1. Resilience. Most of us are familiar with PTSD, but few of us have heard of “post-traumatic growth,” a phenomenon in which trauma forces us to exhibit grit, learn quickly, and support others. It requires a certain comfort with ambiguity and a willingness to move through the natural “fight, flight, or freeze” primal reactions to find freedom. Here’s a NY Times article on why some people are more resilient than others.
   
2. Adaptability. We can’t change the weather, but we can alter our internal weather to be open to change. Airbnb’s CEO Brian Chesky has been a master at pivoting the homesharing platform to longer stays, rural bookings, and online experiences. Being “fluid” doesn’t mean guzzling alcohol in a crisis. It means being open to change, a subject captured in this Psychology Today article by Bruce Feiler, a recent Wisdom Well Friday Book Club author.
   
3. Wisdom. In a recent podcast with the cofounder of BetterUp, I was called a “Socratic CEO” because I led with questions. In reality, I don’t do this nearly enough. Like so many of you, answers give me comfort while questions can confuse me and the situation. Of course, there is an easy remedy. We can break out of the prison of “fact knowledge” (the kinds of things we search for on Google) and start to embrace “process knowledge” (the hallmark of the modern elder). This new way of questioning involves knowing how to get things effectively done—organizationally—once we have enough facts to make a decision. Process knowledge is a form of wisdom. Want to know more about the difference between knowledge and wisdom? Read this Medium article. Wisdom is 2020. Hindsight is 2021.
   
4. Bearer of Good News. In tough times, great leaders are authentic and raw. Not rah-rah. Our people need a lighthouse in the fog. They also want evidence and insight into why the choices we’re making are working or, if they didn’t work, what we learned from them. No one likes being on a losing team, or on a life raft that feels like it’s sinking. Consider how you can communicate the “momentum of victory,” so small wins create more wins. Here’s an MIT Sloan Review article on sharing good news.
   
5. Purposeful. Having a purpose or a calling is a natural anesthetic. Someone wise once said, “The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” You’ve spent decades developing mastery that may be more obvious to others than it is to you. It could be how to run a great meeting, develop a collaborative team, or innovate in resourceful ways to save money. Your mastery may be needed in new places. Same seed, different soil. I was recently profiled in Stanford magazine with two of the most purposeful people I know in the longevity world: Dr. Phil Pizzo and Dr. Laura Carstensen. Hope you enjoy this article called “Some Reassembly Required.”
   

To understand the anguish that many leaders and entrepreneurs are going through right now, listen to this New York Times Daily podcast interview with Jasmine Lombrage who, with her chef husband, owns a new restaurant in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. This positive-spirited restaurateur is faced with a variety of competing challenges as to whether they should reopen their business. As optimistic as she is, her musing under her breath late in the interview, “I don’t even want to be me right now” says a whole lot about the strong emotional ballast leaders need to handle the difficult tradewinds.