Resiliency: The idea is how to be a good leader in an imperfect environment, not trying to create the perfect environment to be a good leader.

When we talk about the importance of ownership in being a great leader, the definition of ownership always includes 5 elements: accountability, resourcefulness, resiliency, a whatever it takes attitude, and a no-excuses approach. Let’s focus on resiliency today.

We all have things that knock us off our game and make us less than we can be or want to be. Take 30 seconds and think about what those things are for you. (Example: When someone doesn’t do what they’re supposed to do, or When I don’t have all the information I need to do my job, or When someone gets overly emotional.)

These things you need to have in order to be at your best—like, you need people to do their job, you need all the data, you need cool, capable team members—these are called stress needs. Resiliency comes into play when stress needs aren’t being met. And when you think about your day-to-day reality, there are probably just as many times (or more) that your stress needs aren’t being met as when things are smooth sailing.

Part of being a great leader is continuing to lead well even when the people or the environment is not at its best.

To do that, to be that consistent leader, you have to understand what’s going to knock you off your rails and not let it take you so far off that you can’t recover and self-correct.

That ability to self-correct, to be psychologically hearty, is what resiliency is all about. You’re always going to face imperfect challenges with not enough time, not enough resources, not enough people, not enough tools, and no one listening to you. That’s just the nature of leadership. So the challenge of leadership—really the art of leadership—starts in this very imperfect environment.

Resiliency means you are psychologically hearty enough to be able to deal with that. To walk into a situation and be resourceful because you expect these issues will occur and are ready to turn them around in a positive way.

A big part of that is understanding that everyone doesn’t have the same stress needs as you. Different things derail different people, and that’s normal. People aren’t necessarily trying to throw you off—their needs are just different.

The quality of your leadership is in your ability to be with certain kinds of actions and certain kinds of people and to be able to coax them, align them, lead them, to a different mindset.

Resiliency is critical to ownership. Ownership is easy in a perfect world…where you control everything. Like everybody. Where everybody’s positive. Where you have enough time. Everybody’s idea of perfect is different. But it rarely exists. So the idea is to be a really good leader in this imperfect environment, not try to create the perfect environment to be a good leader. That’s a mindset of ownership.

Think about it. When you’re at your most compromised, how do you react? How do you see others…how do you see yourself… how do you see your situation? And how do you LEAD right through it all? That’s resiliency!