Ep 1 - Defining Resilience and Navigating Adversity Effectively

Resilience in Leadership

Resilience is a BIG word. For Ian, resilience is the ability to get yourself out of a hole and how to pick yourself up. Anda reflects on resilience as facing a hurricane and pushing through to the eye of the storm to calm and collect oneself to be able to keep pushing forward.

Ian relates this to his experience with his team when he had an increase in the number of meetings being held since the start of the pandemic. He reminds the team to take a short breather in between meetings to collect themselves. "A five minute walk can do wonders," Ian says.

As a leader and a parent, the challenge is doubled as you do not only need to be on the lookout for your team but also have to make sure that your family's needs are attended to. Ian elaborates by saying that a leader should set an example of being resilient for the people around them to have a model to emulate.

Anda recalls Ian's thoughts on having a collective experience of the mind, body, and spirit. It is not only one's well-being, but the well-being of the team, and family around you.

“You're still in denial, huh?” Ian joked as Anda recollects the onset of the pandemic where it took her quite some time to accept and adapt to the changes in her everyday life. Anda explains that this experience brought her to the realization that she needs to learn, unlearn, and relearn things. Ian shares how he and his leadership team learned to keep everything within working hours and days - making sure to spend quality time with friends and families over the weekend.

Anda continues off on Ian's thoughts and shares one of the things she does in coaching is mindful calendars - taking a look at the week ahead and seeing if there is a balance of working hours and quality time at home.

The increase in meetings scheduled during lunch time has been normalized during the pandemic, but Ian shares that his team has made sure to block this off which forces one to have lunch with family. "It's setting boundaries between work and life", he says.

Ian adds another tip to break out of the burnout cycle. Instead of taking long vacations after 4-6 months straight and coming back to do the same cycle, take more long weekend breaks or in-between breaks to make sure that you don't reach that burnout state. Anda bounces off on this and adds that burnout affects the ability to be resilient because one focuses on the feeling of burnout itself.

“It's about better choices, more deliberate choices that will help us”, Anda emphasizes the need to choose the things that you can control. She adds that this is one of the things she includes in her coaching sessions, which admittedly she herself sometimes does not apply. Choosing what you can control puts one in a position of empowerment, being able to move forward with what they can.

Episode Highlights:

01:25-03:25 - What is Resilience?

03:25-05:08 - Walking For Five Minutes Can Do Wonders

05:08-05:48 - Leading Your Team and Managing Your Family

05:48-06:14 - Overall Wellbeing Involving The Mind, Body, and Spirit

06:14-09:24 - Learning, Unlearning, and Relearning

09:24-10:23 - Preparing Your Week

10:23-10:46 - Setting Boundaries

10:46-12:04 - Breaking The Burnout Cycle

12:04-14:29 - Choosing What You CAN and CAN’T Control

Connect with Anda Goseco and Ian Santos

https://linktr.ee/resilienceinleadership

Email:

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