Written by Lars Friedrich, Leadership Expert
Lars Friedrich, a seasoned expert in personal and professional leadership development, brings a unique 'Touch of Zen' to his approach. This distinctive method, honed over a proven track record of over three decades, sets him apart in the field and piques his curiosity.
Today's dynamic business environments and the often accompanying challenges and setbacks require executives, leaders, and entrepreneurs to be physically, emotionally, and mentally tough.
Undeniably, and as this year marks 43 years of ongoing active practice, dedication, and immersion in traditional Japanese Arts – Koryū (古流) – make me a credible and seasoned expert in precisely doing that.
And this puts attention to one of my favourite topics…
The need for lasting resilience!
Practical first-hand experience
During those four decades, I've witnessed many people suddenly appearing and rising out of nowhere, accompanied by countless wise talkers and scholars with their theoretical concepts.
They not only educated others on how to proceed and get better quickly but also lectured those who had trained much longer than them!
“Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
This setting is obviously also 100% transferrable to all professional corporate and entrepreneurial business environments today.
Interestingly, what all these people, talkers, and scholars had in common was that they eventually disappeared along the way!
Therefore, I pride myself on being a proven expert on lasting resilience due to all the practical first-hand experience I have gained and the numerous shades of it that also require continuous persistence, perseverance, and endurance.
Repeated intentional practice
Looking back on the 43 years of my training, with frequent and ongoing visits to Japan to learn from the source, there was and still is no textbook or theoretical scholar approach.
Instead, there were mainly binary, practical, first-hand experiences full of trial and error, pain, sweat and tears and countless times of wanting to give up.
And here's the most significant insight I learned about lasting resilience… It is evidently built through repeated, intentional practice!
Toughness
Allow me to use 'toughness' instead of resilience!
Based on my experiences, those of friends and family, leading teams, organisations, and companies, and the shared experiences of my valued clients over the last nine years…
If we haven't done anything tough in practice, we are less likely to adapt while under stress because that's precisely what resilience is about.
The capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties, so toughness!
In fact, many people we consider naturally resilient have found more ways than most others to practice toughness throughout their lives.
Intentionally or not!
And, of course, it's hard to practice intentional toughness via active training if the demands of our environment and the daily challenges of life and work constantly suck our physical, emotional and mental resources dry.
So, what often happens is that we basically won't have enough raw materials to build new, more substantial structures as lasting foundations!
Like making muscles stronger in physical training, emotional and mental toughness also require recovery and safety afterwards to develop fully.
Things just are
It is imperative to remember that anyone has weak spots in their armour, which is neither bad nor good, neither shameful nor a source of pride.
It just is!
Finding stressful and challenging situations difficult is no more shameful than not having antibodies to a particular virus, having a genetic makeup that weakens our muscles, or ageing.
These things just are!
Therefore, the goal of building, improving, and executing toughness is not always to be a rock; instead, it's to recognise and respond with awareness of what is happening.
Self-awareness and self-respect
We need self-awareness and self-respect to honour our tendencies, boundaries, wants, and needs and then act in ways that promote growth, healing, and sometimes even survival.
These qualities allow us to recognise our strengths and limitations, set realistic goals, and make decisions that align with our values and well-being.
But also constantly recharging as well as possible!
Of course, we may also try to prevent stressful situations before they happen by breaking our behaviour patterns, thus lowering the need to tough it out.
It’s important to consider that physical, emotional, and mental toughness is as much about anticipating, planning, preparing for, and routing around obstacles and challenges as it is about overcoming them when they occur!
Therefore, what turned out to be undoubtedly valid is that achieving physical, emotional and mental toughness requires repeated, intentional practice.
For resilience built to last!
Or at least for already 43 years in my case!
Walking the talk
Have I written and published many books, been a guest on multiple talk shows, interviewed for countless podcasts or had several TEDx talks promoting the theoretical concepts of resilience?
Clearly not!
“Choose as a guide one whom you will admire more when you see them act than when you hear them speak.” – Lucius Annaeus ‘Seneca’ the Younger
Unlike scholars and talkers, I've deliberately chosen to invest my time in practising lasting resilience by walking the talk of promoting exemplary self-leadership.
This practical approach and the achieved results undeniably set me and my professional leadership services apart!
Practical resilience approach
For all executives, leaders, and entrepreneurs who are intrinsically motivated and committed to diving deeper into their personal or professional development for exemplary self-leadership and the interwoven healthy, practical, but most importantly, lasting approach to resilience…
I'm here to support them with my professional leadership services!
With my actively and practically gained experience, knowledge, and expertise of 43 years of self-leadership execution and 36 years of leading others…
I'll also help executives, leaders, and entrepreneurs take control of their unique journey while holding them accountable for their growth!
Additionally, skilfully guiding them when facing adversity, challenges, obstacles and setbacks that push them far out of their comfort zone to a place where they need all of their resilience to achieve their new possible.
Because evidently, knowing is not enough; we must apply. And willing is also not enough; we must do.
For resilience built to last!
Lars Friedrich, Leadership Expert
Lars Friedrich, a seasoned expert in personal and professional leadership development, brings a unique 'Touch of Zen' to his approach. This distinctive method, honed over a proven track record of over three decades, sets him apart in the field and piques his curiosity.
With a career that has spanned from being a former Officer and Special Forces Operator to a COO in international and intercultural corporate business operations and development positions, and now as the founder of his boutique business, Lars has accumulated a wealth of practical leadership, resilience, discipline, motivation, endurance, commitment, persistence, and dedication.
