Building Resilience Skills

In 2008, Michael Phelps won Olympic GOLD - completely blind. The moment he dove in, his goggles filled with water. But he kept swimming. Most swimmers would’ve fallen apart. Phelps didn’t - because he had trained for chaos, hundreds of times. His coach, Bob Bowman, would break his goggles, remove clocks, exhaust him deliberately. Why? Because when you train under stress, performance becomes instinct. Psychologists call this stress inoculation. When you expose yourself to small, manageable stress: - Your amygdala (fear centre) becomes less reactive. - Your prefrontal cortex (logic centre) stays calmer under pressure. Phelps had rehearsed swimming blind so often that it felt normal. He knew the stroke count. He hit the wall without seeing it. And won GOLD by 0.01 seconds. The same science is why: - Navy SEALs tie their hands and practice underwater survival. - Astronauts simulate system failures in zero gravity. - Emergency responders train inside burning buildings. And you can build it too. Here’s how: ✅ Expose yourself to small discomforts. Take cold showers. Wake up 30 minutes earlier. Speak up in meetings. The goal is to build confidence that you can handle hard things. ✅ Use quick stress resets. Try cyclic sighing: Inhale deeply through your nose. Take a second small inhale. Exhale slowly through your mouth. Repeat 3-5 times to calm your system fast. ✅ Strengthen emotional endurance. Instead of avoiding difficult conversations, hard tasks, or feedback - lean into them. Facing small emotional challenges trains you for bigger ones later. ✅ Celebrate small victories. Every time you stay calm, adapt, or keep going under pressure - recognise it. These tiny wins are building your mental "muscle memory" for resilience. As a new parent, I know my son Krish will face his own "goggles-filled-with-water" moments someday. So the best I can do is model resilience myself. Because resilience isn’t gifted - it’s trained. And when you train your brain for chaos, you can survive anything. So I hope you do the same. If this made you pause, feel free to repost and share the thought. #healthandwellness #mentalhealth #stress

SELF BELIEF > INTELLIGENCE Believing in yourself is often more critical than raw intelligence. Intelligence can sometimes lead to overanalysis, hesitation, and self-doubt, hindering progress. On the other hand, confidence drives action, resilience, and the ability to learn from failures. Balancing intelligence with self-belief enables you to take risks, make decisions, and persevere through challenges. 1. Cultivate Self-Belief: * Affirmations: Start each day with positive affirmations reinforcing your abilities and potential. Statements like "I am capable," "I trust my judgment," and "I can achieve my goals" can boost your confidence. * Celebrate Successes: Keep a journal of your achievements, big or small. Reflecting on past successes can remind you of your capabilities and build your self-esteem.
 2. Manage Overthinking: * Set Time Limits: When faced with a decision, give yourself a specific amount of time to analyse and then commit to a choice. This prevents paralysis by analysis. * Simplify Decisions: Break complex decisions into smaller, manageable parts. Focus on one aspect at a time to avoid feeling overwhelmed.
 3. Embrace Failure: * Learn and Adapt: View failures as opportunities to learn and grow. Analyse what went wrong, adjust your approach, and try again with newfound knowledge. * Resilience Practice: Develop resilience by challenging yourself to step out of your comfort zone regularly. The more you face and overcome challenges, the more confident you will become.
 4. Balance Intelligence with Action: * Trust Your Gut: Sometimes, intuition can guide you better than overanalysis. Learn to trust your instincts and make decisions with confidence. * Take Calculated Risks: Use your intelligence to assess risks, but don’t let fear of failure stop you from taking action. Embrace uncertainty and move forward with confidence.
 5. Seek Support: * Mentors and Peers: Surround yourself with supportive people who believe in you and encourage your growth. Seek mentors who can provide guidance and feedback. * Positive Environment: Create an environment that fosters positivity and growth. Minimise interactions with negative influences that may undermine your confidence.
 6. Continuous Improvement: * Lifelong Learning: Commit to continuous learning and self-improvement. Embrace new challenges and opportunities to expand your skills and knowledge. * Set Realistic Goals: Establish achievable goals that push you slightly out of your comfort zone. As you achieve these goals, your confidence will grow.

