Oh Lord, make me more resilient…
Jenny Simnett, HR and Workplace Professional
Emotional or psychological resilience or resourcefulness is the label we apply to people who seem to cope well with difficult personal situations, often involving people’s emotional reactions. For me, this is a core skill for an interim manager and the more senior or complex the assignments become, the more you need it. It’s not that the resilient person doesn’t feel the negativity and stress, but that they don’t let it destroy their emotional equilibrium or slow their momentum. Being resilient is only possible if you are adaptable. If you don’t bounce, you will snap.
There are a wide spectrum of scenarios which we walk into as interims. Past assignments have seen me – as the newly arrived interim – being stonewalled, ignored, greeted as a saviour or treated as the scapegoat for frustration – often in the same organisation! I have been cast in the supplementary roles of counsellor, ally, enemy or coach. You prioritise your stakeholders into those who are critical for the project and those who are more peripheral. A life lesson is never to be surprised by other people’s reactions, regardless of what the client brief warned. It’s a fine balance between building trust, and allowing your emotional armour to distance you. Quickly building good working relationships and looking after yourself means a more successful project.
