The Importance of Building Resilience
Resilience is vital to managing staff whether paid staff or volunteers. But what makes some managers more resilient than others? Simply put, the decision to be resilient and a lot of practice. Building resilience is like lifting weights; the more you do it, the easier it becomes. It comes as the cost of constantly being uncomfortable and in a continual state of change, but the result, the bi-product of it, is fundamentally beautiful.
Let’s take a look at how one can build resilience as a manager.
1. Set Small Attainable Goals — This is important because It helps you actually learn who you are and how you work in order to achieve those goals. The great thing is achieving small goals on a regular basis helps to build your confidence in your capabilities.
2. Finding Your Voice: The more confident you become, the more courage you develop to speak up to advocate for yourself, and your team, especially in meetings where decisions are being made that directly impact your department.
3. Gaining Institutional Buy — In: The more you speak up, the more your colleagues will hear you. At one point in my career, I told my supervisor that people really didn’t understand what the volunteers at my organization do. She challenged me to use that knowledge as an educational opportunity to present at an all staff meeting. I would have the chance to showcase the impact the volunteers made on the organization and it worked like a charm. That was the beginning of a beautiful shift in attitude towards the volunteers in the organization.
4.Use Your “Why” to Overcome Giving Up: You are going to want to give up. There will be tough days. There will be days when you wonder what you have gotten yourself into. It is those days that the mission of the organization is so important. These are the days to remember your WHY; (the reason you are doing what you are doing) to encourage and inspire you to keep pushing forward.
5. Develop A Strong Support System: To me, this is the most crucial part of building resilience. Who is in your corner? Who is there to encourage you when you are down or frustrated or both. Better yet, who IN YOUR FIELD can you talk to about what you are going through? Do you have a mentor or a coach who can give you guidance to help you navigate through the tough days? If not, start today. If you manage volunteers, find a group of volunteer managers in your industry that you can not only lean on, but also offer advice. There are all sorts of groups out there that you can find with a quick google search such as https://www.facebook.com/invaluableworkforce. Find a group of people who can help lift you up when you feel you have been knocked down.
Resilience during this time is crucial. Learning to pivot with rapidly changing circumstances is key to the survival of yourself, your department and your team. Is it easy? No. Is it necessary? Yes. Can you do it? Absolutely. A mindset is a huge part of resilience, but it takes more than that. Yes, you have to make the decision to keep pushing forward no matter how difficult it may be, and remember #UBUNTU: I am, because we are. You are not in this alone.
Register here and join me on 9/18 at where we dive deeper into this topic at the SAVMA- Southern Arizona Volunteer Management Association’s next webinar . Hope to see you there!
Game On!
Nicole is a Panamanian-American, single mother, workforce development specialist, dancer, motivational speaker and published author of Game On! Relentlessly Pursue Your Dreams and many inspirational note-taking journals including 101 Affirmations for Volunteer Administrators, Professional Women and Entrepreneurs, She attended Oral Roberts University on a Division I full-ride track scholarship. After graduating, she founded Step It Up! Inc., a non-profit dance organization. Her experience in sports and entertainment, radio, TV and the performing arts has spanned nearly 20 years covering the Chicago, Houston and Miami markets. She has prepared more than 500 interns to enter the workforce and has inspired crowds upwards of 2000. In 2019 she was listed as one of WLRN’s “Local Women Who Inspire You”, she was selected as one of Legacy Miami’s Most Prominent and Influential Black Women In Business and Industry of 2019 and became a contributing writer for The Life of a Single Mom. She is a board member of the Arts and Business Council of Miami as well as a member of AL!VE (Association of Leaders In Volunteer Engagement). Her mission is based on the belief that A dream fulfilled is sweet to the soul. Her desire is to maximize and empower the potential of the invaluable workforce. Connect with her at www.nicolersmith.net and follow her on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