A leader’s job is not to avoid turbulence. It’s to prepare for it. If there’s one thing I learned from two decades of studying crisis leadership, it’s that. You cannot operate as if disruption is a rare occurrence; you must expect the unexpected and learn to thrive amid uncertainty. I recently had the opportunity to contribute to this thought-provoking piece from the Aspen Institute Business & Society Program exploring what will define great business leadership in the period ahead: https://whr.tn/4btMkIQ The through-line among the responses is striking: While we may be living through a time of rapid technological transformation, it’s deeply human qualities that will distinguish the most effective leaders. From Diane Brady’s reminder that today’s leaders must serve as “communicators-in-chief,” to Andrew Ross Sorkin’s call for relentless self-inquiry, to Linda Hill’s vision of the leader as an “explorer,” each of these perspectives reinforced the need for more listening, reflection, and trust. My view is that the leaders who differentiate themselves will display three qualities: 1. Stamina, withstanding immense pressure over prolonged periods of volatility 2. Foresight, capable of anticipating and mitigating, rather than just reacting to, emerging risks 3. Humanity, because humility and authenticity produce trust I maintain that all three can be built like a muscle if they are not innate. But doing so requires a reframing of our mindset – instead of merely asking, “How am I responding to all this change?”, also asking, “Am I ready for what’s next?”

Still recommended reading! From London. While urban planners strive to create inclusive environments for all citizens, truly inclusive cities require acknowledging that our spaces do not serve everyone equally. Cities historically designed primarily by and for men need deliberate recalibration to address the needs of women and other overlooked groups. This requires policymakers and designers to specifically examine how urban environments function for diverse populations with different lived experiences. The 2024 Handbook: Gender-Informed Urban Design & Planning LLDC (London Legacy Development Corporation) and Arup have released a usefull handbook addressing a critical gap in urban planning: gender-informed design approaches. The publication features beautiful illustrations by Shanice Abbey. Key findings: • Urban environments, traditionally viewed as gender-neutral, often contain embedded biases that compound gender inequalities • Over half of UK girls aged 13-18 report unwanted sexual comments in public spaces • Women's movement patterns are significantly impacted by caregiving responsibilities • Research identified specific "hotspot" areas perceived as unsafe within the LLDC boundary Practical recommendations for implementation: • For local authorities: Establish gender-informed corporate strategies, implement gender budgeting, adopt targeted planning policies, and utilize planning obligations • For developers: Embed gender-informed principles throughout project lifecycle, conduct participatory engagement, and prepare Gender-Informed Design Statements • Deploy specific design interventions including strategic lighting, carefully placed public realm furniture, and thoughtful land use planning This handbook offers evidence-based insights and practical tools for integrating gender-informed principles into existing planning frameworks, emphasizing intersectionality and meaningful community involvement. The guidance extends beyond theoretical concepts, suggesting concrete design solutions such as layered lighting for human scale, social seating configurations, and interim uses for vacant sites. A valuable resource for all urban professionals committed to creating truly inclusive cities. #UrbanPlanning #GenderEquality #InclusiveDesign #PublicSpace #UrbanSafety #SpatialPlanning #DesignInnovation #CommunityEngagement

I recently read a story by Jordyn Holman in The New York Times that articulated something many Black women have been carrying quietly. Over the past year, Black women professionals, particularly college-educated, mid- to senior-level women, have experienced some of the steepest employment losses. What follows isn’t just job searching. It’s rebuilding the structure in real time. Group chats form. Résumés are shared. References are traded. Encouragement circulates. What often gets framed as resilience is, in reality, an emergency response. When Black women are pushed out of work, they don’t just lose a paycheck. They lose predictability. They lose professional safety. They lose an identity that required constant maintenance just to be tolerated. Several women interviewed described years of self-editing, tone policing, and emotional buffering in “progressive” environments that still demanded vigilance. Others spoke about an unexpected sense of relief, stepping away not because they failed, but because the emotional cost had become unsustainable. This isn’t simply about a difficult job market. It’s about what prolonged hyper-awareness does to the nervous system. When success requires constant monitoring of language, reactions, presence, and worth, the body never fully relaxes. Over time, that pressure doesn’t just exhaust you. It reshapes how you understand yourself. What I’m paying attention to now isn’t only how Black women secure their next role. It’s how they recover their sense of safety, agency, and self in the meantime. Survival is not stability, and resilience should never require self-erasure. (Article: Jordyn Holman, The New York Times) #BlackWomenAtWork #WorkplaceWellbeing #EmotionalLabor #CareerTransitions #PsychologicalSafety #LeadershipWellness #BurnoutAwareness #IdentityAndWork #BlackWomenProfessionals

Some case studies in leadership stay with you long after you’ve read them because beyond showcasing strategy, they reveal character. When the aviation industry came to a standstill after 9/11, most airlines responded with layoffs and cost-cutting. Southwest Airlines chose a different path. They kept every single employee on their payroll. They even provided profit-sharing. At a time when panic could have dictated decisions, they leaned into trust. They treated everyone: from cabin crew to ground staff to stranded passengers as essential to the recovery. That choice wasn’t just an act of kindness. It was leadership in its truest sense. Because leadership is tested not when things are easy, but when storms hit. It’s about reminding people that they matter, that they belong, and that they are trusted to help steer the ship through turbulence. The result? Loyalty deepened. Morale strengthened. And the company emerged more resilient than ever. Southwest’s story is a reminder: leadership is not simply about managing through crisis; it’s about choosing humanity when it would be easier not to.

