The in-house life
The in-house life, legal edition, is a podcast focusing on the activities, challenges and rewards of a lawyer working as in-house counsel.
The in-house life
Unlocking the power of resilience
This episode explores the concept of resilience, particularly for in-house counsels. It discusses the importance of resilience as a soft skill, how it can be developed through challenges, and the tools available to foster resilience. The conversation also highlights the significance of a positive attitude and accountability in enhancing resilience, ultimately leading to greater job satisfaction and effectiveness in the legal profession.
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Resilience allows us to see change and adversity as opportunities, and it allows individuals to learn from prior experiences and be agile with change.
Welcome to The In-House Life, the podcast that explores the experience and the challenges of an in-house counsel. I'm your host, Fabiola, and I have been working in the legal world full time since 2007. I wanted to share my experience as an in-house counsel to discuss content and knowledge and create more awareness about this career option.
Resilience
Today we complete our journey through soft skills that matter for success in any role and more specifically for in-house councils in their lifelong journey to become trusted legal advisors. So far we spoke about curiosity as an essential trait to be able to succeed and when paired with flexibility and thinking both strategically and tactically, one can unlock a new set of capabilities that elevates the deliverables very quickly.
In this episode, I want to focus on another essential set of soft skills, and some of them are first mindset and skill later. Some of them are really ultimately skills. So we start with the crown jewel of this episode, which is resilience. And this might be my favorite soft skill of them all. So what is resilience? And the definitions, surprisingly, at least for what I could see, they're not exactly identical. There are quite a bit of subtle variations to it. And I've decided to go with the Merriman-Webster dictionary and according to it, resilience means first, the capability of the strained body to recover its size and shape after deformation caused especially by compressive stress. And the second is an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.
More broadly speaking, resilience is a term that has been used in many different environments. One is in the medical field. We know it was also introduced in psychology in the 60s. And incidentally, if you want to learn a lot more about resilience in psychology, there is the Wikipedia page that is particularly interesting and shows a lot of different studies that address resilience in a psychological meaning.
But today I want to focus on the concept of resilience within a working environment. And it's the meaning that I want to focus on the most. And for this episode, I will, let me pass the term of ,simplify the definition and focus on it as the capability to recover from challenges or adapt to changes. About seven years ago, a colleague of mine in the legal department made a presentation on resilience. And that was the first time that I started grasping what this term means in a corporate environment. And it started clicking for me. Being resilient in life and in sports was a skill that I could bring over to my daily work.
As for every trade, people are born with resilience. Some have more, some have less naturally. And yet life will inevitably help develop resilience in any type of challenges that one has growing up in any challenges that one lives. And in general, any challenge is a way to build resilience. But what is interesting about resilience is that the cultivation of resilience can be accelerated by adopting a growing mindset. Therefore, obstacles, adversity, disappointments and stress are not the enemy, even if they can cause momentarily pain and frustration. They are natural and almost as required in any progression, they are an opportunity to learn and grow. When this mindset is applied to change, we also create another set of opportunities to grow.
Resilience allows us to see change and adversity as an opportunity. It allows us to learn from prior experiences, to be agile with change. Is that simple? absolutely not. But I also find that this approach makes adversity and change look more of a challenge and less scary. There is always a way through. There is always a way around in the middle, whatever it is above, below, and all of them are great opportunities to be more resilient.
In the previous episode, we spoke about flexibility as an attribute to think outside the box, and we can add a little bit more color to it, as in in the concept of adaptability. This is again the ability to change and make sure that we are on top of challenges also by trial and error.
We all have bad days. We all have situations in which we got negative feedback. We all have situations that push us emotionally to the extremes. In other words, nobody is the perfect employee at all times. Nobody is the perfect athlete all the time. Nobody is the perfect human or close to their ideal behavior. I'll go on a tangent for a second. If you have been doing sports, as in you've competed in sports, you will already have naturally experienced the value of resilience. After all, it is that capability that allows us to overcome that challenge. And I have been sailing and competing for many years. And what I came to realize resilience gave to me was the ability to really understand what are the next steps that I need to take. And so I would ask myself, how do, for example, learn to sail in stronger wind conditions? Do I need to go to the gym and make myself stronger? Do I need to get exposure to these conditions? Do I need to train with someone who is more capable than me in these conditions? Can I look at videos of more successful athletes than me in these conditions? And incidentally, the answer to all these questions is yes. And resilience allows us to do is to put ourselves on track and if we fall to get us back on track.
