They say that a bow is the most durable structure that a human hand has made. If this is true, then resilience –  the bow we assemble within ourselves – is actually a trait that helsp us face difficulties, mobilize inner strengths and resources and return to our original balance.

Today, resilience is considered to be one of the most important traits that helps managers cope with VUCA times (short for Vulnerability, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity).

COVID-19, as the flagship of the VUCA times we live in is testing the resilience of managers around the world. No matter how much you rely on previous experience in management, sooner or later you admit to yourself that this is something completely different.

You think rationally, you design reserve variants, you play a classic chess game of management with endless planning in advance and you answer “what if?” questions. Thinking can not hurt, but it doesn’t strengthen the bow of resilience.

The foundation of every bow of resilience lies in self-confidence. Trust in the team that works with you is based on that trust.

You know that the positive and the negative go hand in hand and that at the end of the day everything will be fine. It will not be easy but it is important to keep a positive feeling.

In managing others, the first step has always been self-management. How do you look at the situation? Do you paint things black and white in your thoughts and thus react that way, or do you manage to see thousands of shades of gray?

Black-and-white situations are unrealistic extremes and so is our behavior. And decisions that will affect the destinies of the people who work with us also depend on our behavior.

Resilience also means awareness – what is actually happening? You stop, you ask yourself, you realize that you are scared, but you also wonder what you are scared of? Are you worried? Okay, why? What can happen? ?Are you mad? Are you sad? Anxious?

By stopping and asking ourselves what is happening and why are we reacting this way, it mostly leads to us becoming calmer and looking at the world around us more realistically. Then you do the same thing with a team of people around you.

A colleague got angry? What affected him? And the other colleague seems scared too. What is going on?

Let’s try to ask ourselves what is happening inside of us and around us in order to release the inner energy for the next firmer of the bow of resilience – focusing.

With sound mind we decide where to focus. What are the priorities?

If we continue to build a bow of resilience in ourselves, we cannot forget about elasticity – a trait of returning to normal after a crisis like a yo-yo ball. No matter how the crisis affects us, we have the inner strength to put ourselves and the team back into balance. A lion is chasing an antelope in savannah, her heart is beating like crazy as she is running away from the lion. Once she manages to escape, after a few minutes she lies quietly under a baobab tree while her heart is beating normally. This metaphor vividly describes our return to normality. A man of 21st century sometimes continues to hear the lion in every rustle of  bush, his heart continues to beat rapidly for a long time even when the “danger” has passed. If he manages others, the whole team will have a tachycardia without lions in sight. Resilient teams and managers are like bamboos in the wind – they bend and return to default position even in the strongest wind.

If we continue to explore the bow of resilience, we come across the glue that attaches all of the above – connectivity! They say that forest trees communicate through roots. A boss who makes decisions on his own in times of crisis – mostly makes bad decisions. In VUCA times it is necessary to rely on a team and pass on a part of the control and authority to the team, with mutual trust. To share information with a team and, as much as possible, to communicate the complete picture of events. If it is necessary to make difficult decisions, values ​​of an organization should be respected in consultation with the members of the team that manages the company.

Sometimes the mere presence of a manager in times of crisis is vital to increase trust in a company. Being present (even online) doesn’t mean that we need to solve team’s or team member’s problems or make decisions for them. It’s important that you are available during times of crisis. Call employees and ask them honestly how they are, ask about their teams, relations, satisfaction, hobbies, concerns.

Resilience is a trait that is built whole life, and a crisis is a chance to determine our bow of resilience. It is created through small experiments with oneself – that’s why this moment is an ideal opportunity to try something new in our management style, if nothing else, then because the old is not worth much in VUCA times. Minimal strengthening of the manager’s bow of resilience is positively multiplied in strengthening the resilience of the team he manages.

(Biznis magazine, April 2020)