One of the most popular topics in positive psychology is resilience. In a nutshell, resilience is the mental reservoir of strength that people call on in times of need when things are falling apart. It’s such a hot topic for good reason: having resilience has been shown to improve overall well-being, can lower depression levels, and - perhaps most important of all - it can be improved.

“Individually we are one drop. Together we are an ocean.”

- Ryunosuke Satoro

While many view resilience as some solitary “miracle” personality trait reserved for only certain types of people, new research shows that resilience is also heavily enabled by strong relationships and networks. According to this Harvard Business Review article, “Our personal and professional interactions can help us alter the magnitude of the challenge we’re facing. They can help us crystalize the meaningful purpose in what we are doing or help us see a path forward to overcome a setback - these are the kinds of interactions that motivate us to persist.”

The question then becomes…are your relationships helping support your resilience? Here’s an exercise to help you start thinking this through.

Establishing Your Square Squad 

In Dare to Lead, we teach a technique called Rising Skills. Developed by Brené Brown, the idea behind Rising Skills is that people are more willing and able to be brave, take risks, and rumble with vulnerability when they know how to rise before they fall. One tool to help us rise is by establishing what Brown calls a Square Squad, or a small list of the people who will respond to you with empathy when we’re down. By identifying a small but intimate group of people whose opinions matter most to us, we know exactly who to reach out to when we need to share something vulnerable or overcome a setback. Who would you include in your Square squad?

GREATNESS TAKES GUIDANCE

We’re excited to announce that we currently have a few ways to support you in building resilience.

• The first, is inside our group coaching program, Activate. Inside, we dive into the power of a growth mindset, a prerequisite for resilient leaders. Joining Activate also means you’ll also get a customized strength-based development plan, which you can use to identify the key partners in your life that can help you increase your power, edge, and help you feel less stressed when you’re stuck or suffering. You’ll also have your own built-in Square Squad!

• Dare to Lead is an empirically based courage-building leadership program designed to help individuals, teams and organizations move from armored leadership to daring leadership.

• Consider building a free Manager Success Roadmap during a free, 30-minute strategy session with one of Leadology's directors. This is available to small and medium business owners, HR leaders, and anyone involved in learning and development at their company. To apply, please visit our contact page and fill out the form.

To learn more, book a call with our team. 

Carrie & Team Leadology!