researchfrom the Center forCreative Leadership(CCL), the number onereason managers derail– fall off the “track ofsuccess” – is their inabil-ity to change or adaptduring a transition.North American manag-ers said 55 percent of themost successful manag-ers they knew displayedthe ability to adapt(European managers putthe number even higherat 67 percent). Thatability to adapt, thatresiliency, was the mostfrequently mentionedsuccess factor in CCL’smost recent study ofexecutive derailment.


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Continuous LearningThe nature of resiliency asks that you

acquire new skills and understanding and beable to apply them during times of change.Many managers resist learning new ways,holding on to old behaviors and skills evenwhen changes make it obvious that they don’twork anymore. If you find yourself in thatdescription, think about your resistance. It maybe that you think your old ways are importantto who you are and that changing might somehow affect youridentity. Your old skills and behaviors might be deeply connectedto your self-worth, your self-esteem; they might make you feelvaluable when unfamiliar skills don’t. You may cling to your oldhabits because you don’t want to feel less competent during thatclumsy learning stage when you take on new skills.

To get started on a path to continuous learning, and to over-come any resistance you might feel, try these techniques:

• At the end of each day write down one thing you learned orone thing you knew already but had confirmed.

• Review a professional disappointment that occurred early inyour career or at least six months ago (far enough in the pastfor you to have gained some perspective on the experience).What do you know now that you didn’t know then? Whatdid you learn from that experience? What knowledge wasconfirmed by that experience? What knowledge was provedwrong?

• Look back on a professional success that occurred early inyour career or at least six months ago. What do you knownow that you didn’t know then? What did you learn fromthat experience? What knowledge was confirmed by thatexperience? What knowledge was proved wrong?

“Take as muchtime as you canlearning so thatyou don’t useyour ownexperienceswhen they reallydon’t apply.”


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The Learning Curve Is Upside DownThe “learning curve” is usually depicted as a gradual incline,illustrating that as you learn, your performance improves. In

reality, learning almost always causes adrop in performance before improve-ments come about. This completelynatural process can cause discomfortfor managers hoping to develop new

stores of resiliency by adding to theirinterpersonal and technical skills. Thelearning curve is not a gradual rise inperformance but is a drop in perfor-mance followed by improvement.

Self EmpowermentYour power to build resil-

iency lies within you. Accessing itis a matter of choice. In an era ofdownsizing, restructuring, marketshifts, and technological change it’simportant that you take charge ofyour own career and your ownself-development. The impliedemployment contract (work hardfor an organization and be re-warded lifetime employment andperhaps a steady rise in responsi-bility) has given way to freeagency. Don’t expect someone elseto guide your career. Approachyour work with an entrepreneurial

“The organization needed anarea supervisor in one of itsdepartments. My boss sentme to take on the responsibil-ity even though I’d neverhad that kind of positionbefore. He said that he knewI wasn’t trained and that Ihad never done this, but hewas sure that I could do itand to just do what I had todo to get the job done. Ifound out soon enough Icould handle a group posi-tion. It improved my confi-dence in myself.”


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spirit. Create resiliency by giving yourself the freedom to makeyour own choices and to act on them.

Here are a few ideas that can help steer you toward a moreresilient attitude toward your place in the world of work.

• Identify the strengths you have that you can rely on or turnto. Try this exercise: List your strengths, and then ask your-self: Where else can I fit in this organization? What other posi-tions are there – either real or imagined – in which you canply your strengths in a different environment?

• Develop new strengths by taking on “stretch” assignments.Look outside of work for developmental opportunities andfind safe ways to practice new skills. For example, you couldpractice becoming a better team leader by volunteering tolead a committee at your child’s school, by serving on acommunity arts council, or through some other volunteerassignment.

• Create your own “board of directors.” Ideally this is a groupof your peers – highly trusted – from outside your organiza-tion but who have roughly the same level of responsibilityas you. Meet on a regular basis to discuss common chal-lenges and solutions.

