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August 14, 2005
Resilient leaders
You were born to survive.
That’s the message Teena Cahill, Psy.D., left in her energetic thought leader super session on resilience. The point being, each of us has, hard-wired into us, the ability to cope and overcome adversity.
She provided a litany of strategies and modes of thought for leaders to use in their work and private lives. One of her interesting observations is that when communicating with someone else, the person speaking does not hold the power, the listener is the power part of that interaction. The reason is simple, listeners can choose to listen and analyze what is being said, or they can choose to ignore it. To be a resilient leader requires listening.
She also points to the need for purpose and a sense of contribution, calling them the “granddaddy” of strategies for building resilient leadership skills. “People who feel joy and gratitude are the ones who are leaders. They understand that it’s not about them, it’s about the contributions they can make to make the world a better place.”
She related a bit of cultural anthropology to illustrate the point. We are one of the only species where the female lives beyond menopause. The reason is because men didn’t hunt the sabre-toothed tiger on his own while women stayed behind to care for the offspring; “Mom and dad went out and hunted together, and picked a few berries along the way. It was grandma who stayed behind to care for the kids and to cook and clean.” That contribution was so necessary that it is part of our biology.
Throughout the presentation Cahill used inspirational quotes from the likes of Churchill and Patten, but, to show that wisdom can come from unexpected sources, she chose to end her session with that outspoken philosopher Kim Bassinger, who said: “I feel as if I have two people in my head: me and my intuition. When I go against her, she screws me every time.”
Posted by ScottBriscoe at August 14, 2005 07:11 PM
Comments
This speaker was high energy and high vocal volume. Listening to the litany was like watching a stone skip over the surface of a much deeper pool. Dr. Cahill had a lot more to say than an hour could contain.
Posted by: Judie Babcock at August 15, 2005 12:20 AM
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