Blog – Dutra Associates

Is Your Organization Ready for This Seismic Shift?

May 24, 2018 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

On average, 10,000 of these events will happen per day in the United States through the year 2030. What are they?

According to the Insured Retirement Institute, 10,000 baby boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964) are expected to retire, on average, each day in the United States through 2030. This is excellent news for those getting ready to enter the next chapter of their lives and an opportunity for younger workers to step into new roles. Yet, what will be the impact of that lost knowledge and expertise on your organization?

Based on research conducted by the authors of Critical Knowledge Transfer, one company reported that in the next anticipated wave of nearly 700 retirements, they would experience a loss of 27,000 years of experience. If that’s not enough to have you sit up and take notice, I’m not sure what will. That said, not every vacated position is created equal. Some will certainly be easier to fill than others. Perhaps the appropriate level of expertise and skill is readily available on the job market or you have done the work to ensure that someone within your organization is ready to take on the role. Unfortunately, this is the exception rather than the rule.

Taking a Proactive Stanch – 4 Key Tips

Knowing the average age of your employee population is not enough. That still keeps the potential problem at hand difficult to define. Take a closer look at the specific roles held by long-term employees and seasoned managers who are within a few years of retirement age. Which positions require critical skills and experience that are not easy to find on the open market? Long term employees across and at all levels of the organization often hold critical, hands-on experience of how to get things done through their comprehensive knowledge of processes, company historical information, clients and customers. Without a proactive approach, your organization runs the risk of realizing, too late, that you have a critical skill shortage that is adversely impacting your business performance.
Consider implementing a mentoring program that effectively engages both older and younger workers in accelerating development and bridging the knowledge gap. Providing training for both mentors and mentees can help to ensure that a mutually beneficial mentoring relationship is created and both parties find the experience a valuable one.
Utilize knowledge capture methods to gather critical expertise and make it available across a wide range of people. There are many ways to store and manage institutional knowledge including online forums, podcasts, webinars, and videos, to name a few.
Pay attention to employee engagement. Younger members of the workforce have an average job stay of roughly four years. Ensure the right managers are in place who truly care about their employees’ success. Robin Reilly, a Senior Consultant at Gallup has written that such managers “seek to understand each person’s strengths and provide employees with every opportunity to use their strengths in their role. Great managers empower their employees, recognize and value their contributions, and actively seek their ideas and opinions.” Increasing employee engagement will assist in keeping younger workers from jumping ship.

The time has come to proactively address the seismic shift that has already begun in terms of talent shortages in the workplace. These are just a few of the tips that can help you to mitigate your risk. Don’t wait another day to identify where your organization is most vulnerable and take the steps now to ensure a smoother transition.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development and Career Coach and Facilitator who believes we each have far more potential than we typically tap in to. She helps you learn how to step into your full potential so you can create consistent, optimal performance for yourself and your team with less stress and more enjoyment. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.

The Retirement Plans That Few Consider

April 23, 2018 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

Most people spend more time planning their annual vacation than they spend planning for the non-financial components of their retirement. Now that increased longevity has extended the lifespan of the average North American, people can anticipate living 20 – 30 years beyond the typical retirement age of 62 or 65. Since this is becoming known as a “second adulthood”, it deserves your time and attention to ensure that this time in your life is filled with meaning and purpose, health and well-being, and social engagement in addition to financial stability. It’s never too early to begin giving consideration to how you’d like to craft this part of your life. Here are three key tips I’d like to share that can help set you on the path to an easeful retirement transition.

Create a plan well in advance

Benjamin Franklin is credited with saying, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” It is an abrupt change from working full-time to having the expanse of 24 hours a day at your fingertips. Once the glow of an extended vacation wears off, you may find yourself clamoring to find another job, if you haven’t decided in advance how you’d like to spend your time. While working in some capacity may be a part of that plan, let that be a conscious choice rather than a reaction to feeling at loose ends. What would the perfect day or week look like for you in retirement? Creating some level of structure goes a long way toward staying engaged. Spend less time thinking about what you’re retiring from and more time considering what you’re retiring to.

