Resilience: Now more than ever

Today, much more attention is being paid to the concept and practice of resilience. The impact of COVID-19 was respon­sible for this surge in interest. Small business closures, the number of overwhelmed healthcare workers, rising unemployment, housing and food insecurity, requiring students of all ages to learn remotely, and worries about contracting COVID-19 have all caused stress among people and Organi­za­tions are led to levels that we have not seen in recent history.

Research shows that nearly 67% of adults report higher levels of stress since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The primary concern is how to deal with this stress effec­tively. Therefore, the focus is on resilience as a way to respond to and reduce the impact of COVID-19-related stress.

The basic meaning of resilience is to “bounce back.” Psychol­o­gists define it as the process of adapting well to adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, or signif­icant sources of stress. Showing resilience during challenging times allows one to “recover” from that difficult experience and not only survive, but also be stronger and in better shape to face the next challenge. Actually, it’s more than just relax­ation. It bounces forward with greater determination—like throwing a tennis ball across the sidewalk instead of against a wall.

Resilience in organi­za­tions manifests itself as the ability to antic­ipate, prepare for, respond to, and adapt to incre­mental changes and sudden disrup­tions in order to survive and thrive. Researchers have found that employees with higher levels of resilience (compared to those with lower levels) report the following benefits:

• Experience less stress.
• They are less likely to miss work.
• They are less likely to quit their current job.
• Are more satisfied with their current job.
• Are healthier and had to be hospi­talized less often in the previous year.

This results in organi­za­tions with higher resilience having less stressed and more engaged employees, leading to increased production and positive financial results. The good news is that resilience can be a learned skill and can be developed both individ­ually and within an organi­zation. So what can we do to encourage the growth of this important practice?

First, a positive attitude is the foundation for devel­oping resilience. My dear friend Frances Hesselbein was once asked what makes her such an effective servant leader. She replied, “My blood type: B‑positive.” A positive “glass is half full” perspective goes a long way in overcoming life’s challenges personally and profes­sionally. Here are some sugges­tions for devel­oping a more positive attitude:

• Deal with negative emotions. Don’t let them build up. Find ways to release these negative vibes by going for a walk, riding a bike, going to the gym, hitting a punching bag — whatever works for you, do it.
• Find and spend time with positive people. Once you find out who they are, learn from them and examine how they think. Their influence will have a positive effect on you. Avoid the negative naysayers if you can. Don’t let them bring you down.
• Adopt the motto “There is some good here” in everyday situa­tions, no matter how bad they may seem. Stop for a moment and see how you can “turn lemons into lemonade,” as the saying goes. There are few days without challenges or barriers standing in the way of what you want to achieve. You’ll be surprised at the difference this approach can make when your framework is challenged in this way.
• Focus on strengths. What are you good at and what do you really enjoy doing? All too often, we tend to place too much emphasis and expend unnec­essary energy on correcting our weaknesses — thinking about how they hold us back and finding ways to overcome them. Instead, find ways to strengthen your strengths – the knowledge, skills, and abilities that you have and that you would like to better express and utilize. This is a more positive approach.
• Be grateful for what you have. Thank those who were helpful. For some, expressing gratitude regularly is the most important attitude and action in devel­oping a happy, positive mindset – and remember that the ultimate goal is resilience. And don’t forget to be forgiving.
• Start and end the day with a positive statement to yourself. Frances Hesselbein once told me that when she wakes up, she commits herself to having a positive impact on someone during the day. And before she goes to sleep that night, she thinks about who she has served in this way. I believe this is an important practice that we should all emulate. It sets the tone for the day and then sets the stage for the next.
• Recognize and eliminate negative self-talk. You know what that is: the inner voice that tells you, “You’re not good at this.” This will end badly.” We all have a negative inner voice. We need to “call it out” and inten­tionally replace those thoughts with positive ones. “Yeah, that didn’t go well, but I learned from it and that next Time I’ll make it work.” Here’s how to replace negative self-talk with positive self-talk. One of my colleagues calls it “close combat” because every thought has to be confronted and replaced, which can take time and a lot of effort. You didn’t develop negative self-talk overnight and it won’t go away anytime soon, but it will go away over time if you pay attention and put in the effort.

