- In research by Accenture with 524 senior executives from 20 countries, 71% of corporate leaders considered resilience very or extremely important for talent retention.
- Resilience is the capacity to face challenges and transform them into opportunities, and to pass through adversity and emerge stronger and better prepared for what comes next.
- A leader’s core competencies appear in the most difficult moments rather than in calm or predictable conditions, which is why crisis distinguishes leaders.
- Resilience involves mindsets, behaviors, and actions that can be learned and developed, and teams tend to mirror the behavior that comes from their hierarchy.
According to research conducted by Accenture with 524 senior executives from 20 countries, resilience, the capacity to face challenges and transform them into opportunities, is considered very or extremely important for talent retention by 71% of corporate leaders. Adrian Lajtha, Accenture's Leadership Director, put it directly: "Resilience, a combination of adaptability, flexibility, and determination, may be the new criterion for professional advancement. In the current moment of economic uncertainty and intense competitiveness, organizations that instill resilience into their developing leadership will have a clear advantage."
Resilience is also connected to the capacity to pass through adversity and emerge stronger, with lessons learned and greater preparation for future challenges. American author Paul Stoltz calls this the Adversity Quotient, or AQ: a measure of one's capacity to respond to difficulty constructively.
Why does crisis reveal what stability conceals?
In practical terms, a leader, a manager, and an organization will discover their core competencies in the most difficult moments: in apparent scarcity, in greatest adversity, in turbulence in the internal or external market. Professionals who shine in calm conditions or in more predictable environments are certainly competent. But it is in times of crisis that an until-then unknown dimension appears and demonstrates how someone truly handles and overcomes the most challenging phases.
What gets called forth in those moments:
- creativity
- emotional intelligence
- psychological maturity
- the capacity to manage conflict
- the ability to navigate ambiguity and change
These are the qualities that truly distinguish leaders.
What are the two ways of meeting a crisis?
Some people feel victimized by circumstances. They give up, lose heart, look for someone to blame, delegate responsibility, and complain systematically. Others rise in exactly these moments, viewing the situation as a significant challenge, an opportunity for transformation, learning, development, and evolution. Rather than focusing on the problem, they focus on the solution, and they extract important lessons along the way.
A leader who invests in their own resilience contributes more effectively to their teams, accelerates the resolution of issues that can already be addressed, and promotes the growth of everyone around them. Resilient companies can train their people to become resilient as well, since the characteristic involves mindsets, behaviors, and actions that can be learned and developed.
Resilience Is Contagious
The greater the resilience of a leader or manager, the greater the potential for development and the capacity to advance in the face of challenges. Teams tend to mirror the behavior that comes from their hierarchy. The more resilient professionals an institution has, the greater its capacity to read the current scenario realistically, lucidly, proactively, and responsibly. And consequently, the better its response to adversity: resolute, pragmatic, and oriented toward growth.
The short answer
Resilience counts as a leadership competency because it is what remains when conditions stop being favorable: the capacity to face challenges, transform them into opportunities, and come out of adversity stronger. Professionals who perform well in calm environments are competent, but only crisis shows how someone actually handles and overcomes the hardest phases. Because resilience is made of mindsets, behaviors, and actions that can be learned, a leader who invests in it raises the whole team’s capacity to respond.