What is “Springing Forward with Learning?”
As we come to the end of another year, I hope those following my monthly blogs have benefitted from the topics I’ve discussed - key business attitudes and attributes including Career Resilience, Leadership Coaching, Hope, Change, and Purpose.
December is always a time for reflection.
Reflecting on the highs and lows of the past 12 months - the challenges we’ve faced, how we’ve tackled them, the results we’ve achieved, and how, hopefully, we’ve grown in strength and confidence.
But this reflection is worthless unless we stop to consider what we’ve learnt from the past and how we’re going to put that learning into practice.
After 18 years specialising in how to be a Resilient Leader key, I define Resilience as “springing forward with learning.”
We’ve all experienced times in our lives when we’ve been congratulated, or we’ve congratulated others, for “bouncing back” after a personal setback. However, I am not a fan of this term as there is a risk that we will “go back” to how we were prior to the challenging event and I encourage all my clients to learn from their experiences.
A key repeated line in the 1990s hit anthem Tubthumping by Chumbawamba is “I get knocked down, but I get up again.” The additional element is how you are getting back up and deciding what you may do differently.
And global business tycoon Richard Branson clearly demonstrated the importance of learning when he once said: "you don't learn to walk by following rules; you learn by doing, and by falling over."
But what if we could go further?
In today’s fast-changing business environment - where there’s definitely no shortage of constant obstacles to overcome - “bouncing back” to the status quo is quite simply no longer enough.
Instead, we must learn to be more resilient and develop a growth mindset which transforms challenges into opportunities.
"Resilience springing forward with learning" is a mindset shift from simply "bouncing back" to actively growing stronger through challenges.
It involves reflecting, adapting, and using adversity as a driving force for positive transformation and skill development.
It means pausing to learn from mistakes and successes - ultimately building new skills, and moving forward into a better, more focused state, rather than just returning to “the norm.”
A Growth Mindset is key to “Springing Forward with Learning.” Photo Mary Hinton Unsplash
By developing this growth mindset - where people are ready to learn, grow, embrace change and spring forward – you’ll encourage the team around you to be motivated, empowered and committed.
The key elements of “springing forward with learning” are:
Developing a growth mindset - viewing challenges as learning opportunities, and treating failure as a lesson;
Creating “transformative” resilience: don’t just “bounce back” but emerge stronger - learning from stress and failure to create new opportunities;
Demonstrating “proactive” momentum: Rather than remaining passive, be action-orientated by setting goals, adapting to change, embracing new opportunities, and achieving future goals, rather than being passive.
Look out for the next articles in this series – “How to Spring Forward With Learning,” “The Importance of Springing Forward With Learning,” and “The Benefits of Springing Forward With Learning.”
If you need further information about these approaches, or any other resilience topic, please contact russell@theresiliencecoach.co.uk.