Second, the author recom­mends Rich Fernandez (2016). Five ways to increase resilience between individuals and organi­za­tions. This includes:

1. Practice mindfulness– Be aware of events and experi­ences as they occur.
2. Divide the work during the day– Focus on one specific task or task at a time, as opposed to multi­tasking.
3. Take short breaks every hour and a half to two hours– Take a step back from the task at hand to refresh yourself mentally.
4. Develop the ability to respond to difficult situa­tions or people rather than reacting to them– Pause, take a step back, think, change perspec­tives, create options and choose carefully.
5. Cultivate compassion– This includes both self-compassion and compassion for others.

Third, here are a few more thoughts that might be helpful – three, to be exact. I refer to them as the “3‑Ts.” Each individual contributes to creating the context in which resilience can live and grow: Trust, TruthAnd trans­parency. All three are inter­con­nected and support each other in their effec­tiveness and impact.

1. Trust. Warren Bennis once called trust “the emotional glue that holds leaders and followers together.” If managers and employees are to emerge from the crisis stronger and better prepared for the next challenges, they must trust each other. Building and exercising resilience skills requires that leaders and employees believe in and support each other (as well as their organi­za­tion’s vision and mission) during difficult times.
2. Truth. Trust comes from telling and living the truth. It’s about the belief that what leaders tell their team members about a crisis — the causes, the necessary responses and how to overcome them — is real and genuine. Then managers must solicit and accept honest and trans­parent feedback from colleagues — an important practice. Without telling the truth, trust is destroyed and becomes even more difficult to rebuild in times of crisis.
3. trans­parency. It’s one thing to know the truth, but quite another to share it. Leaders must be willing to tell their colleagues the truth about what is happening and what needs to be done to not only survive, but also be better prepared for the next crisis. When managers are trans­parent, employees can evaluate the advan­tages and disad­van­tages of their manager much more objec­tively. When leaders are trans­parent, especially during the worst of times, they actually strengthen their leadership skills as teammates begin to trust them as people and thereby respect them even more as leaders.

I’ve seen examples lately of leaders who have used the 3‑Ts brilliantly — and some not-so-good examples. Maybe you have too. The difference I have seen is clear to see in their colleagues. The good examples are organi­za­tions in which people have a positive attitude, are optimistic about the future and are productive. When evalu­ating your own resilience, don’t forget the impor­tance of the “3‑Ts.”

During this process, take time to think about what is happening to you. What are you feeling? Are your assump­tions about how to deal with the challenges you face or about the nature of your business changing? Are you starting to make these new behaviors and activ­ities your default style? Make sure you find those you can talk to about what you are doing to develop resilience. Think about what you can do with their feedback. Then repeat this cycle of reflection and feedback, reflection and feedback, etc.

An additional point. All this talk about mindset and resilience may seem like a long list of things to work on, resem­bling a formula or algorithm. Just go through the action points in the points I mentioned and you’ll see how it all comes together. I hope you don’t think that way. Devel­oping resilience is a very personal matter. Hard times are just that – hard. They are difficult to endure, difficult to endure, and difficult to endure—and sometimes changing or saving certain things is beyond your control. We can suffer bruises and injuries, and sometimes these events change and even scar us in the process.

Resilience isn’t just about “sticking it out,” or learning to “grin and bear it,” or “pulling yourself up by your feet.” It’s not just about going it alone either. Such attitudes and behaviors speak of survival when you are hanging on by your finger­nails. They are not consistent with the practice of “recov­ering.” They involve denial and are destructive. Getting it right – embodying the traits and behaviors of resilience – is challenging and takes time, but you can do it. I know this from my own experience. If I can do it, I am confident that we can all do it, and more than that, we can do it must Do it given the times we live in.