What can Tyson Fury teach us about business resilience?

Tyson Fury being denied his historical comeback by judges got us thinking here at Catalyst – we didn’t see his results as a failure, but as an excellent show of resilience and personal strength. As a boxer, I’ve learned so much from his recent fight, but as a business coach and mentor I’ve identified a great deal in Fury’s approach that we can learn from in business.

Although disappointed with the judges’ result, Fury didn’t see himself as a failure, and neither did most of his viewers. This man’s priorities are loyalty and connection, and these values mean more to him than mere victory in a boxing match. His values give him the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties, the toughness to continue in hard times and the ability to spring back into shape despite all odds.

This is a man who has been to the top and fallen again, facing mental health issues and battling addictions with alcohol and food. He knows what it’s like to stand on top of the mountain, but more recently he’s been closer to rock-bottom. This past year he’s faced a different climb; to bounce back from addiction, drop several stones of excess weight and reach a physical form that’s capable of taking on the world’s best. Through talent, tenacity and belief in his own ability, Fury put up an awesome fight, getting up twice when the world thought he’d been defeated.

This kind of resilience is hard to find in business, but something that we should all be striving for. A recent Tanium survey reported by Forbes found that although 96 percent of business leaders believe that business resilience should a core part of their strategy, only 54 percent actually have this as a focus. We really need to ask ourselves if our own businesses have resilience built into our strategies, and whether we and our teams have resilience as an ingrained personality trait that keeps us going every day and helps us to get back up when we take a knock.

If this survey is anything to go by, we need to work on making sure this level of resilience is embedded at all levels of our business.

Tyson has inspired people across the world, of all ages, and shown us that we can transform ourselves into anything we want to be if we apply hard work and commitment. This is a positive message in our culture of Instagram-styled perfection where emotional resilience is hard to achieve, especially for younger leaders.

A recent Talentsmart survey has found that creating a coaching mindset in young leaders is key to building resilience, which they say has the biggest impact on performance – topping 33 other workplace skills and influencing in every job type. The evidence is growing to support business coaching as a solution to improve individual mindset and increase business results.

So if you’re facing issues in your workplace, big or small, think of Fury’s disappointment along with his physical and emotional bruises, and use his example to brush yourself off and give it another go. Just like Tyson, you can face a rematch, and when you do, you will be in better shape, even more determined and in a stronger position to take the lead.

Catalyst can help you to build business resilience and transform the performance of your businesses through Executive Coaching, Business Mentoring, Team Coaching and Group Facilitation in London and across the UK. 100% of our customers saw a change in behaviour after working with us. Please get in touch to find out how we could help you.