What is one key attribute of a strong leader? Resiliency. By becoming resilient leaders, we not only improve our leadership abilities but pave the way for reduced stress in our lives as a whole.
In episode 35 of the Life, Love, and Leadership for Physicians podcast, Stacey Caster and I discuss the importance of resilient leadership. You’ll learn Stacey’s CLARITY technique for becoming a resilient leader and how to begin incorporating these processes so you can effectively manage difficult situations and lead a happier, healthier life.
Stacey Caster is an executive coach and senior technology and business operations leader. Her mission is to build dynamic leaders to enable them to create and execute plans and strategies with strong, effective teams.
Throughout her impressive and diverse career, Stacey Caster has earned a reputation for being a forward-thinking leader, business consultant, executive coach, and workshop facilitator. Possessing an innate understanding of people, businesses, and systems that she has continued to develop throughout her 25+ year career, Stacey has been recognized for her innovative approach to organizational structure, management, and leadership development.
At the core of her work, she was responsible for increasing the value and performance of senior leaders, C-level executives, organizations, and teams and delivering the necessary support to help businesses run smoothly.
Stacey is an accomplished and well-respected speaker, consultant, and engaging business coach. She’s also an accomplished business leader specializing in technology and business operations. Stacey is constantly driven to transform obstacles into opportunities and challenges into possibilities for her clients.
Why is learning to integrate our work and personal lives so important?
“People are saying, ‘What about work-life balance?’ and I say, ‘You know what, it’s just life.'”
As Stacey says, your work and personal lives aren’t two separate. Instead of trying to have a work-life balance, we should aim for work-life integration. When you can recognize this and learn to prioritize these things as one, you’ll be happier and have less stress, which ties into our ability to become resilient leaders.
How can we become more resilient leaders?
To become a resilient leader, follow Stacey’s acronym, CLARITY.
- Control your response. Learn to assess situations and give yourself time to process so that you can respond productively.
- Lean in. If you believe in what you’re working toward, keep pushing forward to reach your goals.
- Attitude and mindset are key. When you have the right attitude, you’re able to see difficult situations as opportunities rather than hurdles.
- Rejuvenate your body battery. Taking care and listening to your body increases your confidence, improves your learning ability, and enables you to handle stress better.
- Incisiveness for decision-making. Understand how to make quick, educated decisions with the information you have at the moment.
- Tenacity to reach your goals. Keep going, even when you don’t want to.
- Yield Respect. By doing the above and showing your appreciation for others, you will earn the respect of your team.
How can we control our responses during triggering moments?
When you begin to feel those negative emotions during situations, the first step is to pause and take a deep breath. By taking a breath, you’re giving yourself a few seconds to relax and slowing down your heart rate, allowing you to think more clearly. Then, admit where you’re at in the moment. Let the other person know you’re not in a good place and ask to revisit the situation at another point. If appropriate and in a group setting, you can also divert the conversation to a trusted advisor who can handle the situation better than you.
“I might say, ‘You know, John, what do you think? How do you think we should handle this?’ What that does is it gives me more time to process while they’re answering.”
How can we show gratitude toward the people we work with?
We can do a few simple things to show our appreciation, and they may not be what you’d expect. Listen and learn more about resilient leadership in episode 35 of the Life, Love, and Leadership for Physicians podcast.
