The art of turning The art of turning tough times tough times into into triumphtriumph

*It’s often during life’s most difficult times,

*that we discover our most critical hidden strengths

*And that we forge our most important capabilities

*Question # 1:

*What is the one quality you most like about yourself?

*Question # 2:

*Can you think of a time in your life when you first discovered or developed your higher level of adaptability?

*People discover or develop their most important qualities when times get tough

*At some point, you hit the bottom (disintegration)

*And then you reintegrate (bounce back) around some new ideas – ideas that include a really important quality or adaptability

*To continue to move up the competitive ladder, there is always a tougher disintegration

*People are too concerned about getting the right people,

*when they should be concerned about the people right.

*The Army does this by focusing 10 % of the effort on getting the right people,

*And 90 % on getting the people right .

*Pressure always generates anxiety

*You need to have the right type of anxiety

*there are 2 types of anxiety

*Type 1: the fear of change

*Type 2: the fear of what will happen to you if you don’t change

*Anxiety 2 always exceeds Anxiety 1

*The job of the leader is to convert Anxiety 1 to Anxiety 2 by showing what can be done about the situation.

*Christmas ornament: hold shoulder high, drop it and it shatters – falls apart

*Orange: hold shoulder high, drop it, and it plops, lands with a thud, bruises

*Rubber Ball: hold shoulder high, drop it, and it bounces back, pretty high! – grow stronger

*Ability to bounce back

*How do you improve your resilience structure?

*Learn new ways to deal with setbacks

*Avoid reverting to what you always used to do

*Mental aspect to an effective bounce

*See reality clearly

*Treat causes, not symptoms

*“We control,” not “they control”

*Hold hands in traffic - stay together

*Mental Toughness

*1 .. Embrace the bounce

*2 .. Manage the anxiety

*3 .. Manage the mental factors

*4 .. Manage the money

*5 .. Manage the mission

*6 .. Manage the morale

Think of these as concentric layers of a ball, each outer layer dependent on underneath layers

*Life is adaptation, repeated disintegration and reintegration in the face of change.

*Never a matter of IF, but always WHEN

*Successful people disintegrate and reintegrate quickly and successfully

*Most resilient people are good at giving up old ways of thinking, and of adapting new ideas and approaches, which can significantly influence the depth and duration of the drop

*Leaders need to learn how to (1) absorb and contain anxiety when anxiety levels get high and (2) master the art of turning one kind of anxiety into another

*Shifting the fear from “what might happen to us” to “what might happen to us if we don’t change” helps to relieve organizational stress

*See things as they really are –

*Avoid reverting to old ways of thinking and acting

*Avoid being influenced by wishfulness, which can cause an underestimation of the situation

*Involve other people in thinking through the issue

*Involve outsiders – more objective, less prejudice

*Emphasize ‘we control” vs “they control”

*Hold hands in traffic – stay together

*Ability to generate value, by providing value

*Act as a shock absorber – balance the drive to expand with the need to protect

*Act as a strategic compass -- prioritize -- don’t focus a large amount of time and energy on a low amount of return

*A sense of purpose that is the central organizing principle of everything you do

*Highly specific, clearly stated, and widely embraced goal that carries with it a strong sense of the imperative

*Mission is the thing upon which all the other things are based

*Morale - Firmness in the face of danger, failure and difficulties

*Leaders who strike a balance between decisive action and thoughtful consideration

*During difficult times, face the facts squarely and strongly reinforce a belief in the ability to solve whatever problems are being faced and emerge even stronger as a result. The trick is to stress both at the same time

* it is the people in an organization who will, in the end, determine the morale