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗼𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗱𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗿𝗵𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗺𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝘀? They are an important part of the way a team works but they don’t always work in the way they were intended. Reviewing rituals together helps people to share feedback, discuss improvements and reaffirm what it means to be a part of your team. We did this exercise today as a team at Amazing If and I thought it might be helpful to share our rituals so that you can see what we do and what we have learned from doing it… (if you have any questions, let me know!) ✅ Amazing If - rituals to keep ⭐️ Mistake moments - working really well to share in Teams as they happen, even better if we bring insights into our meetings to discuss implications ⭐️ Win of the week - working well to share on a Friday. Where people struggle to spot a win the team can help ⭐️ WWW / EBI (what works well, even better if) - really helpful framework to capture learning from projects and events that we want to come back to ⭐️ Squiggly Staycation - valued team bonding moment in a busy year. Learning and connection are the priority agenda items ⭐️ Metrics that matter - very useful monthly meeting where everyone sees how the business is performing. Individuals all own different metrics. ⭐️ Squiggly shout outs - a way to give in the moment positive feedback to someone in the team. Done in meetings and over Teams. 🛠️ Amazing If x rituals to adapt and improve ⭐️ Career conversations - not quite working for everyone in the current format. We’re going to experiment with a quarterly frequency and review the tools we’re using in the discussion to see where they can be improved. ⭐️ Monday meetings - an important weekly meeting to connect and create focus. However, would work even better if for people th consistently share; the one thing that is most important to achieve that week, their highest energy moment in the week, any red flags that the team need to know ⭐️ 121s - a bit inconsistent in frequency. Fortnightly 45 mins going in the diary for everyone. ⭐️ Walk & Talks - dropped out of the diary. Re-educate about the role of a walk & talk (thinking meeting about something that’s on your mind) and add to diary. ⭐️ Experiments - important for our impact and growth. We need to have a simple structure to consistently design our experiments and create a Teams channel to track them ⭐️ Challenge & Builds - works well for people to be involved in projects and offer constructive feedback. ❌ Amazing If x rituals to archive ⭐️ Good Growth Guides - too complicated to keep updated and review back to. 1 pager that could be used in 121s and Career Conversations would be more helpful ⭐️ Project on a page - no I one is using them. Alternative solution may be needed. Stop for now. Would love to know about any rituals your team has that work well!

A couple of weeks ago I received a distressing call from an old colleague whose well-funded and well backed employer shutdown overnight. As she shared the news of over 350 stranded employees, it dawned on me that this is the same story across so many organisations & startups. God forbid, that this happens with anyone , here are some insights on what to do in the first few days after suddenly losing your job. Here are 9 essential points to consider: 🔥 TAKE A MOMENT TO ABSORB THE NEWS: It's natural to feel shaken and upset. Allow yourself time to process the situation and acknowledge your emotions before taking action. 🔥 ASSESS YOUR FINANCIAL STANDING: Sit down with your spouse/partner and evaluate your financial situation. Take stock of loans, EMIs, and your inflow of funds. Determine how much liquid savings you have and calculate your runway—knowing how long you can manage without income can alleviate some pressure. 🔥 COMPILE A LIST OF CONTACTS: Create an Excel sheet with the names and details of colleagues, bosses, and professional acquaintances who can provide referrals or job leads. Treat it as you would a sales prospect list—networking is crucial during this period. 🔥 AVOID IMPULSIVE DECISIONS: While the urgency to find a new job may be overwhelming, it's essential not to jump at the first opportunity that comes your way. Exercise patience and wait for the right opportunity that aligns with your goals and aspirations. 🔥 EVALUATE BUSINESS IDEAS: Use this transitional period to work on that business idea you've always wanted to pursue. Evaluate its feasibility and potential, and consider whether entrepreneurship is a path you'd like to explore further. 🔥 FREELANCING OR CONSULTING: While searching for a job, consider freelancing or offering consulting services to generate income in the meantime. Leverage your skills and expertise to provide value to clients and keep the cash flow steady. 🔥 EXPLORE UPSKILLING & ENHANCING YOUR KNOWLEDGE: Take advantage of the downtime to invest in self-improvement. Identify areas for professional development, enroll in online courses, attend webinars, or acquire certifications to bolster your skill set. 🔥 MAINTAIN A ROUTINE: Establish a daily routine that includes job searching, networking, skill-building, and self-care activities. Structure and consistency can help maintain focus and motivation during this challenging period. 🔥 SEEK GUIDANCE: Don't hesitate to seek professional career counseling or guidance from experts in your field. They can offer insights, strategies, and support to navigate the job market effectively. Remember, losing a job can be disheartening, but with the right mindset, resilience, and proactive approach, you can transform this setback into an opportunity for personal and professional growth. Stay positive, keep moving forward, and trust that new doors will open along the way. #SamparkSeSampark #JobLoss #Career #Resilience #startups #business

