Most leaders and businesses can thrive when the economy is booming. But it takes a very strong resilient mindset to take your business through a crisis. Economic challenges, cash flow issues, the decline in sales, customer demand and affordability and employee morale are just some of the challenges that every leader is seeing as a part of their daily issues ever since the COVID 19 crisis started. Navigating these situations is not easy and definitely not something that any leader has encountered before.
Building a resilient mindset is not just a good to have but an absolute must for any leader who wants to work through the challenges that organisations are facing every day.
Resilient leaders have some key characteristics that are simple and surprisingly easy to inculcate with a little bit of mindfulness.
Ways to build a resilient mindset:
- Manage your mental state: The stress of dealing with changing business dynamics can take a toll. Add to this if you need to take tough and unpleasant like laying off employees, cutting costs or even closing down some businesses it is human to feel the emotional and mental strain of it all. Being resilient starts with maintaining mental clarity. Unfortunately, stress can cloud your judgements and create a lack of clarity. It is now more important than ever to focus on physical wellness by eating healthy and exercising regularly. Additionally, inculcating calming practices like meditation, art and music help the mind to relax and focus better. Leaders often feel that they do not have time for such softer activities. But it is these very activities that help you refuel your energy for a longer and more sustained drive.
- Let go of what “should” be and focus on things as they are today.: When the environment shifts it is very easy to get lost in how things should be, We may find ourselves constantly talking about “if only this had happened” and “if only that had worked out”. It is also easy to get stuck on the needs, processes, data and beliefs of yesterday. The only thing this achieves is a waste of time and mind space. Remove the filter of the plans and aspirations you had before the crisis and see them without judgements and wistfulness. Being resilient is about treating today as a new situation and drawing your plans and strategies from there. The more flexible and agile you are the more likely you are to help your organisation stay afloat.
- Focus on the positive and find purpose in your work: Every cloud has a silver lining. Being resilient is about seeing things as they are and find opportunities for yourself and your customers. What is going well? What can you improve? What can you develop? What can you enhance? If things are not working at all then maybe you need to explore a completely new business stream. Every business serves a need. With the crisis, the need may have shifted or may not even be relevant anymore. Find a new need to serve. What are you best equipped to offer to your clients? How can you serve them now?
- This phase is temporary but the changes may not be: Any crisis essentially does two things. Firstly, it separates the “good to have” from the “need to have” in every industry. Secondly, it creates a new short term and long term needs for every business. Some of the changes you make will only serve you longterm. Good business sense is to focus on longterm changes which can give you returns further ahead.