facebook icon
Colin Kingsmill logo 300

Rebuild Confidence and Resilience

Aug 22, 2023 | Leadership, Mental Health, Workplace Well-Being

I want to acknowledge the unique challenges we face in a rapidly and ever-evolving business environment that sometimes feels like navigating on quicksand. Your confidence, resilience and sense of well-being are easily eroded if you shift your attention, even for a moment.

We have so much coming at us, such as:

  • Adapting to remote and hybrid work challenges
  • Tackling technology integration, including understanding AI
  • Urban-suburban migration
  • Redefined post-pandemic values
  • Generational and demographic shifts
  • Changing financial, geo-political and economic landscapes
  • Social and cultural changes and the minefield navigating them
  • Adapting to the Age of Knowledge and Information, it is becoming harder and harder to be commercial when people do not want to be sold to or marketed to.

These megatrends and many more challenges we face underscore the importance of adaptability, continuous learning and agility to be better positioned to thrive in this ever-evolving business landscape.

BUT, we must go beyond agility and information to maintain our resilient confidence in this new world order.

I want to give you some ideas to help you chart your course and have a harmonious blend of personal well-being and professional confidence amidst transformative trends and uncertainty.

Imagine you are on top of a tripod that is sitting on a solid base foundation. The three legs of the tripod are:

1 / You.

2 / Your Alignment with your business’ brand promise [that is, its mission, vision, values, attributes, tone of voice and all the other ingredients of a brand].

3 / Your Interpreting of the World Around You.

The work to do in these three legs is to:

1 / You: Have a solid personal toolkit (this is a blend of your personal brand promise where you know where you are going, regardless of the department or company you are with, your values and your destination).

2 / Alignment: Understand what elements of your toolkit align with the brand promise of your business (once you are clear about your toolkit, you can make easier decisions as they relate to your work within the organisation).

3 / Interpretation: Understand the world around you instead of reacting to the headlines. Increase your sense of calm by being informed of the megatrends affecting everyone. Clarity about the bigger picture makes the day-to-day easier. It is an exercise in sense-making to reduce some of the fear that comes with our information overload and headline news.

After you have clarity on the tripod, build a solid foundation of mental fitness:

  • Create your Personal Protection System: turn off the news, and get informed [see news as a product versus getting informed by reading the source materials, Substack, podcasts and journals].
  • Listen to yourself and your body.
  • Build daily rituals around mindfulness and mental-emotional fitness. Focus on self-care practices: put on your oxygen mask first. Meditation and mindfulness significantly impact confidence, attitude, and reactivity.
  • Mental Fitness: watch for unaddressed small t-trauma (symptoms include trouble setting boundaries, easily triggered or reactivity, attachment issues, saying yes when you mean no, and difficulty with team or social interaction)
  • Live and Work with Integrity.
  • Deconstruct the narratives in your head and reconstruct new ones: beliefs that no longer serve you. Self-limiting beliefs are an opaque lens through which you see your life and work. You want to remove those to have clarity.

At the end of the day, remember:

  • Be gentle and kind to yourself. Life is hard enough without self-limiting belief talk.
  • Evolutionary biology has not caught up with our hyper-novel progress, so know that it is perfectly fine to feel out of sorts. It is normal to feel off, but know that the new normal is not normal. Baseline stress levels are elevated more than ever before.
  • Navigating these times is like no other in our history. In the past, you would set your destination, chart your course, and if you did everything right, you would succeed. Today, there isn’t autopilot anymore.

===

Sense-making Resources:

My previous post is here.

Colin Kingsmill logo 300

BROWSE RECENT POSTS

How to Cope in These Complex Times

It has become increasingly clear that everyone needs a personal protection system to shield ourselves from the complexities of life.

Shelf versus Self-Development

How to shift from shelf versus self-development through mindfulness and meditation.

Escape the Closed Circuit

In the age of connectivity and endless choice, many are trapped in a relentless cycle of consumption, distraction, and medication.

Unveiling the Heartbeat of Today’s Workplace: What Sparks Joy and Fulfilment at Work?

Our workplace ethos is undergoing a seismic shift as we whirl through this ever-changing world. What sparks fulfilment today?

5 Ways You Can Create Cultural Cohesion

Everything related to the workplace has changed in the past few years. People’s priorities have shifted dramatically.

Designing Your Leadership Toolkit

Designing your career is a lot more like navigating the seas. Where is your destination; what is your brand; what are your values?

Overcoming Impostor Syndrome as a Leader

Despite your accomplishments, you think you don’t deserve to be where you are. This feeling, known as Impostor Syndrome, affects many leaders today.

Reimagining the Performance Review

Performance reviews can be a nerve-wracking experience. Isn’t it time to reimagine this annual ritual? What if we pivot away?

The Impact of Trauma at Work

Trauma often gets associated with war, abuse, or natural disasters, which we instantly identify as traumatic. Yet, unrecognised traumas can affect daily work.

Mental Draino

This week on a coaching call, a client told me that I was like Mental Draino. I have never considered myself that way, but it is a good analogy.