The Power of Positive Habits

Psychologists and neuroscientists say that building habits is our brain’s way of saving energy. Turning something into a habit or a routine allows our brains to run on autopilot, making us more efficient at important things, like, perhaps, survival. Because of this efficiency, we have become more resilient over time. You don’t brush and floss your teeth because you spend time scheduling those activities into your day, you just do it because they are habit. Because of that habit, your mouth is more resilient to the threat of tooth and gum disease. It’s just one of the amazing ways our brains have helped us along our evolutionary path.

Positive habits are those that make us healthier and happier people. For example, the above-mentioned dental care, quality sleep, healthy foods, or an exercise routine are just a few examples of these positive habits. Just as these habits make us more physically resilient to stress and sickness, there is an entire group of habits that help us mentally and emotionally. These can include a daily meditation practice, volunteer work, or connecting to our loved ones and fellow community members, and these are the habits that make us more emotionally resilient to the stress and craziness around us.

High-performance coach and author Brendon Burchard has a wealth of experience in teaching his clients just how important these habits are to our overall health and resilience in life. In his Positive Habits presentation, he teaches his GrowthDay crowd how strengthening our connections and our relationships is what will build us a strong enough foundation to weather the storms that are inevitably going to happen. Check out this brief and fun video for some tips on how to cultivate more resilience in your life.

The Power of Vicarious Learning

Goodness knows the past few years have been a test for all of us in weathering crises. This applies to us not only as individuals, but also as business entities. Unfortunately, many businesses have not been able to withstand the repeated storms. So what sets those businesses apart that are able to maintain resilience in difficult times? In Wharton’s newest Nano-Tool for Leaders, Wharton Dean Erika James and Simmons University President Lynn Perry Wooten introduce how the concept of vicarious learning can be the secret to surviving. Adapted from their 2022 book; The Prepared Leader: Emerge From Any Crisis More Resilient Than Before, this nano-tool will help guide any leader into absorbing knowledge from others who have lived through similar situations.

Recovering from a crisis takes adaptability, innovation, and resilience. This recovery process inevitably leads to lessons learned, and greater experience gained. But what if there was a way to integrate those lessons and experience before the crisis occurred? The main step in this Nano-Tool is to learn vicariously from others’ experiences, be they competitors, leaders in the industry, or organizations. James and Wooten take this opportunity to lay out some simple action items that any leader can use to start taking in information prior to disaster striking.

The first takes place prior to a crisis, and the focus is to drive a culture of learning within the business or organization. Take the time to read up on industry standards, competing businesses and any outcomes they experienced, and which red flags are signaling trouble. Secondly, during crisis management the focus is to remain open to all input and learn from as many different sources as possible. With this, management will consistently drive toward recovery. Lastly, after the initial issues have been dealt with, it is imperative to reflect on how things were handled and which lessons were learned. Putting together a review will directly translate into readiness for the future.

These Nano-Tools are a wonderful resource for leaders. Check out the full article here, and use the action items to get you started on your journey of vicarious learning. There’s even a PDF version for extra convenience!

A Resilience Workout

Resilience is defined as the ability of a person to adjust to or recover readily from illness, adversity, major life changes, etc. This has been a hot topic over the last few years and goodness knows we have all been put to the test. Resiliency is not necessarily a trait that comes naturally, but luckily it can be taught and developed with proper exercises. We just need to flex our resiliency muscles.

Often called the ‘father of positive psychology’, Martin E.P. Seligman has developed his PERMA resilience training program over the past 30 years. His major research was focused on applying this method to military personnel who had experienced a traumatic event. In this groundbreaking research, he used the following tools:

• Positive emotion;

• Engagement;

• Relationships;

• Meaning; and

• Accomplishment.

While some of the ideas proposed in each of these subjects may be a bit intangible, through proper application soldiers were able to mentally recover from trauma much more quickly than others.

Resilience training in the workplace has proved to not only benefit employees’ well being and mindset, but can also increase profits. One study of a two-month-long resilience training program resulted in a $1,846 gain per person for the company due to reduced presenteeism. Take a few minutes to read this article, listen to the associated interview, and even watch a video. We can all benefit from resilience training in our own lives, but see if it can help boost your business too.

The Psychology of Resiliency

“Psychologically, we all have long COVID by this point,” says Lauren Eskreis-Winkler, an assistant professor of management and organizations at the Kellogg School in her new research. Although some of us may not have been directly affected by the virus itself, not a single person has been able to escape the long term psychological stress. So how do we thrive - and work - through these times?

We would all like to think that we are learning and improving through our (many) failures over the past few years, but Ms. Eskreis-Winkler’s research says otherwise. Because failures, especially repeated failures, threaten our egos, “People often choose to disengage. They choose not to attend to their failures, and as a result, they learn very little.”

Many of us are experiencing these setbacks on an almost daily basis. This kind of experience does not lead to the resiliency we all need right now. The good news is, leadership can take steps to create a work culture that embodies a ‘growth mindset’, and lives up to the resiliency goals we all aspire to. Check out Kellogg’s new article featuring this new research, and what leadership can do to help change the perspective.

A New Year in Which to Lead

Here it is: 2022. We have arrived. After the tumultuousness of the past 5 years, and in particular the past 2 years, we are all looking for some hope as we enter this new year. Hence, we are all seeing more “new year, new you” comments than ever before. But instead of reinventing oneself, perhaps it’s time we reinvent how the C-suite and business owners lead with grace.

Enter: The Five Graces, a recent article featured in Chief Executive Magazine by Gary D. Burnison. Mr. Burnison defines grace as the goodwill of human nature predisposed to helping others. In his inspiring and insightful article he describes five qualities of a leader: gratitude, resilience, aspiration, courage and empathy. To truly be a grounded and influential leader, one must embody all of these. Take a few minutes to read this brief article and use this opportunity to realign your priorities for the new year.