Early in his successful presidential run, Barack Obama mentioned he used a resilient mindset in keeping on track, staying focused, understanding how other people see him and staying emotionally healthy. Wow! In times of struggle for all of us, the lesson I learned from the President is the need to look hard at your resilient self and understand the needs you want achieved.

Whether you are looking for work or are employed but maxed out, all of us should adopt or fine-tune our own resilient mindset that can keep us from going nuts! The next two articles I write – Part 1 and II – will highlight  the resilient mindset concept for those of you who are still employed. The challenges you face can be very daunting: Ever-increasing budget cuts, workload expectations going through the ceiling panels, working more with a lot less and, yes, the notion that layoffs are not over yet to name a few.

As you look at your work resilience, you may want to mull through the following questions you may face every day:

Do you deal difficult customers, colleagues or supervisors? Are you involved in chaotic or exhausting work events? Does it seem like you have to solve the challenges and problems of your direct reports even before your first cup of coffee every morning?  Are you asked to solve work issues assigned by your boss that seem overwhelming or unsolvable? Do you find that you are becoming less resilient to taking sometime challenging  work events in stride?

If you’ve said “yes” to any of these, don’t feel alone. A recent national survey of employees found that 78 percent of them said “yes” to at least one of these questions. More than 50 percent said “yes” to all of them…

Are you surprised? I wasn’t. I have spent the last 25 years successfully (or mostly successfully) stamping out the fires that probably keep you up at nights. Some of my fun has included:

- The last second “request” by the CEO to totally rewrite his approved upcoming speech – and do it in the next hour for his plane ride review…

- The direct report who was to present a white paper at a conference but accidentally deleted the presentation 15 minutes before his presentation – the IT guys had fun with that one.

- Staying up all night to meet a project deadline that unknowingly that day had been pushed back two weeks. My AA was busy planning a luncheon celebration and never gave me the message…

A few times I have been “knocked down” trying to navigate through the turbulent currents we call “the office.” But most of my work life has not been on the “darkside” but trying to stay within a healthy resilient mindset.  I’ve been successful at overcoming most of the work obstacles that many of us face everyday – and ride the resilient wave helping solve a myriad of work issues because of a few strategies I’ve learned along the way.

I use the phrase “resilient mindset,” which I define as deal ing effectively with all aspects of your work life, including challenging customers, colleagues or possibly being nervous that this challenging economy might affect your job. This also means springing back from adversity to take pleasure in the quiet moments with your spouse, significant person, children, friends or yourself – and even realizing that work/life balance is more than just a concept on a corporation’s blotter.

To keep your work resilience at a healthy level, I have found the art of workplace compromise, adaptability, finding common ground, and understanding my strengths and weaknesses very important.

Compromise: At least in American culture, the word “compromise” is not always seen in the best of light in the workplace Typically, many of us are brought up to stick to our beliefs and not give in unless absolutely necessary. Well, in your job and career, this narrowly-defined attitude can spell ultimate failure. There was a study that showed that not being able to compromise was one of the top reasons work relationships fail.

For me, compromise does not mean always giving in to the eccentricities or demands of your co-workers – or even your boss. It’s giving a little on both sides to find a common middle. That approved CEO speech I mentioned earlier is a good example of how I used the art of compromise to my fullest advantage. Instead of shuddering at the timeframe for writing the “new speech,” I talked with the CEO and gave him a number of concrete reasons why the new timeframe would not make him look good.

You can recite what is good for the company but try highlighting what is best for the person. None of us, even CEOs, want to come across as unprepared. I received an extra 90 minutes to re-craft the speech…it truly made the difference. Humbly speaking the CEO received a standing ovation after his speech.

A non-work compromise example that can be applied to work happened to me recently. After five years, my 14-year-old daughter was apparently not that interested in the flute any longer I thought she should just give up playing an instrument. My wife, however, took the long view and said that playing an instrument could continue to teach our daughter commitment, resilience and teamwork.

After many days of discussion, I began to believe my wife was right but that our daughter had to continue playing the flute instead of the sax.  We compromised on the solution – it took another month to convince our daughter about the positives of playing the flute rather than the challenges and expense of trying a new instrument at her age.

The workplace point: Sometimes your co-workers or other colleagues are right on about the implementation of a project. I suggest not letting status and (yes) egos get in the way of a great idea. A senior manager once told me he received the best advice over lunch when he sat down by one of the hourly workers.

The manager struck up a conversation with the worker about the new work/life balance plan of the company he was presenting to the entire company the following week in the afternoon. The worker was interested but asked how will it be communicated to his friends on the “grave yard” shift. The manager said they would have to attend the presentation or call-in.

