How Strong Resilience Levels Help You Thrive & Win

Posted: August 21, 2017

Resilience levels can make a big difference in a long career with ups and downs, or even in one’s personal life. Here is more on building your resilience levels.

Resilience is an important leadership competency and a lot of research has been done on the importance of resilience to succeed in leadership roles. But resilience and the lessons associated with it can be found even in the most unlikely places.

I found a great reservoir of resilience and patience at the physiotherapist’s clinic which I was frequenting due to a sports injury. The hero of the story is Vicky Talreja, a young businessman who met with a freak accident at his printing press last year and almost lost his right arm. On that fateful day, his right arm got stuck in a huge printing machine. When the accident occurred, the strands of the muscles, sinew and flesh of his right hand were literally ‘taken’ to the surgeon (at a prominent Mumbai hospital) who did a good job of mending it.

What started post the surgery is indeed unimaginable. Vicky has been working with the accomplished physiotherapist Dr. Jayalakshmi Akileshwar (based at Chembur, Mumbai) since once year to literally rebuild his right arm. This consists of complex exercises and routine activities with various tools which only an able physiotherapist can facilitate given the delicate situation.

The doctor and patient, or should I say student – both had tons of patience and they worked towards reconstructing the arm inch by inch over a period of one year. The doctor is determined to ensure that Vicky’s right hand is fully functional and Vicky on his part is a regular at the clinic, come rain or sunshine. During this ordeal, given the fact that his right hand is the subject of our conversation, he always has a smiling and pleasant countenance.

Dr.Jayalakshmi too approaches the patient in a light-hearted way so that the seriousness of the situation is minimized or even eliminated during the treatment and with the positivity around, one is assured of maximum recovery. Vicky’s family i.e. his wife and parents too have been fully supportive in his journey to resurrect his right arm. He can even be found cycling around or taking part in community activities with full fervour.

Of course, he was back to managing his business in record time after the accident. The exhibit below explains the qualities of a resilient individual and the protagonist of our story certainly displays all those traits.

What I learnt about Resilience

I learnt a few things from this incident which can be applied to the business world or even our personal lives:

Unfortunate events can stir you and can make even seemingly ordinary folks display extraordinary courage and patience
The fruits of labour are indeed sweet, as they say. Here the efforts were both from Vicky’s and Dr. Jayalakshmi’s side
A good guide/mentor coupled with a dedicated mentee/student can achieve miracles (in this situation it is the doctor and the keen patient)
One has to also salute the Doctor’s skills and determination to revive a difficult situation. Given the fact that the Dr. Jayalakshmi was a University topper and groomed in a top notch medical school in Mumbai, one can’t help thinking that being adept at functional skills is so important if you want to climb the ladder of success. At the end of the day, a talented individual certainly brings more to the table as compared to the rest.
And last but not the least, resilience certainly pays both in the medium and long term…

The women’s network that I established and run in our company completed 5 years sometime back. To mark that occasion we asked our founding sponsor Monica Chaudhari (Global Business Leader for one of the important franchisees in our company) to speak about the importance of resilience and insights around developing our resilience muscle. She has had a remarkable career across continents in various challenging assignments and was most suitable to speak on this topic. Her tips revolved around these aspects:

Develop strong functional expertise
Have a strong network that can help you/ bail you out in times of crisis
Keep thinking creatively
When you are not bogged down by failure and look at a way of rising up again

Ready to test your resilience levels?

You can even assess your resilience levels by taking this free test developed by the resilience researcher, Dr. Al Siebert.

You can also take the resilience assessment on the Mindtools site which focuses on the 4 critical aspects of Confidence, Social support, Adaptability, and Purposefulness.

What are your views around developing resilience in your personal and professional life?

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First published here.

Image via Graphic Stock

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