Think holistically

Financial security is a critical factor in retirement preparedness. Yet, it is far from the only thing to take into consideration. As you create your plan, look at all aspects of your life. What is important to you? What are the values and beliefs that provide meaning in your life? How will you sustain your mental and physical capabilities? Where will there be opportunities for connection to others? What hobbies might you want to pursue? How will you continue your personal development? How important is it to you to give back in some way?

Communicate

Be sure to include your spouse or partner in your retirement planning. Do they work as well? When do you both want to be retired? What do you each want out of retirement? How can you work collaboratively to create a shared vision? What activities will you do together and where will you explore your interests on your own? How will you divide home related chores? How often will you see your children and grandchildren? What expectations do family members have of one another? Having these conversations in advance and getting on the same page will relieve a potential stressor down the road.

Be proactive and make this significant transition a rewarding and fulfilling next chapter in your life.

Transformational Presence Series: Part Four: The Four Levels of Engagement

March 15, 2018 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

In the final blog of this series on Transformational Presence, I’d like to share a model with you called the Four Levels of Engagement. The purpose behind this model is to bring awareness to how we ‘show up’ in relation to the daily events and circumstances we face in our personal and professional lives. This model is really just a description of what we’re all experiencing internally, all the time. When we work through this model, we’re choosing to slow down enough to see the inner workings of our level of engagement. We can take any situation or challenge and notice how we engage with it in a particular way.

To explain and demonstrate this model, let’s take a situation that we’ve likely all experienced at some point in our lives – a client or colleague who frequently is late for, misses or cancels meetings at the last minute. You are now faced with the fifth time in two months that this has occurred.

Drama

So, let’s step into the first level of engagement which is Drama. The initial internal dialogue might go something like this. “Are you kidding me?”, “What is he thinking?”, “I’m honoring the time on my calendar for him, why can’t he do the same?” That’s the level of engagement of Drama. So, I know none of you reading this EVER goes to that place of drama, right? But, I’ll admit, sometimes, I can go to a dramatic place. So Drama is an either/or, black or white, whose fault is it, type of space. It’s a criticism or a complaint. And then, after there has been time to vent, we might start to move into another level of engagement which is Situation.

Situation

Now, Situation sounds like this. “So, I’m going to need to address this. Let me sit down and prepare and I’ll go through the 5 steps to having a difficult conversation so I can take care of this.” Situation is about fixing the problem. It’s about getting it off my desk, moving on, getting it over with and getting it done. Often, for a while, these situational approaches will work, as has been pointed out earlier in this series. The problem-solving done here will likely lead to an okay result but one that typically isn’t sustainable for the long haul. So, when we run into the same situation again, we look for the next solution or drop back into Drama again and then shift back into Situation.

Choice

At some point, if we’re willing to go deeper, there’s a third option that shows up where we begin to notice there’s an invitation to ask the question, “Who do I want to be in this situation?” or “How do I want to show up?” Taking this deeper perspective breaks out of Drama and Situation into Choice, which is the next level of engagement. So, as we ask ourselves those questions, the answer in this circumstance might be, “I want to be a person who is both compassionate toward my client’s (or colleague’s) competing priorities and confident that we’ll reach a solution that works for both of us.” So that is who this situation is asking for the individual to be and that’s the individual’s choice to show up that way.

Opportunity

From Choice it’s rather easy to move into the 4^th level of engagement which is Opportunity. So, let’s take this same situation into Opportunity. What’s the hidden opportunity of the situation? What wants to happen or evolve out of this? So, as we step into opportunity, there is an opportunity here to evolve as a leader. A leader who not only demonstrates deep commitment and caring for clients or colleagues but also demonstrates the same level of caring and commitment to themselves. That is what wants to emerge.

Four Levels of Engagement Exercise

Now that you have a sense of each of these levels, you’re going to have a chance to play this game. It works best if you physically stand up and step into each of the different levels. If you remain seated, then simply choose a different spot on the floor or around the room to focus on for each level.

Bring to mind a challenging situation with a client, manager or colleague. It could be something current or from the past.

Choose a spot that represents Drama.
Step into the drama of your challenging situation. Close your eyes if you’d like. Really hear, in your mind, what’s happening.
Notice and ask yourself “What’s going on?”

