Bounce Back

How to Fail Fast and be Resilient at Work

Susan Kahn

• Publisher: Kogan Page
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9780749497354
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business Skills
• Index: Business

FINALIST: American Book Fest Best Book Award 2020 - Business: Careers Success. Innovation. Creativity. Growth. We all want these things at work - but the one thing they all have in common is that they involve failure. A fear of failure, or the inability to bounce back and learn from failures, is one of the biggest things that can hold us back in our professional development - so how do we learn how to fail well and develop our resilience? Wherever we work, and whatever role we deliver, we all have the power to change our thinking and our response to failure - Bounce Back is here to help. Written by Business Psychologist Dr Susan Kahn, this book will show you how to embrace failure. Failing fast, failing well, and learning how to be agile and resilient at work is a vital part of being a successful and innovative leader, approaching opportunities with excitement and creativity, and driving forward your personal and professional growth.Packed with practical exercises, inspirational case studies and a useful resilience self-assessment guide, Bounce Back will show you how to invest in your resilience in a deliberate way, and empower you to face risk head-on. From learning how to respond well to critical feedback, to understanding cultural attitudes to failure around the world, this book will help you be a stronger, more resilient you.

Index

ABC of resilience 178–79

abusive relationships 67

adrenaline 39, 44, 33

adversity, making sense of 90

affirmations, RAS (reticular activating system) affirmations (exercise) 184–85

age and resilience 180

agile working 87–89

ambiverts 113

amygdala 39

Ancient Greece 12, 85, 103, 146

anger

Explode or sublimate – self-assessment (exercise) 71–72

sublimation 66

underlying causes 43–44

anxiety

Calming our nerves (exercise) 50–51

defence mechanisms 58–69

survival value 41–42

anxiety disorders 37

Aristotle 177

art, sublimation and 66–67

authenticity 175

autonomy of resilience 172

baby boomers, career expectations 154

Beale, Inga 21–22

Beethoven, Ludwig van 66

Bion, Wilfred R 57, 112

blind spots 59–60

Johari window 60–61

Uncovering your blind spots (exercise) 74

Blockbuster 15

Bobbi Brown 20

body 40–45

activating the calming and relaxing mechanism 42

Building a body of resilience (exercise) 47–48

comfort zone 41–42

power of sleep 40–41

promoting resilience 46

somatic intelligence 44–45

taking care of 40–45

bounce back

or bounce forwards 181–82

stronger from change 90–91

brain 31–39

default network 34

dual-system brain 45

effects of pressure and stress 33–34

influence of early years relationships 31–32

mental health at work 36–38

neuroplasticity 32–33, 35

potential to change, adapt and respond 32–33

promoting resilience 46

rational vs emotional decision-making 45

rebuilding your emotional brain 33–34

terminology related to 38–39

thinking, fast and slow 45

Branson, Richard 13

breathing and the nervous system 42

bricolage concept 179

Brown, Bobbi 20

Brown, Brené 91, 174

Building a body of resilience (exercise) 47–48

bullying

dealing with bullying at work 127–29

resilience and 129

burnout 106, 146

Cain, Susan 114

Calhoun, L G J 133

Calming our nerves (exercise) 50–51

catharsis, the writing cure 90

Cathartic cure (exercise) 93

challenges, influence of mindset 36

change

How you have been and how you will be (exercise) 189

understanding the reason for 79

Change is coming! (exercise) 94–95

change, loss and disruption at work 76–91

‘always on’ transformation 76–77

bouncing back stronger from change 90–91

con...

Table of contents

• About the author
• Foreword by Nicola Mendelsohn CBE
• Acknowledgements
• List of exercises
• Introduction
• 01 Fail fast
• 02 Brain and body
• 03 Below the surface
• 04 Change, disruption and loss
• 05 Leadership
• 06 Conflict
• 07 Purpose
• 08 Closing thoughts
• Bibliography
• Index