Hello, everybody. Thank you for joining me today and it's wonderful to be here with you by the Women Tech Global Conference. My name is Veronica Houa and I've been always passionate about finding the smart ways, how to lead the best talents.And I believe that establishing the right management, hiring and leadership ways makes your company vital and not fatalist. And this is exactly what those are my strategies, what I'm currently teaching by nine months program in Vienna. So today, I would like to remind you that the key component of leadership and emotional intelligence is resilient and there are two significant ways to say so, please don't expect today any miraculous method that you have never heard of. And secondly, resilient people can sometimes be truly annoying to others, but I will come to those facts in a couple of minutes. The problem fact is that the resilient itself is just build up just by really simple things. And as the American Professor Ame um an Masten, sorry, she once described it concisely in German magazine Spiegel and she said that the biggest surprise about resilience is its simplicity, really. This is how we act, how we respond even if, if we ask just for help. Yes, because those are so common things that often are not easy at all. So that's why I told, don't expect any miraculous method because it already exists.

Experts and researchers uh at Ohio National University conducted a national survey in America and they revealed that the majority of Americans uh thought that they ha ha have a high level of mental and emotional resilience, but only 53% of them really scored that they are resilient people. Yes.

So that leads us to the question, what resilient exactly is in many articles in literature, you will find that resilience refers to the ability, how well you deal with difficult experiences and situations in your life. It is often described that uh it's the ability to bounce back and comfortably carry on this life after facing traumatic or even stressful situations and uh resilient people, they have some common traits and you will maybe you will find in this list, I will share it here. So we re resilient people. They radiate optimism. They are doing well. Yes, they have uh clear calls. They follow them concisely and they also follow them with discipline. Then they are intelligent, but they, you don't have to be Einstein, just important is accurate thinking and also they are very empathic and listen to others and maybe it's jump one question into your hands. It meaning that are they no nump. But I will reply. They are by no means nump. Yes, they just form negative feelings such as sadness, anger, guilt, and shame into positive feelings and they transform them into positive solutions faster than other people. So that's why I told that sometimes they can be truly annoying to others because they are really successful and happy and light. My question is on you. How do you meet those qualities? And now listen, all people are resilient and all have the ability to cope with failures.

And um imagine that you have a washing sponge. Just simple. It can be wet, it can be dry, it doesn't matter for your home test, try to press it and squeeze it firmly as much as you can and then look at the sponge again for a while it transformed or it changed its shape. But after a moment, it is the same as before. Yes. And this is my dear, this is the concept of resilient. So uh originally it comes from physics and it describes the ability of substance and object to sprint back into elasticity. Now, I would like to share some stories of resilience as I represent Austria. Today. The first example is Viktor Frankl. Viktor Frankl was Austrian professor of Sigri um at Uni Vienna University and he was of Jewish origin in the year 1942. He and his whole family were arrested by the Nazis and transported um to terrorism uh camp and his brother, his wife and Children. They all died in the guest chamber. After that, after liberation in 1945 Victor Franco survived. And just for one night, he put all his suffering experiences in one book which I really highly recommend to all of you. It's called Man Search For Meaning. And this book contains really absolute great testimonies what the human intellect is capable of and it shows extraordinary human resilience.

The next example is famous JK Rowling of Harry Potter series. Maybe you like it and maybe not. But she also struck at a very difficult hardships in her life before she became famous. Uh She went to Portugal when her mother died and she stopped writing for a while and then she planned when she come back, she will continue with writing. However, her abusive marriage came into financial hardships and she became a single mom also facing the depressions and living off the unemployment benefits. But she pressed on with writing and confess and even included her personal stories in those books. She sent her manuscript to 12 different publishing companies, but she received just rejections. However, finally, the Bloomsbury publishing picked up her manuscript address is the History of Fame. And the third example is me. But I'm not a Hollywood superstar as the colleagues on pictures before.

But I feel I feel and I consider myself as the resilient person. And why? Because I'm here strong and empowered to share also my story seven years ago, I was a victim of workplace violence and, and why? Because I was productive, ambitious, very social empathic and favorite in team. Two years ago, I applied for a new job because I really felt I need a change and a instead of invitation, I just received rejection after rejection and after rejection maybe about 35 times. So of course, I felt disappointed, very sad and frustrated. But my dear, it helped me to build up side hustle and it formatted my mental endurance. So my question on you is put it into your resilience plan and think about a difficult situation you went through and which uncovered abilities helped you really managed everything. Yes, resilience isn't achievable. Absolutely not over the night. But it's definitely something that help you to cultivate your workplace.

And also you can use of course resilience in your private life because it helps you to build and grow up a new generation. This is the point today and with the right mindset and with the benefit that resilience itself brings you can help your staff to stay motivated, then they work well with others and instead, oh, that's not my job. I have a problem. They will say, oh great, that's a challenge. Let's face it. And resilient workforce can lead your workplace into flourishing success. OK? And resilience take, it contains uh fundamental pillars. The most important one is emotional well being because it contains um the key component and it is how well you can regulate and understanding your thoughts and emotions and how well and healthy. You can identify your realistic views of yourself and the world you live in. And all those pillars are interlinked and each of them contains the separate building blocks or subcategories which you have to develop, to strengthen the resilience as a whole. Many scientists predict that additionally to intelligence and emotional quatient, the resilient quatient will be the most important one in these turbulent times. So and there exist of course many um methods, techniques and exercises that you will find.

But I sum up to four relevant ones which I really recommend and which I also use personally. So please try to perform your leader, your resilience at management and leadership level because it helps you to filter down through the organizations and also you will align it with the organizational and strategical course. Then the next thing is please implement opportunities for professional and personal development because um it enhances the self awareness of your employees as an example, I will get, for example, shadowing or mentoring coaching or training opportunities. The next point is try to create well structured teams and environment where as I mentioned before, people will seek instead of I'm having a problem, I'm facing a great challenge and they will then find a positive solution. And this is what each CEO wants, am I right? So the last point of the and the fourth step is try to gain a competitive edge because when you enable your team or people in your organization to adapt to change quickly, they will find new ways of thinking. Then your department and organization as a whole will head ahead of curve and you will gain a competitive advantage at the final uh to finalize my talk, I would like to share this great quote with you. Please take it home and always remember on it.

Yes, and always remind it really. I mean it seriously because the oak for the wind and was broken, but the willow bent when it must and it survived. Thank you for your attention and I'm happy to connect with you all the time.