There are opportunities and challenges in life; or is it challenges and opportunities?
Whatever your point of view, there will be times when things just don’t seem to be going our way. Events occur in our orbit that encourage course corrections or a change in direction.
Have you ever found that you needed to recalibrate your personal GPS?
We often talk about turning lemons into lemonade and that too creates a powerful visual image to describe a change or course correction. These changes affect both our personal and professional life and present opportunities that create lightbulb moments.
Entrepreneurship, and business in general is all about risk and reward. Don’t you find that this also applies to our personal goals? We make decisions based on the information we have at the time which we feel will give us the best results.
What if there is a dark cloud looming in the distance or it has actually started to rain on our parade?
What qualities do we need to nurture in order to build resilience and create new roadmaps for success?
Emotional intelligence or EQ is a leadership tool that helps build strategic action plans so that we are able to navigate results. It also highlights skills to assist with resilience when we find the need to recalibrate.
There are 5 quadrants with 15 soft skills that we may use to assist with the process and the personalized report is a powerful tool for self reflection.
In recent weeks, I’ve been having conversations with friends and colleagues about building resilience so that it creates a positive attitude when the “going gets tough.”
Here are few of the soft skills that we agree will assist with the process:
- Impulse Control
Take a minute or two to process the information
before changing the plan. A little breathing
space will create the opportunity to discuss a
solution when faced with a challenge. - Self-Regard
Reviewing our strengths and weaknesses will
highlight opportunities. Reaching out to friends and
colleagues to brainstorm ideas will lead to a
workable solution. It’s OK to ask for help! - Optimism
Having to rely on our own positive attitude will
encourage creative solutions, collaboration and
insight into how to best resolve, solve and recalibrate
the roadmap.
What is especially helpful when we analyze each situation are the lessons learned from honing the skills that contribute to building resilience.
For example: You’ve just heard that a project you’ve been working on has taken an unpleasant turn based on information that was shared out of context. What do you do? Shock or panic is the first emotion, especially if you feel you had taken the necessary steps of due diligence and connected all of the dots before you launched the program. Perhaps anger at the lack of integrity and professionalism from someone in your network. First take a moment to pause…assess, then develop an action plan.
Action Plan: When developing a plan; lean on your skills for self control. Taking a pause or deep breathe will clear your mind and centre your energy. Then reconnect with your self-regard. Take a look at who in your network may assist with navigating an appropriate response that includes positive action. A clear perspective is invaluable when developing a strategy. When you’ve mapped out an appropriate response, implement the plan that will turn the negative into a positive. A sound action plan will create results.
Results: Wait the appropriate time for your action plan to take shape. Confirm the deliverables are working in your favour and trust in the outcome. Fuel your energy with a positive attitude that creates optimism and confidence. Honesty is the best policy, admit when you’ve made a mistake and take the appropriate steps to ensure that you’ve managed the situation with poise and professionalism. Revisit the outcome and compare the objectives. When the dust has settled, reflect on the results with gratitude.
Taking a proactive approach will provide you with a process in the future that will build and sustain resilience. It is a method that allows you to create a plan and take positive action.
The next time you find that you’re in an uncomfortable place and looking for a solution; rinse and repeat.
Opportunities and challenges are part of everyday life, developing a process and building resilience will provide a successful platform when we need to recalibrate our own GPS.
Trish Tonaj is a Certifed Master Coach, Author, Mentor and Speaker offering keynotes and workshops on how to amplify your success. Trish is the founder and guest blog host for shareyourstories.online a portal in support of mentorship and the entrepreneurial spirit. We invite you to share your story!