When I was a kid, it was often said of me that I would “land in shit and always come out smelling of roses”. At the time, I took this to mean that was I was always landing myself in the aforementioned (let’s call it muck now – I don’t want to put you off!). But what I didn’t realise is that the muck part wasn’t important. They were referring to resilience: my ability to acknowledge my failures, to take great learning from them, to get back up and try again. And I have identified over the past five or six years that one of the key skills that a business leader needs for success is that same resilience for when they fall down.

Another thing they need is huge sense of humour, because let’s face it, people falling in muck is kind of funny. It might not feel like at the time, and maybe not when it’s happening to you, but there’s a reason You’ve Been Framed is still on the telly – it’s inexplicably funny. So to survive a fall, you must be able to laugh about it, and take the helping hand that’s reaching out to help you back up.

So as a business owner, you need to bring a sense of humour and resilience to what you do: and these are two of the things that I help cultivate with the clients I support, finding that resilience, and harnessing their natural sense of humour.

Making it Clear

The other thing that my childhood misunderstanding about muck taught me was the importance of communication: good, clear communication, that gives people no doubt about what you mean, and that you mean it too. It’s something that I have battled with often, not least because I don’t live in the country of my birth, and I have many wee expressions that often confuse people. Understanding that confusion can simply be “I need to see it another way” – and that this can often be missed in the ‘busyness’ of business. So I also help my clients understand how to communicate more effectively, both to their clients and to their team.

Once we have established a great sense of humour, resilience, and clear communication, clients are now on a pathway to understand better what it’s going to take to take their business to their next level. That’s why leadership coaching for me is one of the essential places that business owners must go to in order to thrive in their business.

But how do you get more resilient?

It’s all very well saying you need to be resilient, but where does that power come from? Well, let’s go back to when you were somewhere between the ages of 18 months and two years old – or in my case 10 months, allegedly – and you discovered your legs. The sole purpose of your entire day was suddenly getting up on your two feet, staying upright, and moving forward. That’s all that you ever thought about, and when you’d stood up and moved forward for the first time, you were surrounded by lots of cheers and applause and celebration. You did it! Yay, clever girl!

That’s where your resilience was born. And it comes from being single-mindedly focused on the outcome that you want to achieve.

Resilience as a business owner means staying completely focused on the outcome you want your business to achieve – and so for you to get up on your two feet and keep moving forward, it’s critical that you know what it is you’re trying to achieve. It’s fundamental to your success that you’re clear about how you believe you’re going to get there, and it’s absolutely necessary that you have enough padding around you so that when you fall, you bounce back on your two feet and keep going.

Resilience in business is like oxygen. You will not survive without it.

One of the ways that you can reconnect with and grow your level of resilience is by being organised, with thorough planning. And that’s why The Business Spa has created planning workshops that help give you the clarity of focus for the outcomes that you want, supporting you to achieve greater levels of resilience and ultimately the sustainable growth of your business.

Finding the Helping Hands

One of the key indicators that you are growing in your resilience is your ability to be able to laugh in the face of your failures; to learn from them, and to adopt the curiosity of a toddler. They explore the world without fear of the consequences, and trust that they have unseen, helping hands around them; hands that are ready to reach out and catch them when they fall, dust them off, and help them get going again.

You to have put yourself in an environment where you can receive that same supportive advice and guidance. You need to feel confident that the risks you inevitably have to take, and the decisions you make, are taking you in the direction you want to go.

Armed with more resilience, and a robust sense of humour, clarity about where you want to go, and having a support network around you, you’ll be setting you and your business up for success; and the realisation that achieving your vision for the business is entirely possible.

How to get these things?

In order to achieve this state of confidence you need to know your core needs – for you as a business leader, and for the business itself. This is a key area that I work on with my clients to help them understand what happens when they’re making decisions. What needs to be in place for them to have the confidence that they’re moving in the right direction?

Then we take a look at how those needs are evident in how they present themselves in the world. What values are important to them, and therefore what values are also necessary for the success of their business?

When these fundamental needs are aligned with an understanding of how their values are impacting them, we can begin to craft more purposeful strategies that support the vision they have for their business, that will be fed by that resilience, sense of humour and focus that we mentioned before. These strategies are robust and creative and agile, helping them to step into being the confident, wise leader that their business needs – supported by a community of helping hands.

We’ve created a community, a group of purpose-driven business owners, where they can express their challenges and their opportunities to benefit from the collective wisdom of the group – and learn from the challenges and opportunities of the other members of the group. That sense of connection helps boost their self-confidence that they’re not doing this alone; that in fact they have those unseen helping hands, supporting them whenever they need it.

And sometimes it’s necessary for us to face truth that we often “don’t know what we don’t know”. Having access to and the support of experienced entrepreneurial business mentors helps them appreciate the journey of the entrepreneur. It also reassures them that this eternal rollercoaster that we call business can be fun, can be a little daunting, but ultimately it’s thrilling, right?

What support do you have in your business to keep you connected, confident and creative and ensure the sustainable success of your business? If it’s something you’re missing, come and see us at The Business Spa…we’d love to meet you: The Business Spa Event Bookings