Increasingly I believe that the most important trait for a leader is mental resilience.

Notes:


Last week I had a difficult week.
In one week:


My team were unfairly blamed for something others decided to do.
One of my senior guys quit.
I had a high-pressure martial arts test, which was physically and emotionally bruising.

As a leader you are constantly dealing with problems and challenges, most of which are beyond your control.
In my mid-life, I discovered the principles of Stoicism, mainly via reading the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, and later the work on Seneca.
One of those principles is to accept those things that you do not control, because anything otherwise is folly.
Increasingly I believe that the most important trait for a leader is mental resilience.
You will have good weeks, but equally you will have some absolutely terrible weeks that will test you to the limit.
It is those terrible weeks that will test your resilience, but remember:


Anything that happened has already happened. You must accept this, and move past it.
In a difficult, stressful situation: the only thing that matters is the facts. Your task is to find the facts, as they will determine what you will do next.
When damage is inevitable, you next task is to limit that damage and put in place a plan for fast recovery.

During my martial arts test last week, some things were within my control, while others were utterly chaotic and all I could do was react to minimize the literal damage I received.
The takeaway from that is to maximize your effort where you can influence things, and minimize your effort were you have no influence at all.
Other than that, watch your mental health guys as burnout is real: after a difficult week, make sure you do something fun and relaxing that weekend. Don't wait.
What I am working on this week:


Index storage optimizations for greppr.org

Media I am enjoying this week:


The Revenge of the Rose by Michael Moorcock.



Notes and subscription links are here: https://techleader.pro/a/649-Stoic-resilience-(TLP-2024w25)

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