Sense of PurposeDevelop a “personal why” that

gives your work meaning or helps youput it into a larger context. A clear senseof purpose helps you to see setbacksfrom a broader perspective.

Have you ever been “in the flow”?When you are engrossed in somethingyou care deeply about, time slips byand at the end of the process you feelenergized, not drained. Think back on

“I believe that I gotthrough these challengesfor a purpose, and thepurpose is that sometimedown the road I’m goingto have to help somebody,and if I hadn’t experi-enced them [challenges],how could I do that withany credibility?”


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your encounters with that kind of experience. Those encounters arelikely tied closely to the goals most important to you. Here are afew questions that can help you explore your sense of purpose:

Reveal Your Sense of PurposeSit down with these questions designed to unearth and bolsteryour sense of purpose. After reading each question, take sometime to write out a response. As a follow-up to this activity, sitdown with a trusted friend who can ask you these same ques-tions. Answer as fully as you can. When you are finished, yourfriend begins again with the first question. Repeat the series ofquestions several times. If your friend is also interested inrediscovering a sense of purpose, you can take turns asking andanswering the questions.

1. What is the ideal to which you are striving? What is yourpreferred future?

2. What is your current state? Where are you now in relationto where you want to be?

3. What does remaining in your current state get you? Whatdoes your current state do for you?

4. What have you used your current state for? What have youused it to justify?

5. What have you used your current state to avoid? 6. What would you face if you were not at your current state? 7. What have you used your current state to be, to have, or

to do? 8. What have you used your current state to not be, to not

have, or to not do? 9. What is blocking you from moving away from your current

state?10. What are you going to do about changing your current

state?


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• What is your most important value? What do you do atwork or away from the job that reflects that value?

• What was one of your childhood dreams? Identify thecrossroads in your life that led you away from that dream.Why did you take those different paths?

• If there were no obstacles (financial, personal, or other),what would you like to do with your life?

• Review your answer to the previous question. What’s thefirst step you could take toward meeting that goal?

Personal IdentityYour job is just one facet of your identity,

and your career is just one aspect of your life. Toachieve some degree of resilience you have toseparate who you are from what you do. It’s along-term developmental process, but worth theeffort. That separation will keep you resilientduring times of career disappointments orpersonal hardship by giving you the freedom tofocus on your strengths and opportunity ratherthan your anxiety and loss. The attributes of your personal identitycreate an authenticity that stands with you throughout times ofchange and creates alignment between your feelings, beliefs, val-ues, and actions. Authenticity creates a platform for resiliency.Here are a few ideas to try and some questions to think about if youwant to strengthen your sense of personal identity:

• Develop a personal logo. You can design it yourself ormodify an existing design. Think about what a personallogo might mean, how it can stand for what you are just as acompany logo represents the values and mission of anorganization.

• Develop a personal metaphor for your goals. Think aboutwhere you are right now and write down three facts about

“I came to therealization ofwho I was, andthat there’s adifferencebetween whoI am and whatI do.”


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yourself. Now write down three feelings evoked by thosefacts. Finally, complete this sentence with those feelings inmind: “This feels like . . . .“ To create a future-directed meta-phor, think about where you would like to be or what youwould like to accomplish during the next year (or chooseyour own time frame) and repeat this three-point exercise.Examine your “future metaphor” and try to observe andcatch yourself behaving that way in your daily activities.

• List all the different roles you play in your professional life.List all the roles you would like to play in your professionallife. What changes would you have to make to close that gapand to get closer to the roles you want to play?

• List some early “childhood commandments” (You needsomething practical to fall back on. If you want something doneright you have to do it yourself.) What part did they play increating the sense of identity you have now? How do theyblock you from the personal identity you imagine foryourself?

Personal and Professional NetworksResilient managers cultivate a

broad network of personal and pro-fessional relationships. They are lessreliant on a single organization anduse personal relationships to create astrong base of support – a criticalelement in achieving goals, dealingwith hardships, and developingperspective.