Step back to a neutral spot and repeat the steps above replacing Drama with Situation, then repeat again with Choice, and finally, with Opportunity.

Four Levels of Engagement Debrief

What did you experience? Where has your level of engagement been in past interactions with this person?

What would be different if you approached the challenge from Choice and Opportunity?

How can you apply your awareness of the Four Levels of Engagement in your life and work starting today?

I invite you to share what you discover in the Comments section.

Summary

When we engage with the events and circumstances of life primarily from Drama and Situation, we spend our time primarily on struggle and problem-solving. It can be that feeling of putting out one fire after another. Ultimately, this can be exhausting. On the other hand, when we engage with life mostly from Choice and Opportunity, we step into a powerful place. We are no longer buffeted about by circumstances and choose how we want to respond and focus on the potential that wants to emerge. I invite you to apply the Four Levels of Engagement model in your own life and see what happens.

If you missed the earlier parts of this series, please click here for Navigating a Complex World, here for Part One – The Three Questions, here for Part Two – Becoming Mindful, and here for Part Three – Working with What Is.

For more information about Transformational Presence, please visit: www.transformationalpresence.org

Derived from: Seale, Alan. Transformational Presence: How To Make a Difference In a Rapidly Changing World and Transformational Presence: The Tools, Skills and Frameworks. Topsfield, MA: The Center for Transformational Presence, 2017. Used with permission.

Transformational Presence Series: Part Three: Working with What Is

February 23, 2018 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

When was the last time you were faced with a difficult situation or circumstance at home or at work and the first thing that came to mind was “how can I fix this”? If you’re like most people, this has probably occurred more than once just in the past week. In fact, being a great problem-solver is encouraged, valued and what we are taught to do. Honestly, this is one of my own strengths and I have loved the satisfaction of “solving problems”. Yet, as discussed in previous posts, fixing the problem doesn’t tend to work for the long term. Often, the problem will arise again somewhere down the road. What if, as Alan Seale states, “a problem is not something to be solved; it’s a message to be listened to”?

Our role then would be to learn how to hear the message, discover what wants to unfold, and work in partnership with that potential to create something new. Quantum physics tells us that, at the most basic level, everything is made up of particles of moving, vibrating energy. Consequently, there is an energy that exists within any situation or circumstance. One of the fundamental principles of Transformational Presence is that “energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can only be transformed”. Solving the problem typically doesn’t transform the energy and this is the reason that the same or similar problem reemerges.

When we are faced with what we would call a problem, we tend to “push against” it and often end up making it worse. When we “push against”, we focus on what’s not working and give more power to it, causing it to persist. If we accept whatever situation we are faced with and flow with it, rather than push against it, things start to get easier. “Flowing with” is about focusing on what wants to happen or emerge from the circumstance. It doesn’t mean we have to like what’s going on. It also doesn’t mean that we are acquiescing to it. We are just acknowledging what is happening right now and partnering with what wants to emerge to discover our next steps. Using the Three Fundamental Questions from Part One of this series will help you identify those next steps.

Taking this perspective is something that requires practice and continual reminders. I find that “pushing against” a circumstance is often my initial reaction. Yet, continued practice, allows me to step back, “flow with” and respond.

If you’d like to explore this concept of “push against/flow with” in relation to a challenge you are facing, please click below and I will walk you through an exercise so that you can experience it for yourself. I invite you to share what you discover in the Comments section.

If you missed the earlier parts of this series, please click here for Navigating a Complex World, here for Part One – The Three Questions and here for Part Two – Becoming Mindful.

For more information about Transformational Presence, please visit: www.transformationalpresence.org

Derived from: Seale, Alan. Transformational Presence: How To Make a Difference In a Rapidly Changing World and Transformational Presence: The Tools, Skills and Frameworks. Topsfield, MA: The Center for Transformational Presence, 2017. Used with permission.

