On resilience or the art of bouncing back

The importance of coaching people for resilience is an idea that’s been cropping up recently.

A conversation with a colleague about a coaching goal that both manager and team members could share in difficult circumstances: “being resilient” was the outcome we came up with.

A discussion on resilience and happiness at the Living Out Loud site – how happiness might not be something people expect or want from work, but that resilience is something they now looking for. As Hilda
says:

In an increasingly stressful workplace, everyone wants to be able to cope with the demands placed upon them, and with juggling their roles in and out of work. “Resilience” is something they clearly see the benefit of.

And I don’t know about you but I’ve seen a lot of really challenging work circumstances – for myself, colleagues, friends, clients, people I bump into. Circumstances that can’t easily be changed. And in those
circumstances sometimes all you can do is change is the way that you deal with the stuff that happens to you.

Now there’s a great new word for it too: “bouncebackability“.
Coined by Anna Farmery at the Engaging Brand (although she says she heard it first from a football manager), her explanation of the BOUNCE in bouncebackability is:

B= Be brave enough to accept the learnings, be brave enough to be honest and humble.
O= Own the actions that you need to take to ensure you don’t make the same mistake twice.
U= Understand what is real and what is perception. Often people mix up reality and feelings… Ask how do you
N= Never give up….you never know how close you are to that success. You may be one step away…
C= Consider what has happened in a positive way. OK you may have some negative feelings but when things go wrong that is when you learn the most about yourself and those around you…
E= Energise yourself by taking the learnings and feeding your inner voice. Remember how it
feels and use that to succeed in the future. Successful people have all made mistakes, just not the same ones twice. Let the experience fuel your determination, fuel your desire to bounce back and show yourself (and maybe others) that you have learned and that you will succeed in
the future.

What a great set of ingredients for being resilient, for bouncing back. And don’t you love the word – I feel more positive just saying “bouncebackability”… and for me it immediately conjures up a sense of
movement, of energy, of dynamism, of springing back…

So what do you think? How important is resilience to you? How have you managed to bounce back in the past… and what are your magic ingredients for bouncing into the future?