Who comes to mind when you are asked to list the world’s most inspiring people? Amongst those who have had an inspiring impact throughout history, a few come to mind: Nelson Mandela, Henry Ford, J.K. Rowling, Oprah Winfrey and many more… Even though their work and impact are spread across centuries, cultures and even industries, they all have one trait in common that allowed them to achieve their success despite everything in their way: resilience.
Resilience is our capacity to bounce back and recover from certain difficult situations, setbacks and even failures. Henry Ford didn’t revolutionize the car from the first try and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter was rejected by publishers dozens of times. James Dyson even made over 5’000 prototypes of his world famous vacuum cleaner before reaching the final version that became a success. Being faced with such failures or difficulties big and small, can cause stress and anxiety, which impede on our ability to keep going. Sometimes, it can be difficult to not “just give up” in the face of adversity. And yet all the aforementioned people persisted until they broke through.
When thinking about the workplace, resilience refers to our ability to deal with the challenging situations we may encounter at work (which could be anything from a difficult colleague to not feeling satisfied in your job). How well do we deal with the stress that comes with those difficult situations and how easily can we bounce back to our “normal” state? Nowadays, stress is considered the #1 reason why people feel discouraged at work in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A concerning statistic! On an organizational level, this leads to high turnover rates, low morale and eventually, low effectiveness.
To counter this, boosting resilience is one of the strongest strategies to help team members feel more in control of the challenges they face in the workplace. Years of research have shown that it is possible to cultivate resilience by changing attitudes, behaviors and social support systems within organizations. Here are a number of ways that are proven to work, that you can start implementing in your own organization.
- Change the company feedback system
Encouraging open communication is a crucial step in boosting team resilience. It helps people become accustomed to receiving feedback regularly, lowering their defensiveness and encouraging a culture of growth. Ideally, feedback should be a dynamic, 2-way process between management and team members or between peers. It should come in a holistic 360-degree fashion that highlights a person’s strengths and gives constructive feedback, creating action items and opportunities for growth.
The methodology of 360-degree feedback is easy to implement in companies of any size, in particular when using a people enablement platform today’s technology allows leadership to design feedback systems unique to their companies and select specific goals within the program.
- Establish psychological safety among team members
According to Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson, psychological safety is “a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes.” Google even ran a 2-year study which listed 5 key dynamics that made teams successful – psychological safety was one of them.
Organizations can take several steps to establish psychological safety in their teams. First, lead by example: encourage upward feedback and acknowledge your mistakes as a leader. Second, encourage active listening among team members by avoiding distractions and participating in open conversations. Third, create a safe environment by treating everyone equally and never placing blame. Developing an open, action-oriented mindset is one of the best things leaders can do for the workplace environment and enabling their team members to do the same.
- Encourage Autonomy
Your team members are experts in their fields and you have to show them you trust them to do what’s needed. By providing autonomy and decreasing instances of micromanagement, you will free up your team members’ array of ideas, which may not have been available in case of specific instructions written by their managers.
Autonomy is directly related to resilience in the workplace in such a way that it establishes trustful relationships between management and team members, and in case of failure, both parties have an easier time bouncing back into the work zone. A recent article on Workplace Insight noted that more than 20% of office employees do not feel trusted by their leadership team and thus feel demotivated at work. Relationships, especially truthful ones, play a big role on the overall wellbeing of people in the workplace, and can significantly impact their ability to rehabilitate in cases that need improvement.
Finally, it’s important to note that in order to be resilient in a workplace environment, one must also develop this resiliency in everyday life. By learning how to detect, understand and manage your emotions, you can apply resilience skills to any challenge or discouraging situation you face. Being resilient doesn’t mean you have to conquer and win every battle, but be able to evaluate each situation objectively and gather the strength to continue with your day, week or life in general. By encouraging your colleagues to practice resilience on a daily basis, you may be able to improve their overall satisfaction with life on a much bigger scale, which could then translate into their work culture.
By Emma Brooks