Turning Adversity into Advantage

Silicon India's International Women's Day this year featured Harbinger Group as a Platinum Sponsor along with Nokia. For a second year in a row, executives from several organizations shared thoughts and ideas.

One of the panels featured Swati Ketkar, Executive Director at Harbinger Systems. Her topic was - 'Achieving Success: Turning Every Adversity into an Advantage'.

Excerpts from her talk -

1. Adversity is often a leading indicator of calamity - don't deny it, accept it and plan to overcome it to avoid further trouble
2. Adversity creates conditions that are conducive to change. In normal times people are too comfortable to be open to change. Adversity pushes everyone past the tipping point. 
3. Adverse conditions help unite teams and create a sense of bonding. Everyone goes 'we are in it together'.
4. Bad times test your character and integrity
5. Facing adversity is a transforming experience. Regardless of how well you did, what matters more is what the experience did to you - did you emerge stronger?
6. In some adverse conditions, the best response is to wait it out until conditions improve. This is a great opportunity to revisit other important and interesting things you may have left on back-burner.

These ideas bring out the positive side of adversity, which is otherwise generally considered a negative vibe. Being crestfallen is not a solution to adversity; rather it can be used as a force for superior achievement, resilience, agility, innovation, energy, and happiness.