Leadership and Change Management in Business | Part 3: In the Face of Adversity, Evaluate Your Assets

If you’ve ever endured a life ambush, you understand the common effects: The mental-emotional tidal wave can present very real physical, biochemical and cognitive effects as the mind and body react by default mechanisms to the perpetual stress. If you’re in the midst or on the verge of this, hold on. You may not know any other way, but there is one. This article focuses on the REACT action step “A.”

Of all that transpired to save my life during and after that enemy ambush in 2007, only two had been within my control. One of them, according to the medical teams who put me back together, was my rock-solid physical fitness, which had prepared my body for its best chance at survival and healing through the extreme compound trauma. If Physical Leadership hasn’t already been a consistent focus for you, I recommend you make it your primary goal starting today. Start here …

As leaders in business, we must be able to assess a crisis and develop a plan to move safely through or away from that point of adversity as quickly as possible. The first step is to recognize your reality.

People are increasingly striving to cultivate resilience, balance and leadership in their personal and professional lives. They need to adapt quickly as leaders — especially through change and adversity. How do we best prepare ourselves to recognize and avoid what pitfalls we can and quickly and properly manage those we can’t?

One lucid hour in my hospital bed, I awoke to a somber yet critical reality: If I didn’t define my future and my plan, somebody else would. I understood my new mission: Get off X. Once you’ve identified your own path off X, plan your course of action and communicate it clearly to your support team.