“What does it mean to be resilient?” That’s the question one reader asked in response to my recent article on Forbes. It’s a great question.

The idea of “resilience” has entered the mainstream of life. Well-known researchers like Brene Brown and Angela Duckworth have published on the topic. But a lot of people don’t understand what resilience is.

There’s a misinterpretation that resilience is about being fearless, being tough or just being able to pick yourself up by the bootstraps. These misperceptions are especially prevalent in business circles. That’s a big problem because this way of thinking can actually make business leaders less resilient. Let’s clear that up.

Fear, Adversity And Paralysis

The easiest way to understand resilience is to first understand how it gets derailed, and that’s often through a destructive process I call the “fear, adversity, paralysis cycle.” Here’s how it works. When faced with adversity, we all feel fear. It’s a fear that we won’t be able to overcome the adversity. That’s perfectly natural. The problem develops when the fear becomes a paralysis that prevents us from responding productively to the adversity. And the paralysis always leads to even more adversity — either the original adversity worsens or a new one arises.

For example, Eastman Kodak filed for bankruptcy in 2012 — some people would say because of the digital camera. But here’s something many people don’t know: The digital camera was invented by an engineer who worked for Kodak back in 1975.

So, what happened? The cycle happened. When faced with the disruptive technology of digital photography, Kodak’s leaders — people who only understood the film business — allowed their fear of change to trigger a paralysis that prevented them from leveraging their own invention. By the time Kodak came around, the competition had an insurmountable lead.

Examples of fear and paralysis are all around us, and most people don’t notice them. It’s the executive who’s terrified of change and clings to the past. It’s the entrepreneur who is so frightened that she micromanages everything and paralyzes her company. It’s the company with employees who are so caught up with blaming and finger-pointing that it can’t innovate.