A crash to ice

By Craig Mcintosh

D id you see American figure skater,Jeremy Abbott,crash to the ice during the short program at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics,rolling into the wall,clutching his side in pain.Ten seconds later,he got up and continued his skate—despite the pain,embarrassment and fear.All I could think was:this kid’s got courage.In business we have a word for it—resilience,the ability to gain strengths and confidence from overcoming unpleasant events.

However,opposite examples appeared in Sochi Olympics as well.For them,failure is someone else’s fault,because they do not accept personal responsibility.Therefore,they have to pay a high price for this attitude.After years of studying failure,I have learned one thing:modesty and open-mindedness in the face of mistakes is the single best thing you can do to improve results.Everyone fails,but not everyone recovers from failure.The key is to learn from it rather than get beaten by it.

The good news is that each of us has the potential to live a resilient life on and off the job.It may be difficult,but that just makes it all the more powerful and important.If you believe the above paragraph to be true,then you’re probably more resilient than you think you are.It takes confidence to be resilient but that too much confidence is a killer is so true of leadership.For example,Ron Johnson,the ill-fated CEO of JC Penney,was so stubborn that he completely missed all sorts of signals from employees and customers and instead listened to all those who agreed with him,which failed his strategy.Bouncing back from failure requires that you recognize something has gone wrong,and you were the one who made it happen.

The challenge of resilience is not just about our work.When parents help their kids deal with every challenging situation,they are doing an unhelpful action to their children.Parents want to protect their kids from failure,but doing so takes away the opportunity from them to practice not just a life skill but an essential work skill.When self-esteem becomes more important than results,we are accidently training young people to become less adaptable,not more.

Resilience is not just about getting up off the floor,but also being ready for whatever comes next,even when you don’t know what it is.Failures and setbacks are no longer unusual events,but regular features of a dynamic,competitive and highly demanding work environment.Getting up to finish your skate is no longer optional.