Transformational Presence Series: Part Two – Becoming Mindful

January 22, 2018 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

What does becoming mindful mean to you? We hear so much now about mindfulness and know that it is being practiced by an ever widening array of people including doctors, dancers, business executives, athletes, students, parents, professionals, etc. For good reason. Both science and experience have shown the positive impact of becoming more mindful on all aspects of our lives, both at work and at home. Definitions of mindfulness vary but all seem to coalesce around similar themes. Mindful magazine defines mindfulness as “being fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us”.

This ability to be present with whatever is happening right now, rather than fretting about the past or worrying about the future is one key to navigating a complex world. To develop Transformational Presence, starting a practice of becoming mindful provides an excellent foundation. To get you started, I invite you to listen to my recording of the Becoming Mindful exercise. In less than 5 minutes, you’ll have an opportunity to be still, take a pause, and listen and notice in a new way.

Come back to this as often as you can. The more that you practice, the easier it will become and the more benefit you will derive from it. It can be helpful, especially in the beginning, to do this exercise several times per day – perhaps in the morning, at mid-day, and again in the evening. Create consistency in your practice from day to day. Over time, you will begin to notice that your ability to stay present, to respond rather than react, and to sense into what wants to happen next will expand.

Consider experimenting with using this mindfulness practice in conjunction with The Three Questions from Part One of this series. Notice how the quality of your responses starts to change as you become more present and centered.

Please click below to listen to the Becoming Mindful exercise and I invite you to share your progress in the Comments section.

If you missed the earlier parts of this series, please click here for Navigating a Complex World and here for Part One – The Three Questions.

For more information about Transformational Presence, please visit: www.transformationalpresence.org

Derived from: Seale, Alan. Transformational Presence: How To Make a Difference In a Rapidly Changing World and Transformational Presence: The Tools, Skills and Frameworks. Topsfield, MA: The Center for Transformational Presence, 2017. Used with permission.

Transformational Presence Series: Part One – The Three Questions

December 6, 2017 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

Our last blog was focused on Alan Seale’s Transformational Presence approach to leadership and its application to navigating a complex world. If you missed it, please click here. In that post, we announced a four-part series dedicated to exploring a tool or framework of Transformational Presence in each of the next four months. Read on for Part One.

The Three Questions

Let’s start with a focus on the three foundational questions upon which the Transformational Presence approach is built.
1. What wants to happen?
2. Who is that asking me to be?
3. What is that asking me to do?

On the surface, these seem like pretty simple questions. Yet, the beauty of these simple questions is their power to tap into our heart intelligence. Too often, we rely solely on our intellect which is incredibly good at analyzing situations, solving problems and keeping us safe. Our heart intelligence is more visionary. It can take in the big picture and show us the next step to take. One is not better than the other – which is a huge relief to me since I’ve spent most of my life relying primarily on my head. It’s using the head and heart intelligence in concert with one another that is the key. Incorporating our heart intelligence helps to break through overwhelm and complexity and find an element of clarity that can show us the way forward.

A Discovery Process

Let’s take a brief look at each of these questions.

When we ask “What wants to happen?”, we’re open to discovering what the shift might be that wants to take place or what the opportunity or breakthrough is that is waiting to emerge. We are recognizing that there is a message in the situation or circumstance we are faced with and that something “wants to happen” or evolve.

As we look at question #2, “Who is that asking me to be?”, we are exploring how we choose to “show up” in relationship to “what wants to happen”. What are the qualities and personal attributes that we want to express? For example, this might mean being more playful, forthright, resilient, open, etc.

“What is that asking me to do?” is our action question. Rather than this being a question where we try to figure out what to do next, instead we are inviting “what wants to happen” to reveal the next step to us. Then, after we take that next step, we go back to question 1 and repeat the cycle.

While we navigate the complexity of our world, we typically go directly to the third question and try to figure out what actions we need to take and how will we execute on them. Yet, if we begin to consider that every situation or circumstance we encounter might have a message for us, we can start to develop a new approach. No longer is it reasonable to plan far out into the future. Our world is changing too quickly for that. Instead, if we apply these three questions to everything that we do, we can be shown the way, one step at a time.

An Exercise to Get You Started

Here is an exercise that Alan shared with us in our recent Transformational Presence – Leadership in Action course. I invite you to experiment with this as a means to begin applying this approach to your own life and work.

