Basketball coaching legends John Wooden and Pat Summitt achieved enormous levels of success. But they had to rebound through tough times and stay determined to overcome challenges, just like anyone else. Do the same and you'll survive and thrive when obstacles arise.
It's vital to sharpen your resilience skills because things are going to go wrong, no matter how well you plan.
"We don't control what happens," said Brian Biro, a Charlottesville, Va.-based speaker who helps organizations improve themselves. "We control how we deal with what happens."
Focus On Recovery To Rebound
When a devastating event occurs, such as the Los Angeles wildfire outbreak, people can focus on how they'll rebound.
"When you focus on what you can do instead of on what you can't do, you feel like you have a path forward," he said.
Biro wrote about Wooden and Summitt in his book "Lessons from the Legends." "Both were thought of as really good coaches who couldn't win the big one," Biro said.
Summitt coached Tennessee to six Final Fours before leading her team to the title. She ended up coaching the Volunteers to eight national championships. Wooden led UCLA to the NCAA Tournament five times before breaking through with a national championship in 1964. The Bruins won 10 national titles under Wooden.
Build Your Determination
Determination helped the Bruins come out on top.
"John Wooden never said 'winning' or 'losing' to his players," Biro said. "He wanted them to focus on success as being based on what they put in and knowing they gave their best."
Summitt was a lifelong learner. When she lost to Connecticut in the championship game, Summitt learned a new offense to teach her team. The next year, Tennessee beat Connecticut for the championship.
"Tennessee won because they were resilient and embraced change," Biro said.
Change With The Times To Rebound
Leaders who are adaptable and able to keep a positive outlook build resilience. They learn from problems.
"Executives who continuously learn and get better exhibit those traits," said David DeFilippo, Boston-based principal coach and consultant at DeFelippo Leadership. When setbacks occur, start by taking care of yourself.
"Work out or take a walk to clear your head and get some distance from a problem you're trying to solve," DeFilippo said.
Keep that attitude of determination and resilience by thinking of ways to resolve the thorny situation. "What you focus on is what you create," Biro said.
Shortly after his grandson learned to ride a bike, he saw a large rock on the sidewalk and smacked into it, taking a tumble. Later, he encountered a bigger rock. But once he saw it, he focused on the way around it and got by.
"How many of us are focused on what we don't want rather than on what we do want?" Biro said. "Condition yourself to see the rock and then shift your vision to what you want."
Get Another Perspective
Find someone who you can share your ideas with to provide honest feedback. That's important to provide a new perspective.
"I often find people just want to talk something through with me," DeFilippo said. "The more senior someone is, the less people they have to talk to."
Avoid pointing the finger. That destroys your chance to bounce back.
"Blame always puts us in the past," Biro said. "If you're in the past, you're not going to be resilient."
Rebound: Ban The Blame
Instead, be what Biro calls a blame-buster. Look at what caused the problem. Then focus on what you can learn from it and how you can rectify it.
Get your entire team to adopt an attitude of resilience and determination to overcome challenges by looking at a setback as an opportunity to learn.
"Use a postmortem process to feel like, 'We're going to attack the problem, not the person,'" DeFilippo said. "If you show your team that we're constantly learning, then you can recover and be even better the next time. To me that's one of the hallmarks of being resilient."