But personal and professionalnetworks aren’t just safety nets youuse to break your fall in times oftrouble. They are a series of mutually

“If you have developed agood-sized network, youcan duplicate that networkanywhere you go. That istruly a transferable skill.And the network where youare will still be there. It’snot like, I sold my houseand it’s not mine anymore.I can pick up the phonewith people I haven’t talkedwith in four or five years. Anetwork endures.”


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giving and receiving connections through which you collaborate,share perspectives, broaden your worldview, strengthen yourvision, teach and learn new skills, and stay attuned to your envi-ronment. The key to building networks that add to your resiliencyis to make the connections personal. Try this simple four-stepexercise to build, or to reevaluate, your personal and professionalnetworks:

1. Make a list of the people you can depend on in times ofneed.

2. Add to that list the people with whom you would firstshare stories of success.

3. How much do you know about each of the people onthis list?

4. Choose a name from the list – what can you do for thatperson today?

Another tactic you can use to identify people for your per-sonal network is to choose someone you admire at work. Identifythat person’s strengths and watch how he or she handles differentsituations – especially those related to changes in the organizationor the environment. What kinds of positive behaviors do theyexhibit? How could you emulate that behavior in your currentposition?

ReflectionThe demands of meeting business

objectives can make it difficult to findtime for reflection, even during goodtimes. That difficulty intensifies duringtimes of stress, such as when an organi-zation downsizes, when a career isthreatened with derailment, or when apersonal crisis demands intense emo-tional attention. Even so, it’s important

“My job is to increasesales by 5 percent eachand every year. Reflec-tion is nice and all that,but the bottom line is if itdoesn’t increase sales, it’snot my job. If I was apoet, maybe I’d reflectmore – but I’m not.”


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to make time for reflection whether you’re riding a success orenduring a hardship.

By taking time to reflect you can develop a degree of self-awareness that can enhance your resiliency in handling your pro-fessional and personal world. Think of reflection as an effectiveself-feedback tool. You may find yourself resisting change or beingunable to accept change because by censoring yourself you aren’t

How to Keep a Reflection JournalKeeping a journal is an effective tool for building resiliency bycreating deeper self-awareness. CCL recommends the use of apersonal learning journal as a way to gain the insight necessaryto become more adaptable. The form and content of your jour-nal is a matter of individual choice. However, there are typicallythree parts to a journal entry:

1. Event or experience. Describe what occurred as objectivelyas possible. Don’t use judgmental language. Stick to thefacts. What happened? Who was involved? When did ithappen? Where did it happen?

2. Reaction. Describe your reaction to the event as factuallyand objectively as possible. What did you want to do inresponse to the event? What did you actually do? Whatwere your thoughts? What were your feelings?

3. Lessons. Think about the experience and your reaction toit. What did you learn from the event and from yourreaction to it? Did the event suggest a developmentalchallenge you should address? Do you see a pattern inyour reactions? Did you react differently than in the pastduring similar experiences and does that suggest you aremaking progress or backsliding on a valuable leadershipcompetency?


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open to this valuable feedback channel. If you find reflection diffi-cult to work into your day, here are some suggestions:

• establish structures or routines that build in reflection• rearrange priorities to make time for reflection• use performance appraisal information as occasion for

reflection• keep a journal.

Skill ShiftingDon’t be afraid to question and

even change your definition of yourselfor your career. Reframe how you seeyour skills in relation to your organiza-tion, to your values, and to your goals.By casting your talents in a new light youcan see how your skills might shift intonew patterns of work and behavior.

To help you gain new perspectiveon familiar skills, try these suggestions:

• Identify the skills that you haveand that you use in the work-place, at home, and in yourcommunity. Where else mightthese skills play out? Experimentwith volunteer activities to try out different behaviors and tostretch your technical skills into unfamiliar territory withoutthe pressure of job performance.

• Describe five different jobs/careers that you could do todaygiven your current skills.

“Our current leaderleads by examplewithout publicity. Thisperson has overcomegreat handicaps toreach the highest ranksin society coming fromthe lowest social strata.Now he gives back toour local communities.His positive example ofconsistent servicemeans a great deal toour organization.”


