Coaching for Resilience

Originally published by Freddie Barrett in the Spring 2004 edition of the Organization Development Journal. Reprinted with permission.

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CoachingforResilience

Freddie BarrettResilient Solutions

Freddie Barrett, Leadership Coach andConsultant, served Corporate America inSales and Management positions for over25 years before launching her business,Resilient Solutions.

Freddie holds a Master of Arts degree inApplied Behavioral Science with an em-phasis on Coaching and Consulting inOrganizations, a Bachelor of Science de-gree in Business Management, and is aCertified Leadership Coach (trained at theHudson Institute).

Freddie has long been a champion ofmentoring programs and an effectivecoach to a diversity of people. She lovesworking with people in transition usingthe tools of renewal and resilience.

Contact InformationResilient SolutionsPO Box 507Redmond, WA 98073www.resilientsolutions.comfreddie@resilientsolutions.com

Abstract

For thirty years I have worked in corporate America invarious sales and management positions. In 1970 at

the beginning of my career, I was the first woman hiredby the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco into itsManagement Trainee program. Over the years, I experi-enced phenomenal success, especially in my sales efforts.For sixteen years I significantly exceeded my sales quota.Four of my last five years as an Account Executive atDigital Equipment Corporation, I was recognized atDigital’s Decathlon as being in the top 5 % of sales peopleworldwide.

Over the course of my career I have often been asked,“What is your secret for success?” I used to feeluncomfortable answering the question because I wasn’tclear what had made the difference. Then in 1999 while Iwas immersed in a master’s program at the LeadershipInstitute of Seattle (LIOS), I read Daryl Conner’s book,Managing at the Speed of Change. As I read about thenature of resilience, I knew I had found my answer.Becoming conscious of my own resilience has enabledme to reach new levels of achievement and coach othersin finding resilience. While becoming a Certified HudsonInstitute Coach, I developed a framework for coachingfor resilience. This framework has at its base HudsonInstitute’s cycle of renewal. In the following pages, I willdiscuss how the phases of change and five characteristicsof resilience have informed my coaching strategies.

This new framework for coaching combines the work ofFrederic Hudson and Pamela McLean (Life Launch: APassionate Guide to the Rest of Your Life) and DarylConnor (Managing at the Speed of Change: How ResilientManagers Succeed and Prosper Where Others Fail;Leading at the Edge of Chaos: How to Create the NimbleOrganization). As the speed of change has rapidlyaccelerated and the profession of coaching has emerged,people are bombarded with a range of solutions to dealwith the situation. Here is a framework that promises toinform a professional coach about various coachingstrategies and their effectiveness for a specific client.

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The Nature of ResilienceResilience is not a specific characteristic butrather a combination of traits that exist todifferent degrees in different people. Tounderstand the different degrees of resilience,it is helpful to view people as having apreference toward one of two orientations tochange. The basis of this view can be found inthe Chinese language in which the concept ofcrisis is expressed with two separate symbols.One symbol represents potential danger, whilethe other represents crisis as hiddenopportunity. A salient characteristic ofopportunity-oriented people is their acceptanceof change as a natural part of life. I defineresilience as the ability to demonstrate bothstrength and flexibility in the face of frighteningdisorder. Resilience can be looked at in termsof five characteristics: positive, focused,organized, proactive, and flexible. Althoughin reality these five characteristics overlap,when coaching for resilience, I address eachof them separately.

PositiveWhen coaching for the “positive”characteristic, I ask the individual to describethe possible opportunities that are presentedby the change. When appropriate, I remind myclients that there are no “failures,” onlyopportunities for learning.

Working in a safe environment where myclients can be comfortable closing their eyesduring reflection, I engage them in thefollowing activity:

Figure 1. Framework for Coaching forResilience

1. I ask my client to close his or her eyes andthink back to the problematic situation. Iask questions like, “What was your firstreaction to this situation?” “What thoughtsdid you have?” “Did you have any cluesthat warned you beforehand?”“Remember the feelings.” “Let yourselfre-experience the event and remember asmuch as you can about the moment ofsurprise.”

2. When the client is ready, I ask, “If you nowlook at this situation as a gift, whatthoughts come to mind?” “How has thisevent been an opportunity for somethingnew?” “What lessons have you learnedabout yourself from this experience?”“What did you learn about the other personthat has been useful?”

