Welcome to our ‘Unlocking Leadership’ series, where we delve into the minds of visionary founders, leaders, and innovators. Through our Q&A interviews, we uncover the core principles that shape leadership in today’s dynamic business world.
Beth Benatti Kennedy has more than 25 years of experience as a leadership coach, resiliency-training expert, and speaker. With a diverse client list including corporations, small businesses, and nonprofits, Beth guides leaders to develop resilience habits to support peak performance, maximise their impact, positively influence the people they work with, and build their brand.
Her training programs focus on giving employees the tools to stay resilient, make sense of organisation changes, and manage transition while continuing to be productive and engaged.
Beth is the author of Career ReCharge and co-author of the best-selling ReThink Resilience: 99 Ways to Recharge Your Career and Life.
Beth, how do you define resilience — and why is it such a critical skill for leaders today?
Resilience means having the skills to handle change and to recover and recharge yourself, so you have the energy needed for a productive, engaging career and life. Resilience does not mean you put your head down and power through.
It’s a critical skill for leaders in today’s fast-paced business environment because every day, leaders (and their teams) deal with transitions, losses, challenges, and different ways of working. As a leader, if you model being addicted to urgency and focus only on productivity, you pass on stress to others and create a culture in which individuals are not driven to do their best. These individuals may look for other organisations with resilient leaders to follow, that have a healthy work culture.
What are some of the most common challenges leaders face when trying to maintain resilience, and how can they overcome these?
There are two common challenges leaders face when trying to maintain resilience: workload and lack of control. Employees in all industries are finding that the workload is not sustainable for one person. As a leader, this is challenging because organisations that are concerned about budgets and layoffs and under board pressure may balance a budget, but create issues of individuals having too much work and burning out.
An important strategy for leaders to manage this situation is to have regular career development conversations with their employees; not just once or twice a year. This conversation can have three simple questions: 1. What is working well? 2. What needs to be improved in your position or in our department to be your best? 3. What suggestions do you have?
The second common challenge is that sometimes leaders have limited control over an employee’s career trajectory and the employee feels frustrated and stressed from a lack of growth. If the leader has built a trusting relationship with the employee, they can have honest career conversations. Often it is not necessarily a promotion that will motivate an employee — they may want professional development, mentoring, or an opportunity to get involved in some leadership initiatives.
Can you share an example of a leader or team that successfully implemented resilience habits to improve performance and workplace morale?
I worked with an executive team that was struggling with issues of overall corporate performance and a lack of workplace synergy on the executive team. I was coaching the CEO of the organisation and they were completely onboard with how important resilience was and made it a company-wide initiative. The CEO took my resilience benchmark and created a personal action plan. He then had his leadership team take the benchmark — after which I facilitated a session for the entire team to create their own resilience action plan. In less than three months, the CEO noticed his executive team was more focused and energised.
Each leader shared the resilience process with their teams. The Chief Human Resource Officer sent out an email every Friday with a strategy that I created called the Friday 5. The goal was to offer a simple resilience resource every Friday and a reminder to set a resilience goal. The CEO also mentioned his resilience progress at every town hall and this created a positive, trusting environment. After six months, employees completed a survey and the overall results reinforced that having this resilience awareness not only created more energy for the employees, but improved overall performance.
How can leaders model resilience behaviours to positively influence their teams?
Leaders can be honest about how challenging work and life can be, and share how they manage. It’s easy to get into the habit of being laser-focused on work projects and productivity, but employees need connection with one another to develop trust and psychological safety.
Many of the leaders I coach take time on a weekly basis to check in with their team members to find out what’s on their mind, what are the current challenges, and ask the individual how they can help.
What role does self-awareness play in building resilience, and how can leaders cultivate it?
Self-awareness is one of the five strategies of my Benatti Resiliency Model®. I identify three facets: purpose, mindset, and type. It’s important for leaders to clarify their purpose because purpose is your internal compass. It gives meaning to your life and provides a sense of stability and continuity in changing circumstances.
Having a growth mindset is key to resilience because a growth mindset allows you to see change as an opportunity to develop new abilities, expand your horizons, and discover fresh possibilities.
Finally, leaders must understand their strengths, opportunity areas, and emotional responses to better navigate workplace dynamics. Tools such as personality assessments, regular feedback sessions, and personal reflection exercises can enhance a leader’s self-awareness.
Can you share a strategy that readers can implement immediately to boost their resilience?
One strategy is managing your “yes” reflex because sometimes, saying no is saying yes to what matters most in your life. When someone asks you to add another responsibility to your overloaded plate, don’t answer right away. Tell the person you will get back to them. Take time to evaluate the situation and determine whether it will add or take away from your priorities and whether it would energise you or deplete your energy. Then, and only then, give the person an answer you can live with.
What role do resilience habits play in preventing burnout, especially in hybrid or remote work settings?
Resilience habits prevent burnout because they provide the employee an opportunity to make an investment in themselves, just like making a deposit in a bank account. When you have a consistent practice of resilience, you can deal with some of the stressors that can occur when working in a hybrid or remote work setting. These settings are ripe for generating poor boundaries and working too many hours. My coaching clients make sure they schedule time daily for their well-being and that they are aware of their stressors and have strategies to deal with them. An important factor in resilience is connection and when working in hybrid or remote settings, employees should be encouraged to be proactive in developing the connections needed to be productive and develop trusting relationships.
What inspired you to write about career resilience?
It was really a case of wanting to share what I had learned from my own resilience journey and the resilience journeys of my clients. Several years ago, when I coached employees in a company that had been acquired, I observed differences between those with career resilience and those who were thrown off by the transition. The individuals with career resilience were able to navigate much more effectively through the process. They drove their careers, made the choice to not let the acquisition ‘ruin’ their lives, and found opportunities even in a challenging situation. I was inspired by their example to practice their resilience strategies. As I passed on these strategies to clients over the years, I saw how developing resilience enables professionals to have the careers and lives they want and avoid burnout.
You can learn more about Beth here: Benatti Leadership Development
