The Resilient Maverick – Not Just for the Brave or Courageous
Part One – “One Hand on the Boat”
… So, there I was tucked into my sheltered space, waiting on a storm that was going to be the most powerful storm ever to strike the Atlantic Basin and soon it would head straight for my house. I was feeling pretty confident, a bit cosy even, thinking that I had done all I could to prepare, that I would wait this out and then it would soon be over … boy was I ever
wrong! …
How many times have you thought, “I can handle whatever is coming, I’m prepared and it will pass.” Every storm passes eventually, after all, but at what price?
The following is the first in a series on leadership and resilience strategies developed from weathering nature, life and business’ most catastrophic “storms.”
When what I call a “Category 5”- level event strikes, it may not be enough to just wait it out. There can be wide-ranging repercussions that reverberate for days, weeks, months and years to come. How can we prepare for something that is largely unknowable – the long-term impact of a Category 5 situation?
Anyone who has experienced a personal or business partnership loss, business failure, financial distress, even the challenge of starting or growing a business knows what a Cat 5 event is – that there is only so much we can anticipate and prepare for, and we can still get caught off -guard, thinking “it’s too late, there’s nothing I can do to lessen the impact.”
The Resilient Maverick – Not Just for the Brave or Courageous
In this 7-part series, I’m going to share with you some steps that you can take before a Category 5 event strikes, during and even in the aftermath, to not only lessen the impact, but to come through thriving. These are what I call the “7 Barometers of Resilience”.
In this first instalment, we’re going to talk about the cornerstone of resilience in leadership, self and situational awareness.
As a lifelong and professional mariner, I draw from my experiences in yachting, navigating and helping businesses, boats and people safely reach their destination. One critical rule of seamanship that everyone on a boat must follow is in the expression “one hand on the boat.” It means that no matter where you are, where you want to go, or what is happening around you, you must always keep one hand on your vessel.
This rule of keeping “one hand on the boat” at all times forces you to stay aware of yourself, your current circumstances and whatever may be on the horizon headed your way.
To weather any storm and to come through to thrive requires that we develop a strong sense of self-awareness, and, also, situational awareness. How do you know when you have mastered self-awareness? It is when how others see you matches how you see yourself. The perceptions of others can depend on whether times are easy, stressful or, in the real test of awareness, when a situation turns catastrophic.
It’s in the Category 5 “storms” that we really get tested. We humans are autonomic in our responses. We react to triggers – the stories that we tell ourselves in our heads about what is happening, often distinct from the facts themselves. Indeed, unless we’ve made the effort to discern our own triggers, without a deep understanding of these, we won’t know that we are creating our own narrative. A Category 5 situation, or one that simply feels out of our control, is when the triggers are most likely to create stories in our head. When we respond through our triggers, we lose our ability to discern what is going on dispassionately and objectively to problem-solve the situation.
How did we get here in the first place?
We all have a “self-concept” made up of three components – our self-image (how we see ourselves), our ideal self (based on someone we admire most) and, most importantly, our self-esteem (based on how we were loved, criticised, accepted or rejected in childhood). We have a Self-Concept about everything – how much money we earn, how much we weigh, how successful we are. The Self-Concept acts like a thermostat set to automatic, keeping us within 10% of what is familiar. Whatever occurs in life or business, we always return to the normal, “comfort-zone” setting of our internal thermostat.
If you are constantly getting the same results in your life or business, take a look at the internal setting of your Self-Concept – what have you noticed? Do you find that every time you start to think you are getting ahead, you find yourself back where you were, in the all-too familiar, with mediocre results? Do your relationships tend to take on a certain pattern? If this is you, there are steps to take to dial that thermostat up and break out of these patterns. Start by getting some distance from an acute situation or study past events to become more aware of what triggers cause you to react in certain ways. Notice the thoughts that run through you when you are triggered. A pattern will likely emerge both in the current situation and in past situations as well. Then, make a choice to take charge and write your own narrative!
Even before the Category 5 “storm” hits, you can develop a mastery of self-awareness by asking people that you trust to tell you the truth about how they see you. Measure their feedback against your own perception. Do the same with your business by asking stakeholders what they see is the vision of the business, to discover how closely your vision matches theirs.
Before the Cat 5 event strikes and circumstances get out of control, we can take steps to develop resilience, first by mastering self-awareness. Start with keeping “one hand on the boat” to weather the storm and come through thriving.
More to come …