Bring to mind an opportunity available to you, personally, or to your company or business right now. Then, ask yourself The Three Questions. Really listen, sense and feel the answers that come. This is a no judgment zone – let whatever experience you have with these questions be okay. It does take practice to quiet our minds so that our heart can be heard.

Then, please feel free to share your experience with us in the comments section. And, if you’d like to learn more, you can purchase Alan Seale’s book here.

Derived from: Seale, Alan. Transformational Presence: How To Make a Difference In a Rapidly Changing World. Topsfield, MA: The Center for Transformational Presence, 2017. Used with permission.

Navigating a Complex World

November 20, 2017 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

Our world is becoming increasingly complex and the ability to navigate ambiguity is now, more than ever, a critical leadership and life skill. We all have challenges we face throughout our life and work. Often, we react by focusing on finding someone or something to blame for our circumstances. Then, if we can move beyond that initial reaction, we bring our skills and knowledge to bear, look for ways to fix the problem, put a plan of action together, and execute on a solution. Our goal is to get the problem off our desks so that we can move on to the next item on our to-do list.

In some cases, this approach will work, at least for a little while. Yet, many times, the same circumstance will arise again a few weeks or months down the road. We find ourselves solving the same problem over and over again. Our complex world cries out for a new approach. Alan Seale, master teacher and mentor, and the founder of the Center for Transformational Presence, offers an approach to leadership that helps us to navigate this rapidly changing world in powerful ways.

According to Alan, “Transformational Presence is not a model or a formula. It’s a way of living, leading, and serving – an approach that provides a strong foundation for conscious living and conscious leadership. Transformational Presence is also a practical set of skills that, when developed together, build and expand our capacities for awareness, understanding, perception, and effective action – capacities that are essential for navigating today’s rapidly changing world.”

I have had the privilege of attending several of Alan’s workshops and programs over the last decade. Most recently, I attended the Transformational Presence Leadership in Action program in Connecticut. We explored the latest tools and frameworks from Alan’s most recent books, a two part set: Transformational Presence: How To Make a Difference in a Rapidly Changing World and its companion, Transformational Presence – The Tools, Skills and Frameworks. During those days, we had the opportunity to immerse ourselves in applying the work to our own circumstances and challenges. I came away with a renewed commitment to fully integrate Transformational Presence approaches in my own life and in my work with individual clients and organizations.

When I was first introduced to this work, eight or so years ago, I have to admit that it felt a little foreign to me. After years of working in large corporations, I had developed a strong set of skills that allowed me to solve problems and execute on goals. While I longed for what the Transformational Presence approach offered, I wasn’t quite ready to take it on board. My logical mind was a little bit skeptical about whether I could actually see myself using the skills and tools with my clients. Yet, something has continued calling me to this work and in the last couple of years, there has been no denying that Transformational Presence will allow my clients and me to make the kind of difference in this world that we long to make.

To support Alan Seale in his mission to share this work, the next four blog posts will each focus on one tool or framework of Transformational Presence. As we start off the tool series in our next post, we will explore the three foundational questions of Transformational Presence:
1. What wants to happen?
2. Who is that asking me to be?
3. What is that asking me to do?

Please stay tuned over the next few months as we explore a few selected components of Transformational Presence. No matter what your role, if you are interested in helping to create a world that works, this will get you started.

The Book Yourself Solid ® Six Keys to Creating Connection

September 19, 2017 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

If you want a perpetual stream of inspiring and energizing ideal clients clamoring for your services and products, then you must build relationships of trust. Without trust, then it doesn’t matter how well you’ve planned or what you’re offering. If a potential client doesn’t trust you, nothing else matters.

So how do we create connection and build trust? Let’s take a look at the Six Keys to Creating Connection. Knowing the answers to these questions will ensure that the offers you make to prospective clients are right on target.

