The 3 Principles of Resiliency

On June 4, 1940, the future of Great Britain seemed to hang in the balance. Nazi tyranny had spread to Western Europe, and bombing campaigns were becoming more widespread.

"We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be,” Prime Minister Winston Churchill urged his fellow countrymen. “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender."

Though our own leadership stakes are far different than Churchill’s, the notion of never quitting, never relenting, inevitably appears in various aspects of our own lives.

This week in particular, it will be echoed across the college basketball world with the beginning of the NCAA tournament. Teams will have to exhibit their own resiliency as they face tough opponents far from the confines of their own gyms.

The ability to be resilient may be the single most important factor in determining who actually advances and who is eliminated.

But how many of us truly understand what resiliency means? Ultimately, it involves three key principles:

1. Adaptability to the moment. Having resiliency means we accept a sudden pivot, a quick adjustment that will help structure the mission.

2. Persistence before and during. Everyone discusses being persistent during the contest, but being able to be persistent before it — not reading or believing the good or the bad — allows resiliency to shine.

3. Learning. People with great resiliency crave knowledge, and through their intellectual stimulation, they fortify their resolve.

Being resilient is not a matter of throwing out cliches and pleading with our team members to “stick with it.” It means articulating a vision and spelling out how to handle inevitable hardship long before it ever arises.

Unless we explain what resiliency actually means and looks like, we cannot possibly expect our teams to exhibit it.