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Relationship to MoneyBuilding resiliency isn’t always

about enhancing your interpersonal andtechnical skills or recasting your talentsin new ways. Resiliency also comes fromreviewing how you relate to the outsideworld. Perhaps this is nowhere moreevident than when it comes to yourattitude toward money. Living beyondor even to the very limit of your means limits your flexibility in theface of change.

Here is a short exercise that can help you reorient your rela-tionship to money.

1. Look at your personal budget. List the things you needand the things you want.

2. Examine your budget to determine the minimum amountof income you need to cover necessities. Think of anddescribe alternative ways to earn that income.

3. If there’s a gap between what you want and the moneythat’s available, prioritize your want list.

4. What are some alternative ways to earn money to get thethings you want? What are some of the things on yourwant list that can wait?

5. If money were not an obstacle, which of the things on yourwant list would you still want? Rank your choices.

6. If time were not an obstacle, which of the things on yourwant list would you still want? Rank your choices.

“I know I can alwaysget income fromsomewhere – maybefive or six places, butincome will come in.That’s not the mostimportant thing.”


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Resiliency WorksheetLook over the items in this checklist and darken the circle that mostclosely matches your assessment of yourself in each of the nine resil-iency areas. What does your list tell you about your degree of resil-iency? What resiliency strengths can you rely on during times ofchange? What areas should you develop to become more resilient?

Resiliency Strength(indicates a skill you can rely on in times of change)

Resiliency Development Need(indicates a skill you should develop to increase

your resiliency)

Acceptance of ChangeI am comfortable with change. I see it as anopportunity to grow as a leader.

Change makes me uneasy. I don’t likefacing new challenges without havingsome kind of control over the situation.

Continuous LearningChange provides a chance for me to learnnew skills and test new ideas. I like tobuild on the lessons of the past – mysuccesses and my disappointments.

I want to stick with what I know best andwith the skills that got me to this point inmy career. Other people expect that – it’spart of who I am.

Self EmpowermentI regularly assess my strengths. I keep myeye out for work assignments that will letme build new managerial skills anddevelop as a leader.

I have enough on my hands guiding thework of my direct reports. If this organiza-tion wants me to develop, it has to give mesome kind of plan.

Sense of PurposeI like to think that my work reflects mypersonal values. I try to make decisionsbased on what’s important to me andbalance that with the organization’smission.

If the organization demands a certain wayof working, who am I to say if it’s right?My work isn’t designed to follow a valuesystem. It’s my life the way it is – I can’tjust change it around to make it intosomething else.

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Personal IdentityI really like my job, but it doesn’t definewho I am. I have other pursuits outside ofwork that are just as important to me asmy job.

I live for my work. Why not? What’s thefirst uestion a persn usually asks you? It’s“What do you do?“ not “How would youdescribe yourself?“

Personal and Professional NetworksI really appreciate my family, my friends,and my colleagues. There have been manytimes that those relationships have helpedme out of a jam. I like to stay connected tothose people who are close to me and takea personal interest in their lives.

Networking is really helpful in case there’sa downturn and my company downsizesme. I wish I could stay more current withwhat my friends and colleagues are doingoutside of work, but there never seems tobe enough time.

ReflectionI make some room in each day to reflect onmy decisions and actions. I like to lookback to see if there was another choice Icould have made.

There are always so many things to do. It’slike running ahead of an avalanche. I don’thave time to sit back and daydream aboutwhere I am going and how I am gettingthere.

Skill ShiftingMy skills could prove useful to thisorganization in another role. I can translatemy experiences outside of work intodevelopmental oportunities.

Every position calls for a distinct set ofskills. It takes a long time to develop thoseskills. It’s inefficient to take somebody outof a familiar role and ask them to performsome other function.

Relationship to MoneyI like things. Doesn’t everybody? But Idon’t want to get caught in the trap ofworking long hours and taking on extraassignments in order to pay for things thatdon’t really reflect my interests andvalues. I make my money work for me. Ithink about my purchases before I makethem.