So what are the things that one can do in order to support the development of resilience? The first thing that is required when focusing on resilience is to identify those circumstances where we need to flex resilience. And once I do, I find myself asking two main questions. And admittedly, not always when these events occur, but definitely when I reflect on those circumstances. And again, depending on what circumstances, depending on the situation, one of the two questions is more relevant than the other.
One of the two is, what can I learn from this? And the question can be articulated in different ways to allow the question to go a little bit deeper. And it could be, for example, what are the things that I should have done differently or what are the things that I should have kept doing?
The second main question revolves around what are the next steps? How do I need to break down the next steps? What are the things that I need to do in order to go from point A to point B to point C and so on and so forth?
I use these techniques to, let me pass the term of, rationalize circumstances for me. And it is a way that I use to guide my resilience process and consciously focus on it. So resilience allows humans to do a lot of different things, manage challenges and stress, bounce back from setbacks, adopt a growth mindset, being adaptable, maintain a positive outlook, irrespective of the challenges. In the last couple of episodes, we've focused on a few other traits and or skills that help us become a trusted legal advisor. And for resilience, this is no different.
Being resilient will allow us to continue this journey to achieve this role, making sure that we continue in the journey, even if we fall off the wagon. Resilience is the trait that helps us continue doing what we're doing. And this is irrespective as to whether the things that we need to address are easier or less so. For instance, one can be more comfortable in using resilience to pushing oneself for an additional hour to work to accomplish that goal compared to, let's say, the emotional impact of resilience. And that's perfectly fine. We are not all made the same and we don't have all the same proclivities. Therefore, it is important to understand which ones are the areas where one shines and one should keep pushing them and which areas there is more complexity for that one person. And it helps resilience, helps develop those mechanisms to manage those less developed capabilities. The perfect employee, the perfect leader, the perfect person does not exist. And yet self-awareness is an important step to take in order to understand what are the strengths and what is not so much a strength. And already having an awareness as to where one lies and the other lies, it's a significant step in the right direction. One is already doing great having that level of self-awareness. And the next step is how to keep pushing the strengths and how to balance the not so much of a strength areas.
So what are the other things that one can do in order to develop resilience? We spoke about those two main questions of what can I learn from this and what are the next steps. But there are other tools available to us to continue foster and develop resilience. One is to find one owns values, morals, and purpose. Working is not only going from point A to point B. Understanding one's purpose, supported by values and morals, is an important part of the equation. And I'm not referring to the purpose of the role or the responsibility that that role has. What I'm referring to is one's personal purpose. And that can change over time, but finding that purpose, that personal North Star makes a difference in managing challenges. Everything is put through the, again, purpose, values and morals perspective, and it helps manage adversity and look at change, challenge and stress as an opportunity. The other element to consider is to embrace fear or push oneself in uncomfortable situation. An essential part of resilience is to have the ability to overcome challenges. If one sits in comfort all the time, there are less opportunities to develop resilience. And if one is never challenged, how can that person know how much more they can do? And yes, there is a lot of value in comfort. And I'm not suggesting that one suddenly starts living on a constant state of discomfort, although David Goggins might argue otherwise. I am instead suggesting to take smaller steps, whether it's at work or outside of work. Typical examples, and if anybody needs any inspiration on this point, find a sport you like and see if you can compete at an event. And maybe push yourself a little bit further. That is how you can indirectly hone resilience. I have personally done that more than a couple of times in my life, and I have been setting ambitious goals every single time. And yes, it creates discomfort, but it also helps to continue pushing that envelope of I'm capable of managing challenges that are outside of my control and I'm able to overcome them. And once again, a great reminder that sports shape mindsets in a way that very few things can do so in a healthy way and healthy, both in terms of mindset, mental health, but also physical health.
Another tool to strengthen and foster resilience is to embrace optimism. And in a few minutes, we're going to be talking about how to have a positive attitude. But in general, being positive, being optimistic is an essential part of resilience.
And last but not least, humor. Mostly about yourself. If you just make fun of others, it just is cruel. But if you can make a joke about yourself, you often can break ice in a way that nothing else can. Making jokes about other people's skills and capabilities is just essentially petty and incidentally can often be perceived also as discriminatory. So when you find opportunities to create humor, to break the tension with humor, do so, but be careful about how you do it. People have feelings and they can get hurt quite easily. But it is something that can help. And I find that it is a useful tool to be able to uplift situations.
