Michael B. Clegg argues resilience is adaptive learning, not just bouncing back. He pairs it with vulnerability for conscious leadership and recommends weekly journaling to capture lessons and build psychological safety. He ends with a prompt: if you knew you couldn't fail, what would you be doing?
Chapters
Welcome back to week five of the Inner Circle video. As we go through this journey on being the future you, and we're going to title this one building resilience and leading with vulnerability. And why it's so important to do that. Let me ask you this first. If you knew that you couldn't fail, what would you be doing in life? Think about that for a second. What would you change in your life? What would you change in your leadership? This is a question that I don't want you to just think through as a thought experiment. It's a challenge to stop limiting yourself and start leaning into the conscious leader that you're meant to become. And as we continue on this journey towards becoming the future you, it's time to strengthen two primary components of this path. That's relationship resilience and vulnerability. And these are not just skills that you develop. They're foundational to conscious leadership. And just as a reminder, if this just happens to be your first video on on the Inner Circle future you pathway, Conscious leadership is about deep introspection. It's about deep self awareness because you cannot possibly help those around you if you're not the best version of yourself. So as we get back to resilience, it. It's often misunderstood as simply just bouncing back after a failure or setback. But true resilience is the kind that shapes the future you. It isn't just about recovery. It's really about learning and adapting and using those hard experiences as lessons to grow. Every obstacle becomes an opportunity to redefine what you're capable of. And here's the critical part that taking inventory of these lessons is essential. Because without, without reflecting and actively capturing what you've learned, these lessons will just fade away and growth opportunity will be lost. Conscious leaders take time to journal and reflect, turning experiences and lessons into actionable insight that ultimately fuel your future. And by journaling, you create a record of how far you've come. And it's great reading back. And I love, by the way, reading my journal of things that I felt weeks prior or even months prior. It's really fun to do that, but you get to measure your progress and ensure that lessons don't slip through the cracks. Resilience, when paired with regular reflection, turns obstacles into milestones. And it's not just about surviving the tough times, it's evolving through them. And taking time each week to journal about what you've learned only reinforces the progress and builds the foundation for the leader that you're going to become. And as you write, measure Measure how each lesson has contributed to your growth and that that track itself shifts or helps shift the mindset, your perception of yourselves. It helps shift the behaviors and your leadership approach and style. Now remember, you don't have to have the title of a leader to be a conscious leader. Okay? This happens in everyday life, but this practice does build momentum. And it sures that every experience that you have moves you closer to becoming the future you. But here's a twist. To truly step into the future you, you have to pair resilience with vulnerability. And that's important to understand, because that's where the real work begins. Vulnerability is hard. Vulnerability in leadership isn't about being soft, okay? It's about being brave enough, facing your fears to be authentic you. And it's about recognizing where you still need to grow and admitting that and giving permission to the people around you to call you on that, because that's inviting them into the process of your growth. And that's what conscious leadership demands. And it requires deep introspection to do that. Which starts by asking yourself tough questions. What am I avoiding? Where do I need help? How am I showing up for others around me? Not just as a leader, but as a human. Because being vulnerable creates psychological safety within your team. And I've talk till I'm blue in the face about psychological safety. It lets others know it's okay to take risks, to fail, lets them know that they're human. When you lead with vulnerability, you give your team the space to innovate, to share new ideas and bring the whole selves. And that's what we have to understand. Especially if you are an actual leader in an organization, you want your employees bringing all of themselves. Because at the end of the day, that's what matters. Just as I say in one of my keynotes, I talk about school systems are inheriting the troubled kids, if you will, or those that lack parental guidance. The workplace is doing the same with mental health. Once they're your employee, they become part of your challenges. And you need to help support those. If you do that, you're going to win big. And that's when the real magic happens, when people actually become inspired to do their best because they feel like they've been seen, they feel like they're heard, they feel like they're trusted, they feel like they're supported. And that's what conscious leadership requires. So I want you to reflect on a moment where you stand today versus the future. You and who you want to be. What challenges have you faced that helps build resilience have you embraced that challenge? Have you embraced the lessons? Have you gathered any meaning from those setbacks or challenges at all? And that's an important part of this. Have you taken stock of the lessons? It's important not to let go of the old stories. You let go of the ones that don't serve you any longer. But you use these experience to truly fuel your transformation. Resilience builds tremendous capacity for you to move forward. And while vulnerability creates deeper and more meaningful connections along the way, you have to ask yourself, am I leading vulnerably this week? Are you giving the people around you permission to provide feedback? What are the stories that need to be reframing? What are the lies that you're telling yourself? Because vulnerability really is the gateway to authentic leadership. And so if you're going to be a conscious leader, you have to be vulnerable. And that is a big part of stepping into the future. You, as we wrap up here, make a habit of not just experiencing challenges, but to document the lessons that they teach you. Journaling helps you clarify where you've been and where you are going. And it provides you the tools to consciously direct how you're getting there. Your future you thrives on self awareness, and that's the courage to be real and the discipline to consciously learn. The discipline, okay, the consistency and the discipline to consciously learn by measuring your progress, those are going to help reinforce your goals. So as I started, if you knew you couldn't fail, what would you be doing with your life? And don't limit yourself to where you are now. It can be entirely different. Step into the overall potential of the future. You, with resilience and vulnerability, keep pushing forward. And you're not only shaping yourself today, you're shaping the future you. And that's the path that you want to be on. Have a great week and we'll talk to you next time.