I have responsibilities. They cost money.There’s no way around that. Besides,there’s a certain expectation that when youreach my position you can afford a certainkind of lifestyle. You just have to workhard if you want the good things in life.

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Suggested ReadingsBridges, W. (1980). Transitions: Making sense of life’s changes. New York:

Addison-Wesley.Bunker, K. The power of vulnerability in contemporary leadership.

Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 49(2), 122–136.Lombardo, M. M., & Eichinger, R. W. (1989). Eighty-eight assignments

for development in place. Greensboro, NC: Center for CreativeLeadership.

McCauley, C. D., Moxley, R. S., & Van Velsor, E. (Eds.). (1998). TheCenter for Creative Leadership handbook of leadership development. SanFrancisco: Jossey-Bass.

McCall, M. W., Jr., Lombardo, M. M., & Morrison, A. M. (1988). Thelessons of experience. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.

Noer, D. (1993). Healing the wounds: Overcoming the trauma of layoffs andrevitalizing downsized organizations. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

O’Neil, J. (1993). The paradox of success: When winning at work meanslosing at life. New York: Putnam.

Pulley, M. L. (1997). Losing your job—reclaiming your soul: Stories ofresilience, renewal, and hope. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

BackgroundThis guidebook integrates and articulates key principles taught inCCL’s leadership development programs. CCL’s approach toleadership development has always emphasized self-awarenessand learning, critical components to building resiliency.

That emphasis is based at least partly on long-standing re-search CCL has conducted in the key events of executives’ lives and


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the lessons they have learned from those experiences. CCL’s exami-nation of this area focused on three broad themes: job assignments,hardships, and formal training. In each of those areas executivesmade developmental strides by being resilient to the challengesprovided by their experiences.

Another link to resiliency can be found in CCL’s research intoexecutive derailment that shows that resistance to change (whichcould contribute to a lack of resiliency) is a derailment factor andthat openness to change (which could contribute to a greater degreeof resiliency) leads to career and managerial success. In fact, themost frequently mentioned success factor in CCL’s derailmentresearch is the ability to develop or adapt. That ability is a keycomponent to accepting change, which lies at the heart of thesuccessful and resilient manager and leader.

Along with that research and coupled with CCL’s educationalinitiatives, this guidebook draws on Mary Lynn Pulley’s examina-tion of resiliency among executives and others who survived andeven thrived during professional disappointments and personalhardships. Her insight into how those survivors turned setbacksinto opportunity is detailed in her 1997 book, Losing Your Job—Reclaiming Your Soul: Stories of Resilience, Renewal, and Hope.

Key Point SummaryResiliency allows you to recover quickly from change, hardship, ormisfortune. Resilient people demonstrate flexibility, durability, anattitude of optimism, and openness to learning. A lack of resilienceis signaled by burnout, fatigue, malaise, depression, defensiveness,and cynicism. Resiliency not only gives you the tools to handlehardship and disappointment, but it allows you to develop new


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skills and perspectives that lead to continued success at work andaway from the job.

People often view resilient people as characteristically unflap-pable, strong, or unaffected. But being resilient isn’t the same asbeing tough, even though dogged determination – especially thedetermination to learn from mistakes and successes – plays a keyrole. A resilient person gets that way by broadening his or herperspective, by being open to change, and by being willing to learn.

Resiliency is important because change is so pervasive.Today’s organization typically encounters all kinds of change thatcan affect your leadership skills, your managerial performance,even your career. It can change its mission, its global focus, or itsstrategy. Changes can occur to the environment in which an organi-zation works or to the marketplace it serves. You can survive andeven flourish during such times of constant and complex change bybuilding skills in resiliency.

Resiliency can be developed. It’s possible to change yourviews, habits, and responses by modifying your thoughts andactions in nine areas: acceptance of change, continuous learning,self empowerment, sense of purpose, personal identity, personaland professional networks, reflection, skill shifting, and yourrelationship to money. By becoming resilient you can absorb andlearn from personal and career changes, making them key compo-nents of your leadership development.

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