But why is resilience so important? So far we've covered what it means. So far we covered the tools that could be helpful in developing resilience, but why do we care? And in general, again, I love resilience, as I said, I understand it. I grew up with a resilient mindset without even knowing that that was a resilient mindset. But it is in general a capability, a trait that helps privately and at work. But there is a few clear advantages that develop pursuing a resilient work style. The first, and maybe it's the more obvious of them all, which is that it aids job satisfaction. If you could say that you overcame a challenge, wouldn't you feel more satisfied about your own job? And to me, the answer is a resounding yes. Now, this is the key for me. If I'm just doing my job, I will not have a particular sense of accomplishment. However, when I can accomplish something that it's more challenging, then I get in a much better headspace for myself and, most importantly, have achieved a certain milestone for myself.
The other reason why a resilient work style is important is that it improves self-esteem. I can do difficult things. I can adapt to difficult things. I can grow into the challenge and I can become stronger over time. And so it's almost like an uplifting, a positive Catch-22 situation where the more you do, the more confident you feel, and the more confident you feel, the more likely you're going to be tackling more complicated things.
Another element of, again, a resilient work style is that challenges are framed as lessons. And let's be blunt here. Failure is a part of our work life. It is not a dirty work, and it's common knowledge that we learn more from our mistakes and failures rather than from doing things correctly in the first place. And it is important to take time to understand what was done. We spoke about experience as a tool in a few different episodes, and we've talked about it both in the context of learning and how the more powerful tool to learn is experience. But we also spoke at length about experience as the capability of finding solution is that quid pluris that helps us to get another solution, whether one has experienced the matter directly or has heard someone talk about it.
And on top of all of this, a resilient work life supports innovation. If one's mind looks for a new solution, it will keep being curious and it will keep learning. And eventually it is inevitable that there is going to be a creative way to find solutions. And it doesn't mean that creativity necessarily will lead to a new patent. It doesn't mean that creativity will lead into the more revolutionary idea, the more innovative idea of the world, but it does help keep developing, sharpening those capabilities. And once again, the ability to adapt to change. Innovation is also about that capability of bringing solutions that belong to somewhere else and bringing them into your day to day life.
In summary, we've explored the meaning of resilience in different areas. We have focused specifically on the corporate environment interpretation of resilience. And resilience allows us to see change and adversity as opportunities. And it allows individuals to learn from prior experiences and be agile with change. We've also explored tools to increase resilience from identifying first and foremost what are adverse or change scenarios, to ask poignant questions and developing one's own set of values and principles. Last but not least, we've also explored how and why a resilient work style increases job satisfaction and self-esteem, supporting eventually innovation.
A positive attitude
In the context of resilience, we've also briefly spoke about optimism. So let's spend a little bit more time with the idea of embracing a positive attitude and describing it a different way, having a positive outlook. Being positive is, once again, a virtuous positive Catch-22 scenario because it is a tool. Being positive helps and is being helped by being resilient. Yet, what does it mean to have a positive attitude? It essentially means to look at life with optimism. And maybe in a slightly less rosy way to look at this term, we can describe positive attitude as looking at the world in a way that allows one to achieve their goals.
I also find that another way to interpret having a positive attitude is to be more intentional with what I'm doing. Is it what I'm doing pursuing my own goals? Does it help me getting closer to my ideal person? Being intentional, being able to spend time on activities and projects that bring me forward in this journey will also definitely help me getting into a happier place.
We should consider a few different tools that help us be in more up optimistic. And if we don't want to be optimistic, let's say have a more positive outlook, be more intentional with what we're doing. And the first tool that helps to embrace a positive attitude is to practice gratitude. And it can have the form of journaling, it can be a gratitude log, it can be a one line of gratitude every single day. It doesn't need to be complicated. It can be the first or last thing of the day just jotting down one, two, three, a hundred things that we are grateful for. And gratitude, or better, the ability to spot things for which one is grateful is also a skill that requires honing. And the impact of gratitude practice is not immediate. And yet at some point it just has a compounding effect and it's suddenly so powerful that stop doing it has an immediate negative effect.
