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Earlier this month I facilitated a client鈥檚 off-site retreat. Six months ago, the business restructured by increasing the size of the leadership team and reexamining roles and responsibilities. These are very common organizational shifts during cycles of growth and change.

I conducted an exercise I call 鈥淭aking the Pulse鈥� to see what was working, what was not (yet) working, and what people were learning from the first half of the year. They spoke of the collective energy and passion, the evolving ability to see the firm鈥檚 vision, the openness to having hard conversations, and that as a team the leaders hadn鈥檛 quite found their rhythm. One participant captured it well in saying, 鈥淏uilding trust and respect amongst your peers takes time.鈥�

Trust and respect are foundational for high-performing teams. When we invest in building mutual trust and respect in our relationships, our work and our organizational health are more robust. The presence of trust and respect in a work relationship makes for what my client calls 鈥渨orthy collaborators.鈥� And the experience is transformational (and fun)! Yet we often gloss over how to effectively build these relationship skills to competently and confidently lead! Leadership is not about having all the answers, or even fixing all the problems; rather, it is about creating a culture of shared resiliency.

Defining resiliency

My working definition of resiliency is the capacity to prepare for, adapt to, and recover from adversity, change, challenge, and stress. Leading is hard. Resilient leadership is a belief system and learned skill set designed to help leaders navigate the constant uncertainty they face, together.

As I was formulating the program for the retreat, I realized I wanted the team to feel safe to speak up, contribute, and engage in respectful candor. I wanted each leader to be seen and heard for who they are and what they bring. I wanted them to be open 鈥� actively listening to each other with curiosity, not judgment or resistance. I wanted them to leave the retreat owning their roles.

I also wanted to present space for the team to connect with each other and learn together. This of course requires a degree of vulnerability, and I was not sure what their appetite was for that at this stage of their journey. Then it struck me that what I really wanted was to empower the leadership team members with a key resiliency trait 鈥� a growth mindset!

鈥淧eople with a growth mindset see challenges as opportunities for growth and discovery; whereas those with a fixed mindset see them as impossible obstacles and tend to confine themselves to the boundaries of their comfort zones,鈥� said Ashley Pena, national executive director of Mission Connection at AMFM Healthcare.

Psychologist Carol Dweck developed the concept of the growth mindset after decades of research and popularized it in her 2006 non-academic book 鈥淢indset: The New Psychology of Success.鈥� Since then, Dweck鈥檚 prot茅g茅, social psychologist Marcy C. Murphy, has shown that mindset transcends individuals. Her research reveals that 鈥渙rganizations and teams more geared towards growth inspire deeper learning, spark collaboration, spur innovation, and build trust necessary for risking-taking and inclusion.鈥�

I am currently reading Murphy鈥檚 book 鈥淐ultures of Growth: How the New Science of Mindset Can Transform Individuals, Teams, and Organizations鈥� as part of a client book club. It was originally recommended by organizational psychologist Adam Grant, who suggests the book as a 鈥溾�� useful road map to building a learning organization and unlocking the potential in people.鈥�

What it means to have a growth mindset

A growth mindset reflects the belief that abilities and intelligence can be developed through dedication, hard work, and learning.

Key characteristics include:

1. Embracing challenges: Seeing challenges as opportunities to grow rather than obstacles that thwart progress.
2. Persistence: In the face of setbacks, perseverance prevails.
3. Effort: Valuing the work as a path to mastery.
4. Experiencing mistakes as discoveries and portals for learning.
5. Welcoming feedback as a mechanism for continuous improvement.
6. Finding inspiration, not envy, from others鈥� successes.
7. Adaptability: Being open to new ideas and willing to adjust approaches.
8. Curiosity: A desire to grow that is so strong that one values the learning over being right. (Or as one of my clients is fond of saying, 鈥淚 like being right so much that when I am wrong, I just change my mind!鈥�)

An essential complement to the growth mindset is the capacity for self-compassion. By alleviating harsh self-criticism, self-compassion reduces the fear of failure, making it more inviting to embrace the risks necessary for growth. Self-compassion fuels motivation and enthusiasm, rather than feeding self-doubt and negativity.

Embracing challenges, fully applying our best effort, and expanding our potential does more than deliver results. I would contend that living from a place of curiosity and a desire for discovery brings a sense of wonder and expansiveness to one鈥檚 work. It offers us deep satisfaction and self-efficacy. Practically, it also helps us have a broader perspective of what is and what is not significant in the grand scheme of things (which can help mitigate stress). A bonus: approaching life this way tends to reduce our feelings of regret!

Living the resiliency trait of a growth mindset is a way for leaders, teams, and organizations to more sustainably achieve holistic success. It sets the tone for learning, growing, and achieving together. Resilient leadership is an invitation to lead an authentic, thriving culture, while fortifying one鈥檚 own energy for the long game.

As you travel on this path, remember the words of Winston Churchill: 鈥淪uccess is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.鈥�

Karen Natzel is a business therapist who helps leaders create healthy, vibrant and high-performing organizations. Contact her at 503-806-4361 or [email protected].

The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed in the preceding commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Daily Journal of Commerce or its editors. Neither the author nor the 91视频 guarantees the accuracy or completeness of any information published herein.