How to build resilience at work: Tips for leaders and teams
Having resilience in the workplace can be a great quality to have, particularly when it comes to putting wellbeing and a positive mindset first. Being able to bounce back from unexpected changes and challenges is an important element of managing stress and working effectively, but building a resilient team doesn’t happen overnight.
Luckily, there’s a whole host of resilience-building tips that your team can use to handle the challenges in front of them. You can utilise these strategies to help build adaptability, motivation and focus.
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What is resilience?
Resilience is essentially the ability to adapt to situations that may be difficult, allowing you to cope better with pressure and stress. So, if you’re presented with an unexpected scenario, being resilient means you can tackle it and recover, even if it’s a setback.
When it comes to resilience at work, you can see why this might be an incredibly important skill to acquire. From being able to adapt and handle challenges to rebounding from failures, having resilience at work can help you become more proactive.
How to build personal resilience at work
Building personal resilience at work can help you to look after your mental wellbeing, as it can equip you with better self-awareness and an ability to stay grounded. At work, where environments can get particularly stressful, having a more positive attitude towards challenging events can help you to work more effectively and remain happy within your role or team.
So, just how can you achieve this? Here, we look at some of the key strategies for building resilience at work.
Improve self-awareness and mindset
Having self-awareness in any situation is an ideal skill, but when it comes to the workplace, this can become even more apparent. Developing a conscious understanding of your thoughts, emotions and behaviours can directly impact your ability to know your own limits and understand what may trigger stress or upset.
It also means you can recognise what will help to keep you calm and level-headed. The more you practice this, the more insight you can uncover about yourself and how you might deal with situations in a more positive way.
Similarly, how you approach situations can depend entirely on your mindset, so being able to improve this can be a huge help. For example, focusing on what’s within your control and looking for opportunities and lessons where others may see obstacles or failures. This can help you to reframe any negativity, and in time, can allow you to set more realistic expectations.
Build strong relationships
In order to have resilience, it’s important to connect with those around you. Looking for trusted colleagues you can build a connection with can really help to strengthen your ability to bounce back from adversity. This is because support from others can provide additional resource to cope with stress, as well as form a safe place for team members to feel a sense of belonging and purpose.
Think about practising empathy and active listening to help build resilience in yourself and those around you, as well as asking for help.
Set boundaries
Setting boundaries is a key aspect of looking after your mental wellbeing, which naturally means that you’re able to tackle challenges more effectively. With that in mind, the right boundaries can help to prevent burnout and improve confidence.
Being able to say no to non-essential tasks and understanding when you haven’t got the time for additional requests is a great example of a workplace boundary to build resilience. Similarly, logging off and utilising time to recharge is also an important boundary, whether this is after the working day or taking annual leave.
Work on problem solving and adaptability
Having a better approach to problem solving is a key skill across the board, but particularly useful if you’re trying to build resilience. This is because you’re able to look at a challenge more proactively and logically, improving your chances of overcoming it.
It’s important to break any challenges into smaller steps, which could help make problems less overwhelming. Furthermore, embrace change and understand that uncertainty and transformation are a normal part of work. It can be helpful to approach this by being curious, not fearful.
Above all, stay focused on your values. This is crucial when work gets tough, as it can help to remind you of your purpose.
How to build a resilient team at work
So, as a leader, how do you instil better resilience within your team? Here are some key tips to help.
Be a role model for resilience
If you’re hoping to build a resilient team, then that resilience should start with you. To start with, try reflecting on how you’ve dealt with previous challenges. Did you have the answers ready to rectify the situation? What approaches and behaviours can you show your team to help them when they’re faced with new situations?
Optimise your team’s culture
Putting resilience at the heart of your team’s culture can help to nurture the right behaviours and attitudes, allowing each member of your team to build their own resilience.
Help your team by encouraging them to ask questions, stay composed, seek out expertise when required and offer support to each other.
Create a support system
Having a strong support system in the workplace brings a whole host of benefits to your team, including building better resilience. This means team members can form more trusting relationships, increase their morale and motivation, and feel more like a valued part of the company.
Have a backup plan in place
The thing about emergencies and unexpected changes is that they’re difficult to predict. They may happen at any time, but there’s no telling when they’ll happen. So, the next best thing is simply to plan for such events.
By having a backup plan in place, you can keep the team’s operations up and running with little disruption to regular order. In this way, not only do you maintain business continuity, but the team will be far less stressed out knowing that they have backups in place if they need to take some unscheduled time out.
Take time out to be optimistic
It’s important to encourage others to focus on the more positive aspects of events and circumstances where possible, as it can help teams to forge a more constructive outcome out of a challenge. In turn, this can build better ownership of the way you and your team approach difficulties.
Hold debriefing sessions
Keep an eye on team members after the situation has been resolved. Adversity doesn’t just end – it creates a ripple effect that can continue affecting team members after the fact.
That’s why it’s a good idea to hold debriefing sessions where the team can reflect on their experience, discuss issues they encountered and how they coped. It also gives team members the chance to support one another, and allows them to think about creating a plan of action if similar circumstances arise in the future.
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