Another way to once again practice a more positive attitude is really try to look at the silver lining in scenarios. There is always going to be a silver lining for every single challenge and it's about practicing the ability to see them that one keeps developing that eye.
Another typical recommendation in the context of developing a positive attitude is to cultivate mindfulness. Also, this one doesn't have to be complicated, but it can be as complicated as you want it to be. Mindfulness can be as accessible as just spending a few minutes, in fact, one minute of deep breathing. And incidentally, this is also a great tool to manage stress levels, deep inhales and exhales. And it is really something that immediately takes pressure down.
All of these tools ultimately help reduce stress and address difficult situations, both at work, but also outside of work. If every situation is a collection of negativity, it makes every situation so much harder. If one instead looks at the positives, it is more likely to provide you with additional satisfaction and motivation during your daily work.
So to summarize, we covered what a positive attitude means with an additional spin on being intentional. We've also discussed a few tools that can help flex those positivity muscles from gratitude logs to finding silver lining in circumstances and cultivating mindfulness. And more generally, the recommendation is to find tools and activities that can support in identifying the positives in one's life.
Accountability
What else is essential in order to develop resilience? And we talked about a lot of different tools, a lot of small tweaks and small habits that one can introduce. There is another essential trait that is first a mindset and then a skill to grow resilience and the ability to manage challenges. And that's called accountability.
Now accountability, and that was another fun deep dive into dictionaries, but essentially most of them said that it's the ability to be accountable. And in fact, the Merriman-Webster dictionary says the ability or state of being accountable. But what does accountable means? It is a synonym to responsible and it means to be held to account and it suggests imminence of retribution for unfulfilled trust or violated obligations. we just identified one of the most important terms when it comes to being a legal counsel. Trust. Being accountable is a tool that helps build trust with your own clients. Being accountable leads to being trusted and therefore the trusted legal advisor.
There is another way to describe accountability in the workplace, which is the obligation of each employee to take ownership of their own actions, decisions, and results. In other words, individuals are answerable for their work and their conduct. And it also implies to be proactive in addressing issues, communicating effectively and contributing to the overall success of the organization. And if there is something that will make a person a trusted legal advisor faster than anything else next to resilience is being accountable beyond the role and or to be close to those who are accountable to help them develop. It is about taking up personal responsibility for one's work and extend this attitude to scenarios where one's accountability is not required. And yet by helping and supporting others in their journey, accountability just helps develop that trust relationship.
Accountability is an essential trait of the trusted legal advisor and it is essential. And pairing it with curiosity will lead to show value beyond the role. It is about caring about the business. It is about caring about the outcome or the ability to impact beyond one's role. People who value resilience and the need to do more and feel part of a team will do more will want to go beyond their own obligations. They will add value beyond this and they will add value beyond their technical expertise. Sometimes adding value does not require to be an expert. Being able to be a sounding board for a colleague, for a project, for an idea is adding value. Does this mean that we are increasing our own workload? Yes, it means exactly that. And yet, developing these skills, getting exposure to different topics and decision making processes helps inevitably creating a stronger relationship with the organization. And as a final thought, just thinking it the other way around, there is nothing that will tank resilience and trust as fast as not feeling or being accountable for an activity.
So in summary, when we talk about accountability, we're really talking about the ability to focus on one's capability to add value beyond the roles and responsibilities that are assigned to that individual specifically.
Final thoughts pulling things together
Now, this episode concludes once again the process around soft skills that are important to becoming a trusted legal advisor. And I want to highlight once again that everything that we've worked on so far, everything that we've covered so far, is an essential part of that process from the ability to communicate and the episode we dedicated on communication specifically address the ability to communicate with your client base. But communication is also the everyday language, the everyday capability of sharing great ideas that come from strategic thinking session, for instance, the capability of being more productive, the capability of firefighting and managing mental health. You see, most of the episodes that we covered so far, inevitably have an impact on our capabilities or our abilities to be a trusted legal advisor.
Outro
Thank you for spending time with me today and listening to my point of view. If you want to reach out to me, feel free to email me at the address in the episode information. In the next episode, we will be talking about risks and how to address them as an in-house counsel, whether your role is legal or compliance.
If you find the information I share with you valuable, please consider following this podcast, leaving a review or a star rating depending on the platform that you're using, and supporting the journey by word of mouth.
Thank you so much, and have a great day.