It is a common topic that is being discussed extensively. With all the changes happening within organisations, we often get asked to do a talk or workshop on this vital topic. So, what is resilience? Resilience is defined as the capacity to absorb high levels of change while maintaining a level of performance and displaying minimal dysfunctional behaviour. The key element to resilience is to maintain or even surpass current performance despite the changes happening around us.
The difficulty in maintaining performance is that change can create distress. A natural response to the brain is that it automatically views change as a threat to our wellbeing. Our “flight or fight” mode is activated making us worry, feel anxious, exhibit denial and resist anything that comes our way. To counter this response, stress management is a key aspect of resilience. Managing the distress created by the change will help people cope positively and hence make them less disturbed by what is happening around them. How do you manage your stress now?
Another key element to resilience is also how quickly we can bounce back despite failures and setbacks encountered when attempting to navigate change. Carol Dweck in her book “Mindset”, talks about two mindsets – a fixed mindset and a learning or growth mindset. A fixed mindset will view failures negatively and not learn from them whereas a growth mindset is one that looks at them as stepping stones or learnings to move forward with. What is your mindset to change currently?
With stress management and a growth mindset, resilient people tend to exhibit the following traits below:
- They look at things from a positive angle
- They are focused on their goals despite setbacks
- They think flexibly and change tack when required
- They organise themselves to reduce uncertainty
- They become proactive rather than being reactive
In a nutshell, resilience can be learned and cultivated, and it has become something of a necessity today. Ping us inquiry@enible.com to discuss this further.