Cycle of RenewalThe cycle of renewal depicts a pattern of fourpredictable phases of change. Depending onwhich of the four phases your client is charting,the effectiveness of resilience coaching mayvary. People in Phase 1, “going for it,” aremostly optimistic, goal oriented, anddetermined. In Phase 2, “stuck in thedoldrums,” people resist change because theymay not know what to do to make things better.By definition, these people”would rather feelthe pain of their declining chapter than take achance on someunfamiliar course of action”(Hudson & McLean, p. 56). They are the leastlikely to respond to resilience coaching, whilepeople in Phase 3 (“cocooning”) or Phase 4(“getting ready”) respond positively toresilience coaching.

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OrganizedAlthough I believe that individuals are eithernaturally organized or not, coaching for the“organized” characteristic can be extremelyhelpful. A key to success is the ability to swiftlyconvert data to information and then organizethis information into effective plans formoving forward. Help your client learn tobreak problems into logical pieces. Facilitatehis or her ability to take the first step. Createactions that move him or her in the chosen

solutions, they are actively open to input andthey build effective networks to ensure thatinformation and other resources are freelyexchanged.

3. At the end of the closed-eye process, I askthe client to explain briefly the situationout loud, highlighting his or her firstreaction and revealing the gifts and lessons.

4. I ask the client to write, before our nextcoaching session, a description of thesituation as a gift, focusing on what newopportunities were presented and whatlessons have been learned about both selfand others.

FocusedResilient individuals have a clear vision ofwhat they want to achieve, and they use thisas a lodestar to guide them when they becomedisoriented. Resilient individuals bring clarityof purpose to their actions. I agree with theHudson Institute’s philosophy that “it isessential, if adults are to be alive in the worldof flux and complexity, that they have withinthemselves a clear sense of purpose—tomeasure the flow of external change by abidingvalues of internal meaning” (Hudson &McLean, p. 73). Helping the client to developa sense of purpose and vision is essential.Carole Adrienne’s book The Purpose of YourLife (pp. 45–48) suggests an activity that isuseful in helping clients create a purposestatement. There is not space in this article todescribe the activity I use with clients in full,but I like to start this process by using HudsonInstitute’s purpose cards.

direction. Remind your client that there are nomistakes, only opportunities to learn.

ProactiveResilient individuals act in the face ofuncertainty, taking calibrated risks. Ascircumstances change, windows of possibilityopen and close swiftly, and the person whoawaits complete certainty before deploying astrategy loses the chance to take advantage ofa situation. An important element of resilienceis the willingness to pursue actionexperimentally. Resilient individuals will testtheir ideas, learn from the experience, revisetheir plans, and test again.

A coach can be especially useful in assistingwith the “proactive” characteristic. Assist yourclient in imagining taking action in the face ofrisk. Ask, “What is the worst thing that couldhappen?” Then assist in playing out the worst-case scenario so the client can have theexperience of handling it. Assist with revisingplans and learning from the experience.Practice empathetic listening, trust yourhunches, and be willing to give toughfeedback.

FlexibleResilient individuals draw effectively on awide range of internal and external resourcesto develop creative, pliable strategies forresponding to change. A critical element ofresilience is the ability to construct diversesolutions and to alter them if necessary. Highlevels of creativity, tolerance for ambiguity,and fluency of ideas are all components of thisskill. Additionally, resilient people tend todraw effectively on the resources of others.Without depending exclusively on others for

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When coaching for the “flexible”characteristic, the skill of scenariodevelopment is useful. The Art of the LongView (Schwartz, 1996) is an excellent resourcefor applying this in a complex businessscenario. I have my client report out as manycompeting scenarios as he or she can withoutevaluating the possibilities. Then we exploreeach scenario separately, focusing on theinformation needed to make a decision. Iremind my client that it is all right to trysomething out and take small steps in adirection. A guideline I use is “if what you aredoing isn’t working, try something new.”

Developing the five characteristics ofresilience in myself has helped me to continueto find untapped creativity, energy and peace.Certainly I have my ups and down just likeanyone else, but I snap back quickly andcontinue to learn, trusting beyond myself tolive joyfully in service.

ReferencesAdrienne, C. (1998). The purpose of your life: Finding

your place in the world using synchronicity,intuition, and uncommon sense. New York:William Morrow and Company, Inc.

Conner, D. R. (1998). Leading at the edge of chaos:How to create the nimble organization. NewYork: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Conner, D. R. (1992). Managing at the speed of change:How resilient managers succeed and prosperwhere others fail. New York: Villard Books.

Hudson, F. M. & McLean, P. D. (1995). LifeLaunch: Apassionate guide to the rest of your life. SantaBarbara: The Hudson Institute Press.

Schwartz, P. (1996). The art of the long view: Planningfor the future in an uncertain world. New York:Doubleday.

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