In our world of growing uncertainty and an accelerating pace of change, it is understandable that everyone is talking about resilience in leadership.
There are currently over 6,500 books available on Amazon.com that include some form of the root word “Resilient” in their titles; and while talking about resilience is currently all the rage, resiliency as a conceptual theory and an individual trait has been studied for more than four decades across a variety of disciplines.
A small sample from the large body of research includes the field of psychology, where resiliency has been defined as the ability to bounce back or overcome hardships by repairing oneself (Wolin & Wolin, 1993). In psychiatry, it is recognized as the psychological and biological strengths humans possess that enable them to navigate change successfully (Flach, 1988).
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Developmental psychopathology identifies resiliency as people’s ability to cope with challenges and threats while maintaining strong behavioral integrity aligned with their value system and sense of self (Garmezy & Rutter, 1983).
Human Development science refers to resiliency as being able to withstand or successfully cope with adversity (Werner & Smith, 2001). Finally, in the field of change management it is viewed as the ability to demonstrate both strength and flexibility during the change process, while displaying minimal dysfunctional behavior (Conner, 1993).
Why is Resilience Important in Leadership?
These definitions offer a variety of ways to develop leadership resilience. In one article, author Megan Biro (2014) says that leaders too often set a direction, make a plan, and then assume rote execution is all that stands between them and success.
They certainly must know this mechanistic view of organizations is inaccurate, but then, when a plan fails to deliver on expectations and employees begin to lose confidence and focus, these leaders are too often stuck without options.
They become defensive and tell subordinates, “There’s no more to be done,” and to “just get over it”; but this is insufficient and unacceptable, as the organization and its people will ultimately falter. Biro concludes, “We need resilient organizations with flexible, resourceful leaders to create the most productive work culture for people.”
Why Resilience Is Important in Leadership
We agree. Synonymous with resilient are words such as flexible, pliable, adaptable, and versatile. Sustained organization success is more readily achieved when leaders are capable of reading and adapting real-time to needs demanded by emerging circumstances.
In fact, as we work with leaders and organizations of all shapes and sizes, we notice that those leaders who are decidedly successful exhibit behavioral elasticity—key components and resilience and leadership.
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They understand there is no one-size-fits-all set of behaviors for any given circumstance; therefore, they have prepared themselves by developing behavioral versatility to give them the broadest range of behavioral options with which to respond.
Frequently, the behaviors leaders must demonstrate are polar opposites. This seems to stymie many of them because their reflex is to think only in binary terms: decisive or inclusive, strategic or operational, and pushes or supports; but within these paradoxes lies the resiliency challenge leaders must master.
Tools to Measure Leadership Resilience
In our Executive Development Intensives (EDI) practice, we have used the Harrison Assessment—a tool that gives insight into the degree of resiliency or behavioral elasticity demonstrated by leaders on twelve key behaviors.
Here, the term “paradox” describes a situation where certain behavioral traits or competencies are required that appear to be contradictory but, in actuality, are not. According to Paradox Theory, a demonstrated behavioral trait can be either constructive or destructive. Leaders who embrace only one side of a paradox will consider the traits to be contradictory or opposite.
However, one who has psychologically resolved a paradox will consider the pair of traits to be mutually compatible, and most importantly, such a person will exhibit a greater range of behaviors, resulting in a greater achievement, effectiveness, and sense of personal fulfillment.
Harrison defines each paradox as a relationship between two categories of traits: “Gentle” and “Dynamic.”
- When a leader’s range of behavior flexibly extends to both ends of the behavioral spectrum, they are said to have exceptional capability known as Balanced Versatility.
- When a leader’s range of behavior extends only to the Dynamic aspect of a paradox, it is called Aggressive Imbalance.
- When a leader’s range of behavior extends only to the Gentle aspect of a paradox, it is called Passive Imbalance. In either case of imbalance, leaders demonstrate some counter-productive tendencies and are subject to the associated consequences. They are less effective and experience less satisfaction.
