Lidia Chmel – The Importance of Resilience

In this episode with Lidia Chmel, we talked about the following:

• Studying happiness led to understanding the importance of optimism
• Definition of resilience – African saying “You know how well the house was built when the rain comes”
• Resilience is a skill that can be built
• We need to invest in it well before we need it – the difference between vitamin and medicine
• Resilience is the ability to bounce forward instead of back
• The role of the leader is to close the gap between the real world and ideal world i.e. helping employees become resilient
• Begin with yourself and strengthen in three domains:
  • Physical-our body, sleep, food, exercise etc.
  • Emotions – mindfulness to help manage nervous system
  • Mental – how we think – pay attention to self talk
• Optimism is a skill
• Start small, change one thing at a time
• Once habits are established, they are easier to re-establish and we are energized by remembering how good it feels
• What can leader do?
  • Start by being a role model and demonstrating healthy habits
  • Open meetings with a mindfulness exercise
  • Build a bridge between fun forms of recognition toward the vision that will help us stay resilient
  • Ask the team for input to change

Lidia has studied resilience as a method for preventing burnout. She has written a book guiding women through life transitions and turbulent times so they feel grounded and confident, and able to face current and future challenges.

We will discuss what it means to be resilient, why it’s so important to build habits that support resilience and some practical ways to sustain one’s resilience.

You can find more about Lidia Chmel here: Lidia at Coach.me

You are invited to join the Resilient Leadership group on LinkedIn.
Request to become a member here The Resilient Leader’s Playbook.