Coping With Adversity - An Important Leadership Skill

If you are successful in business or in your career as a manager, there will be times where you are faced with difficult situations and how you cope with these can define you as a leader. The types of adversity you face can come in many forms and they could involve problems with staff or outside situations that impact your business. If you can stay strong in these moments, you can grow as a person and learn from the experience. In this article we will look at some of the ways you can cope with setbacks in your business or career and how you can use it to help you in the future.

It is always important to accept responsibility and ownership of problems that directly impact you or your business. If you start to place blame elsewhere, this can be counter productive and won't help you to find solutions. This is not to say that you do not make others aware of their responsibilities but you do need to find a way forward. This can include training where necessary or changing processes so that you can avoid similar problems in the future. If you focus on solutions rather than problems you have a far greater chance of overcoming any setbacks you encounter.

There are of course situations that will occur that are completely outside of your control such as a big change in the marketplace or poor economic conditions. This can mean that you need to make some tough decisions that will help you survive in a new environment, so at times like these you need to show strength of character and you should not fall into the trap of avoiding what may be inevitable. The faster you take action to address a challenge the far more likely you are to move forward and adapt to changes. A key aspect to coping with adversity is how flexible you are in changing your approach and aligning yourself with new market conditions.

It is important not to dwell on things that go wrong and you should instead see this as a challenge and something you can learn from in the future. If you can stay calm in troubled times, you will have more clarity in what needs to be done and how you are going to achieve it. This means you should be able to handle high levels of stress which can impact on your health and performance if you allow it to. There are many cases in both business and other areas such as sport where very stressful situations have led successful people to higher levels of performance and you want to see this as a goal for yourself. In addition, if you are strong in these situations, it will help those that look to you for leadership to also remain calm.

In business and in managerial positions, you will always meet with adversity from time to time. If you can handle these situations with the right attitude, it can help you to be more successful in the future.