The worker said presenting info about work/life balance policies is great for those on the right shifts, but the presentation for other might be a burden with families, sleep, etc. The light bulb went off and the senior manager added presentations at the times convenient for the shift workers. It meant a bit more time for him but ultimately was seen as very proactive in getting the message successfully out.

The manager compromised – not because of superiors – but because he listened to a typical employee. He could have stuck to his original schedule but compromised for the good of employees. It ultimately caused him less stress because he did not have to go back and “fix” something out-of-whack.

What ways you could “compromise” with a superior, co-worker or direct report that might make your day and week go smoother. Not everything needs to go your way, and the skill of compromising in some situations can be seen as a very positive career enhancer and part of your work resilience.

Adaptability: We have all learned to adapt in our lives one way or another – whether at work or personally. Personally, I’ve had to adapt to a life-long disability known as Cerebral Palsy, which has at least initially affected perceptions of me at work.

The old saying, “Never judge a book by its cover” definitely applies in my case and possibly many colleagues you deal with every day. Sometimes these perceptions get in the way that might affect you or your team’s productivity at work. Such unfounded perceptions can cause you stress and may make you pop a few antacids during the day.

Don’t worry that a person may be of a different generation, different gender, different belief or – like me – a bit different physically.

I suggest leaving all that at the door and judge folks on their work and how they get along with you. Sounds easy, but I know perceptions can become reality if you are not careful.

Very early in my career (I am now 49) a supervisor was so caught up with my disability, he would go down to the lunch room to get me something to eat, never schedule a meeting if it was not a short distance away from my cube, etc., etc. He was under the mistaken impression that I could not do normal activities. He later said he thought I was in pain when I walked.

Disconnect to the max. He assumed something that he never asked me about and adapted much of his free work time “to help me.” Finally, I sat him down to let him know I never need help unless I ask for it. He was shocked I walked around the State Fair, lettered in tennis and golf in high school, etc. When I told him this, he was effectively released from having to adapt a lot of his day to make my work day better – this, of course, was before the Americans with Disability Act was enacted in 1988.

The workplace point: My personal example may be on the extreme side, but you need to be successfully adaptive in your work style with others. I suggest never assuming someone can ‘t do something or only has a certain skill set without asking or observing the person first.

Please think about two adaptability and compromise moments at work that relieved your stress in the past, or ones you would have like to have done differently.

Knowing Your Strengths – and Weaknesses. Now let’s talk about how your resilient mindset plays into strengths and, yes, our weaknesses. All of us have tremendous personal and professional strengths – and, of course, a few weaknesses along the way.

As we talk through this section, please think about ways you use your tremendous strengths to be a great person, employee and supervisor. When doing this, then think about the ways your perceived weaknesses sometimes mask the best that you are. As employees, all of us want to feel great about our work and have a sense of accomplishment without feeling like you are gasping for breath or waiting for the next crisis to hit.

While we need to understand our weaknesses, I contend (for our health, happiness and well-being) we should focus on what we do well in at work, instead of always dwelling on the things we don’t do so well. It’s definitely easier said than done. I know I could list work weaknesses easier than writing down the same amount of strengths. Studies show that our strength/weakness thought process is just the way our brains are connected and how societal norms prompt us to view ourselves.

In your job, though, I have found my greatest success when I am totally focus on what I do best. I know that is easier said than done because you don’t always get accolades on your strengths at work. Rather, some corporate cultures rate you more on your possible missteps. I m usually a very laid-back consensus-builder type of guy at work, and I am not at my best when I step out of character – being too inflexible and stubborn. I definitely can exhibit all these sometimes-perceived weaknesses but my strength is being the compassionate, team guy in most work situations.

Knowing my particular strengths have helped successfully stay on the same resilient page. When I recently was asked to create a layoff communications plans that would affect so many of my work friends – and ultimately me -the first draft was not “hard enough.” I’m not good at being hard.

I took the critique by upper management, and used my strengths of adaptability to craft a more direct yet sensitive communications plan that was implemented. The point: Unless you lack some core skills, I suggest not worrying as much your weaknesses. Spend at least 80 percent of the time demonstrating your strengths to your work world. You’ll feel happier and a lot better of yourself, while showing what you do best. Your work hired you for your strengths – showing them every day will keep you healthy.

A study has show that workers can improve their strengths by up to 30 percent. If they use the same amount of time to improve their weaknesses, they can only get less than a 10 percent improvement rate. If we have a glaring weakness, that is a different story but…focus on your strengths, my friends.

In Part II of this article next week, I will talk about finding common ground, dealing with work setbacks and enjoying your time at work – where you may spend more than one-third of your working years in life.

Your comments have been very inspiring! Thanks for linking to my resiliency site, and I will talk with you again next week!