Who – Who are you trying to create connection with? Who is your target client or customer? The more specific you can be, the better. Once you have done this, choose one person (or organization) within your target market to focus on. Identifying and gearing your marketing to a specific individual (or organization) allows you to make the important emotional connection that is the first step in developing a relationship with your potential client.
Action: Identify your target client or customer.
What – What do they want to buy when they look for you? What are the kinds of products and services they think will solve their problems or help them reach their goals? What’s going on in their life? If you don’t know, put yourself in the shoes of the client or ask your target market. This helps you to look at what is relevant to offer. Be clear on what it is they are looking for rather than what you might like to offer.
Action: What are your potential clients looking for?
Where – Where do they look for the products and services? Is it a referral from a service provider or a friend?; the Chamber of Commerce?; a bookstore?; the web?
Action: Where do your ideal clients look for you?
When – When do they look for what you are offering? What’s the trigger? What needs to happen in their personal or business life for them to purchase your services?
Action: Describe the situations that will likely drive potential clients to seek your products and services.
Why – Why you? How is it that you are the best choice for the people you are meant to serve? What is it that is unique and special about you or the solutions you offer?
Action: Why should your potential clients choose you?
How – How do you want them to engage with you when they find out about you? Sign up for your newsletter?; attend a teleseminar or webinar?; call?; email? What’s the first no barrier to entry thing you want them to do to sample your services?
Action: How do you want your potential clients to interact or engage with you?

Clearly defining these six keys will help you to determine what you want to offer your potential clients as you create your sales process and to build trust and credibility in an authentic way.

The Six Keys to Connection are excerpted from Book Yourself Solid® by Michael Port and is a registered trademark of Michael Port & Associates LLC. Used with permission. Sherry Dutra is a Certified Book Yourself Solid® Coach and Trainer.

Trust: A Foundational Element to Leadership Success

August 8, 2017 By Sherry Dutra 1 Comment

Trust Fosters Engagement and Motivation

Consider your career for a moment. Like me, you have probably had the joyful experience of working with people you trusted as well as the dreaded experience of working with those you had to guard against at every turn. Now, put yourself in each of those situations. When did you feel most engaged and motivated? I can place a pretty strong bet that working with and for people you trusted elicited the greatest engagement and motivation. Now, let’s turn the tables. How well have you built trust with your team and colleagues? Imagine the impact of creating a trust based workplace on your quality of life as well as on your organization’s success.

The importance of trust seems to be showing up more often, especially recently, with leadership clients as well as in publications. In July’s Success magazine, there was an article by Melissa Balmain that I particularly enjoyed. I’ve summarized her 8 Steps of Trust-Building below. You can read the full article here.

8 Steps of Trust-Building

Be open
Set clear and realistic expectations with your team. Help them to see the alignment between their goals and the impact on the organization.
Walk Your Talk
Reflect on your most important values and principles and whether you are actually living by them. Tie the actions you are taking with the values and principles that drive them. Even when you make difficult decisions that not everyone agrees with, you will be respected for staying true to your beliefs.
Listen First
Stay present with what the other person is saying. Ask powerful, open-ended questions that elicit insight and are thought-provoking. Acknowledge that you’ve heard the other’s message by paraphrasing what they’ve said to check for understanding. Then, share your own thoughts, openly, honestly and without defensiveness.
Say What You’ll Do, Do What You Say
As the article states, “Nothing boosts others’ faith in you like doing what you say you’ll do, when you say you’ll do it”. Therefore, don’t overcommit. Be realistic when you make a promise to someone. This not only reduces your overwhelm because you won’t be working all hours to deliver on time, but also allows you to build trust, through actually following through on your commitments.
Admit Your Mistakes
If something goes wrong, the worst thing to do is to try and hide it. Instead, share what happened and identify a solution to resolve the situation. By doing this, you encourage others to be open when things go awry and to use those situations as opportunities to learn and grow.
Be Sincere
If you are talking about someone else, pretend that they are present to the conversation. Nothing destroys trust faster than wondering whether someone is going to say bad things about you behind your back.
Avoid Stereotypes
Stereotypes exist for just about everything from gender, to race, to generational differences, etc. Ignore them. The reality is that we all have more in common than we think. Treat each person as an individual and trust will grow.
Dive in
This is not about blind trust but what is referred to as “smart trust”. Stephen M. R. Covey states that “smart trust means weighing your impulse to trust against other people’s credibility and the opportunity and risks at hand”. Overall, the chances are pretty good that your smart trust in others will be worth it.

