Resilience - the hidden trait

4/02/2018
Our experiences on the Women on Boards Next Generation of Corporate Female Leaders Program influenced the selection of our project theme. The first session held in Sydney challenged traditional leadership models and explored the more contemporary capabilities required of leaders in the future. The rapid pace of change and disruption experienced by business and increasing complexity is making it more difficult for leaders to predict and plan for future events and impacts. 
 
The objective of our project was to explore the importance of personal/professional resilience and how it helps shape a more resilient organisation to drive change or cope with disruption, heightened ambiguity, volatility and rapid change.  

We interviewed leaders across business, government, not for profit and other organisations to discover the extent that personal resilience translates into professional capability and enterprise leadership. In doing so, we explored the belief that resilience is core to leadership and required of leaders particularly during times of rapid change.  

We learned a lot from the community and business leaders we interviewed. We learned that personal resilience is linked with professional success. All our leaders draw on their personal resilience to operate in a more resilient manner in their professional lives.   

What is resilience  
We found that definitions of resilience varied based on personal experiences. Broadly speaking, we believe resilience has three key traits: the capacity to recover quickly; to spring back into shape; and to adapt in response to adversity.  
We also found the topic of resilience to be too broad for just one definition and that resilience is manifested in a number of forms. The five forms that resonated with us the most included: emotional; physical; changing; hidden; and shared.  

Why resilience is important  
We also learned that organisations benefited from being resilient by:  
− Being future ready − Giving teams confidence − Being able to take more risks − Continuing to move forward − Bouncing back after a setback − Being less reliant on key personnel.  

Present by: 2017 Next Gen Syndicate: Phoenix
Zekija Glamocic, Kate McDonald, Manami Ray, Catherine Sherwin and Emily Wooden Syndicate Mentor: Sheena Wilson 
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