What Prepared Me to Advise Fortune 1000 Companies? A Childhood Defined by Instability
The experiences people want to leave behind can build judgment, adaptability, and resilience. Learn three ways to put those hidden strengths to work.
EXPERT OPINION BY SOREN KAPLAN, WSJ BESTSELLING AUTHOR, KEYNOTE SPEAKER, AND LEADERSHIP STRATEGY ADVISOR
My mother developed a mental illness when I was three years old. By the time I was fifteen, my family had moved sixteen times. I learned to treat instability as a normal part of life.
What I didn’t know until much later was that my tough childhood had trained me for navigating the business world.
I’ve spent 25 years advising dozens of Fortune
I’ve spent 25 years advising dozens of Fortune 1000 companies, from Disney to Visa to Medtronic, and the same competencies I built by necessity early in life turned out to be the skills I’ve used to help my clients become better leaders, innovate, and transform their organizational cultures.
New research on the critical human skills needed for today’s AI world confirms what I’ve long seen across the leaders and teams I’ve coached: judgment, adaptability, and resilience are the scarcest competitive assets in any workforce, and fast becoming the most needed assets for the future.
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An Inc.com Featured Presentation
Many leaders assume their competitive edge comes from what they learned in school or built through making career moves. But often some form of adverse experience can serve as the hidden foundation of external success.
A representative study of 573 U.S
A representative study of 573 U.S. entrepreneurs, for example, found that moderate early adversity builds resilience, and entrepreneurial success. People who had to develop this by necessity tend to do it more naturally than those who’ve only experienced navigating ambiguity through simulations in a leadership course.
Pivoting through Uncertainty
Living with a mentally ill parent taught me something no classroom could: how to read the room and figure out the unwritten rules, live with uncertainty, and make decisions with limited information.
Source: www.inc.com