Your Trust Building Tips

What trust building tips have worked for you? Please feel free to share, in the comment section, both those that you’ve observed as well as ones that you have implemented yourself.

7 Keys to Enhancing Entrepreneurial Resilience

July 22, 2017 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

Entrepreneurship can be an exciting and rewarding experience. Yet, building any kind of business is not without its ups and downs. There is no question that you will encounter situations where the outcome isn’t quite what you expected or you’ll experience what you might view as a “failure”. To weather the inevitable challenges you’ll face, resilience will be a muscle you’ll want to enhance. Resilience will allow you to ride the roller coaster of entrepreneurship and to continue to offer your gifts to the world when you might otherwise give up.

What is Resilience?

The dictionary.com definition of resilience is, in part, “the ability to recover readily from adversity or the like; buoyancy”. The word buoyancy brought a childhood memory to mind. I grew up near the ocean and used to play for hours in Cape Cod Bay. I can remember tossing around a beach ball with my friends while we splashed in the water. No matter what any of us did to push that ball under the water, it always popped right back up to the surface – ready for the next game. Resilience is very much like that beach ball. No matter what you face, if your resilience is strong, you can learn from your experience, reset your course, and be ready for what’s next.

7 Keys to Enhancing Resilience

Here are some practical keys that you can incorporate into your life that will support you in enhancing your resilience. These keys will not only positively impact your entrepreneurial life but also your personal life. So what are you waiting for? Let’s explore.

Stay aligned with your purpose: I believe that we all have a purpose and that discovering yours will keep you on track no matter what circumstances arise. What are you uniquely equipped to offer to the world? What brings you the most joy and passion? The answers to these questions will give you some clues to your purpose. With a defined purpose, that you are aligned with, you naturally attract people, resources, ideas, and opportunities that support you.
Practice gratitude: Take a few moments each day, throughout the day, to appreciate and express gratitude for the people and things in your life. Stopping to notice what you are grateful for on a regular basis develops a habit of looking for good things and releases dopamine that supports a positive outlook.
Set clear goals: Research has shown that the brain loves a good goal. It will work tirelessly to give you what you focus on. The most successful and resilient people set specific, measurable and time based goals and consistently take action with the certainty that they will achieve them.
Be present while working on those goals: A 2010 Harvard study found that people spend 47% of their waking time thinking about things other than what they are working on. When you are focused on the past or focused on the future, you are taking your energy away from what’s going on right in front of you. Mindfulness, or being focused on the moment, has been shown to modify brain processes that support resilience. And, experiencing and enjoying the moment is part of the journey.
Act “as if”: Your brain doesn’t know the difference between a robust vision and reality. Don’t believe that? Then, take a moment and imagine that you have a beautiful, fragrant, juicy lemon in your hand. Cut off a slice of that lemon. Breathe in that lemony scent. Now, bring it to your mouth and take a great big bite. Salivating yet? You didn’t really just take a bite out of a lemon, did you? Yet, in creating that vision, your body reacted “as if” you had. So, start to take action in accordance with who you want to be. Act “as if” you already are being, doing and having whatever it is you want to create in your business. Your attitude will be shifted to a more optimistic place and your resilience will build.
Build a supportive team: Going it alone typically doesn’t work. Without the support of others, we tend to get stuck in doing things the way we’ve always done them. Create a community of supportive people from different backgrounds and professions who can help to keep your mind open to fresh perspectives and new ideas. Having others to lean on creates resilience-building social support.
Look for the gift: What is the opportunity in the situation you’re facing? What might the situation be trying to show you? By focusing on the opportunity rather than the challenge, you open the door to solution-finding rather than problem-solving. You choose how you want to “show up” in the situation and your positive focus enhances your resilience.

There is no one formula for enhancing resilience. Find what works for you and practice it on a regular basis. Over time, you are likely to find that how you respond to those entrepreneurial ups and downs is very much in your hands.

What has helped you to build your resilience? If you’d like to share your strategies, please add a comment.