I was drowning in stress until I found the power of tiny habits. These 12 daily practices take minimal time but deliver exponential returns: 1️⃣ Exercise Session Even 20 minutes moves the needle. It's not about getting ripped. It's about showing up for yourself first thing. 2️⃣ 2-Minute Rule Procrastinating the tiny tasks keeps them in your head. If it takes 2 minutes, do it now. 3️⃣ Gratitude Practice List 3 things you're grateful for each morning. It rewires your brain to spot opportunities instead of obstacles. 4️⃣ 4-7-8 Breathing Breathe in for 4, hold for 7, exhale for 8. Use it before big meetings or whenever tension hits. 5️⃣ Meeting Breaks Back-to-back meetings kill productivity. Those 5-minute gaps aren't wasted time. They're essential recovery periods. 6️⃣ 6-Second Pause The space between stimulus and response is your power zone. That tiny pause prevents reactive decisions. 7️⃣ Water Intake Your brain is 73% water. Even mild dehydration tanks your decision-making. 8️⃣ Sleep Commitment Sleep deprivation isn't a badge of honor. Prioritize quality sleep to be at your best for yourself and others. 9️⃣ Daily Meditation 9 minutes to reset your mental operating system. It's not about emptying your mind. It's about observing it. 🔟 Movement Goal 10,000 steps seem daunting? Walk while you take calls. Use a standing desk. Small movement adds up. 1️⃣1️⃣ Skill-Building 11 minutes learning something new. A language, a skill, a concept. Compound interest works for knowledge too. 1️⃣2️⃣ Reading Practice 12 pages daily is 24 books a year. Leaders are readers. Make it non-negotiable. Small changes, massive impact. You don't need to overhaul your entire life to see results. Start with just one habit. Be consistent. Watch what happens. Remember: The most successful people aren't superhuman. They've simply built better daily habits than everyone else. ♻️ Valuable? Repost to share with your network. 🔖 Follow Justin Wright for more on self-mastery. Want PDFs of this and my 99 best cheat sheets? Get them free: BrillianceBrief.com

Over the past 20 years, I've had the opportunity to work with the world's best leaders. Here’s the truth I’ve seen across every industry, team, and culture: Emotionally intelligent leaders don’t fear criticism. Most people don’t struggle with criticism because of the words being said; they struggle because of the emotions those words trigger. They use it. They turn feedback into fuel. Here’s how you can handle criticism with emotional intelligence: 1) Don’t react Work on self-regulating. Pause for 2–3 seconds. Breathe. Let the emotional spike settle. Instant reactions destroy clarity. Regulated responses create it. 2) Separate the message from the emotion. Ask yourself: What part of this feedback is valuable? What’s not? Self-awareness turns defensiveness into insight. 3) Assume positive intent, even when it’s hard. Most people aren’t trying to attack you. They’re trying to be heard. This mindset shift can transform high-performing teams. 4) Get curious, not combative. Say: “Help me understand what you’re seeing.” Questions lower tensions; curiosity opens doors. 5) Take ownership of your part. Emotionally intelligent leaders reflect, adjust, and move forward. 6) Use criticism to grow your leadership presence. Every piece of feedback is data about: • How you’re showing up • How others experience you • How you can communicate more effectively Criticism is an opportunity reflect, grow and respond with confidence. If you want to lead with influence, trust, and emotional maturity, mastering this skill is non-negotiable. What’s one strategy that has helped you handle tough feedback more effectively? Follow me, Christopher D. Connors, for more insights on how to lead with emotional intelligence.