Empowered Leadership Is Personal Resilience

Two words that describe empowered leadership are resilient and unstoppable. People who are resilient pick themselves up after a setback and get back into action, even when they don’t feel like it.

When you are a resilient and unstoppable leader in your life you know:

1. When things don't go the way you had hoped, and it doesn’t have anything to do with you, you know how to keep moving forward.

2. You know you don't deserve to have bad things happen to you because you didn't pray hard enough, or because your faith is weak, or because you're not good enough - bad things happen because they do.

3. You know that even when bad things happen, and maybe it might be your fault, there is something to learn that will help you grow.

Let’s take natural disasters. Tornadoes don't have the ability to choose which house to destroy, and family to displace. Therefore, if it destroyed your house, it's not personal. No doubt you are devastated. Who wouldn’t be? But when the personal nature is removed, it is easier to bounce back after a tragic event.

If you've ever been laid off or lost a job through no fault of your own, no one can tell you that it doesn't feel personal. It does. Maybe you feel like a failure. Maybe you have trouble finding a new job due to age discrimination, and you now live in fear not knowing what to do next to earn an income. Just remember, when something feels personal, it doesn't mean that it is.

However, in both cases of being laid off or losing a job, if you give up and quit looking for a new job that is personal and has everything to do with you. In fact, a large number of entrepreneurs and successful start-up companies were born from job losses and lay-offs.

Therefore, it’s not a matter of what happened to you but what you do with it. What will you learn and how will you grow from the situation?

Even if, the thing that happened to you is due to another person's actions, and it is directed at you, guess what? It has more to do with them than it does with you. Their actions have nothing to do with you. Most likely, had someone else been in the right (wrong) place at the right time, they would have been the target.

So remember, even when a person is especially nasty to you, it's about them. Knowing that can help you build your tolerance and resilience for letting whatever happened go and help you empower your personal leadership.

When you let the circumstances run you, it is like the” power” switch in you turns off, and that is personal. If you want to be resilient and unstoppable, turn on your power switch by thinking about what you can learn from the situation and how you can grow. With your power restored, even if you were at fault, you can do something about your situation by using responsible, resilient, and unstoppable “personal” leadership.