By Jewelle Saunders
Entrepreneurs are resilient people. Starting a business requires a strong will in order to get a venture off the ground. However, it is important to recognize that as an entrepreneur you can continually improve and work on building your resilience.
Developing the skills to be resilient is essential to being a strong leader. With practice, anyone can become better equipped to overcome a barrier and emerge stronger. You can become confident in your efforts to increase your resilience with help from these recommended steps.
1. Expand your skill set
Resilient leaders are ones who are continually learning. The YLAI Network online courses Management Strategies for People and Resources and Smart Entrepreneurship: Next Steps in Expanding Your Enterprise can expand your knowledge on how to be a better leader, manage a crisis and effectively grow your business. When you are better equipped with new understandings and you prepare yourself with resources for how to best manage a challenge, you can apply this knowledge in times of change with confidence.
2. Access helpful resources
Here are two different workbooks that can help you rethink how you approach building your resilience and strengthening your business.
- The YLAI Strong Business Analysis Workbook will help you recognize the strengths and weaknesses, opportunities, and threats around your business. This workbook will guide you to design a strategic plan for your business and help you to develop contingency options for when you face a challenge.
- Our friends at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation have developed a key program encouraging best practices around resilience and how to prepare your business to withstand disasters with their Resilience in a Box. Their Business Resilience 101 Workbook provides resources that will help you prepare all aspects of your business to emerge stronger after a challenge.
3. Practice mindfulness
Any setback you face will require you to take a period of reflection. Slowing down can help you to restore hope and optimism with a clear head, enhance your self-awareness, and allow you to deal with difficult situations more easily and more effectively. Focus on keeping things in perspective and finding ways to take care of yourself.
Mindfulness practices such as journaling, meditation and yoga can help you find a better work-life balance and reflect on your values and goals on a regular basis.
4. Build your network
Focusing on expanding your network to include like-minded peers and mentors is an important part of building your resilience. When you face challenges and need support, your network will be there for you to help you navigate the unexpected and offer you new perspectives.
Take time to find your community and your peers, and start by joining the YLAI Network today to follow YLAI social networks and communicate with like-minded peers.
Increasing your resilience takes time and intentionality, and you should be proud of committing to improving yours. As you build your resilience, you are strengthening your foundation, and you will strengthen your business and your community because of it.
Este artículo está disponible en español.