Resiliency in the Age of Uncertainty

LAS VEGAS—“Work, life and COVID are big impacts in your life, but it is possible to create a little more spacing and breathing room.” So said Allison Kinnear in a session titled: Resilience & Success in the Age of Uncertainty at this week’s CREW National Convention here in Las Vegas. 

“No matter how out of control life can be, you need breathing room and have to tune into something deep down inside of you that is in control and can handle things,” said the leadership coach. 

For more than 22 years, Kinnear has supported women as they navigate their vulnerabilities as parents, employees and leaders. Her background includes working in groups in the high-stakes professional world to solve the underlying issues surrounding vulnerability-based leadership and frequently speaks on overcoming Impostor Syndrome, having difficult conversations and building a culture of trust in the workplace.

According to Kinnear, women are leaving the workforce at an alarming rate, and for those who might not want to leave the workforce, living life on the brink of exhaustion is no way to live. “It is possible to excel at your career while keeping your energy tank full for you and your family,” she said, but it is important to learn new tools and new ways of being. 

Effective tools, she explained, are essential to get you back on track, no matter what life throws at you. “You can do things the way you have always done things or you can do things in a new way.”

Kinnear’s mission is to inspire women to become confident leaders, who lead with integrity, authenticity and courage in their personal and professional lives.

When talking about uncertainty in the world, she referred to it as VUCA, standing for volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. She also said it is important to have a little VUCA in our lives. And despite all the “VUCA” in the world, she said, “you can control the controllable, pick something different and sidestep a pitfall to get back on track.” 

The most important thing to ask yourself during those tough moments, she said, is the following: “What can I do in this moment to take care of myself?” She added that “asking that question to yourself brings power.” Maybe you can’t change the chaos or your surroundings, but there are things you can control to better the situation for yourself, she noted. 

Another pitfall, she pointed to is falling into perfectionism versus healthy striving. “What happens with perfectionism is that we tend to make the meaning of our successes and our failures tied to and connected to our worth as a person. … Our perfectionism ties who we are to whether we succeed and fail versus healthy striving, where you can pick up, learn and move on.”

She added that “If things get delayed, don’t turn out the way you thought they should and there are external factors impacting you, that is a losing game…But that doesn’t mean you can strive.”