- If a leader’s behavioral ability flexes to neither end of the behavioral spectrum, it is called Balanced Deficiency.
For example, Frank and Diplomatic are a pair of paradoxical traits that define communication effectiveness. Someone capable of being both frank and diplomatic is considered an effective communicator.
Conversely, persons are counter-productive in their communications when they are strong in one trait and lacking in the other, or deficient in both. For leadership resilience, it’s important to cultivate a strong balance between the two.
The following table shows the 12 behavioral paradoxes from the Harrison research shown to have disproportionate impact on personal and organizational effectiveness.
Trait | Paradoxical Behavioral Pairs | Balanced Versatility | Aggressive Imbalance | Passive Imbalance | Balanced Deficiency |
Expression of Opinion | Certain and Open/Reflective | Truth Exploring | Dogmatic | Inconclusive | Uncertain Disinterest |
Decision Approach | Analytical and Intuitive | Logical Intuition | Laser Logical | Non-logical | Disinterested in Decisions |
Strategic | Risking and Analyzes Pitfalls | Mindful Courage | Impulsive | Cautious | Cautious Inattention |
Self-Perception | Self-acceptance and Self-critical | Healthy Self Esteem | Defensive | Self-critical | Internally Contradicted |
Motivation | Self-motivated and Stress Mgmt | Poised Achievement | Stressed Achievement | Tranquil Inertia | Stressed Underachievement |
Drive | Enforcing and Warmth/Empathy | Compassionate Reinforcing | Harsh | Permissive | Cool Permissiveness |
Communication | Frank and Diplomatic | Forthright Diplomacy | Blunt | Evasive | Avoids Communication |
Innovation | Persistent and Experimenting | Inventive | Stubborn Persistence | Non-finishing | Unresourceful |
Delegation | Authoritative and Collaborative | Authoritative Collaboration | Authoritarian | Defers Decisions | Avoids Decisions |
Power | Assertive and Helpful | Mutual Help | Dominating | Self-Sacrificing | Needs Avoidance |
Organization | Organized and Flexible | Flexible Organizing | Rigidly Organized | Scattered | Rigidly Disorganized |
Strategic Acumen | Optimistic and Analyzes Pitfalls | Realistic Optimism | Blindly Optimistic | Skeptical | Careless Pessimism |
While this table represents outputs from just one body of research, it serves to reinforce an important principle of leadership effectiveness: resiliency is a function of how a leader conceptualizes a given situation and, most importantly, how well that leader is prepared to respond with contextually appropriate actions.
The Importance of Resilient Leaders
We won’t write the 6,501st book on resilience, but we do believe more than ever that organizations must be led by those who respond specifically and deftly to the needs of any given situation. Without leadership and resilience, how can you bounce back and withstand the changes in our economies, industries, and organizations?
So while many fields of study have an opinion on how to develop resilience, the one thing that we can all agree on is that if you don’t have it you will be obsolete. If you have resilience in leadership, you will thrive.
References
Biro, Meghan (2014). 4 ways to be a more resilient leader. Forbes, May 4, 2014. http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghanbiro/2014/05/04/4-ways-to-be-a-more-resilient-leader.
Connor, D.R. (1993). Managing at the speed of change: How resilient managers succeed and prosper where others fail. New York, NY: Villard Books.
Flach, F. (1988). Resilience: Discovering a new strength at times of stress. New York, NY: Fawcett Columbine.
Garmezy, N., & Masten, A.S. (1986). Stress, competence, and resilience: Common frontiers for therapist and psychopathologist. Behavior Therapy, 17, 500-521.
Harrison Assessments. http://www.harrisonassessments.com.
Werner, E.E., & Smith, R.S. (2001). Journeys from childhood to midlife: Risk resilience and recovery. New York, NY: Cornell University Press.
Wolin, S.J., & Wolin, S. (1993). The resilient self: How survivors of troubled families rise above adversity. New York, NY: Villard Books.