It’s the secret weapon that allows you to build relationships, foster innovation, and sustain mental health. It’s resilience, the strength that enables people to persevere and find solutions when faced with setbacks and challenges, empowering them to navigate adversity and often thrive.
Not just required during pandemics and times of global calamity, resiliency is crucial in a world where technology and culture show no sign of slowing down. Resilience is part of the development of the life narrative, an ongoing process, not a static outcome. In particular, leaders (and parents!) can drive and coach this in others.
What is resilience?
The idea of resilience has been around for a long time, passed down through fairytales, myths and legends of all cultures. The word itself came from Latin — resiliens, "to rebound, recoil," and salire, "to jump, leap" — and was defined in the 1620s, meaning "act of rebounding or springing back.”
The APA Dictionary of Psychology says, “Resilience is the process and outcome of successfully adapting to complex or challenging life experiences, primarily through mental, emotional, and behavioural flexibility and adjustment to external and internal demands.”
Who needs resilience?
We all benefit from increasing our resilience. For individuals, a strong sense of resilience can shape how well we adapt to life’s challenges, offer us specific coping strategies to call upon, and the availability and quality of community resources.
Organisational resilience refers to a firm’s collective ability to anticipate, absorb, and adapt to incremental change and sudden disruption. While important, today, we’ll be looking at what resilience means for people.
Three surprising benefits of personal resilience
Alongside the better-known benefits — overcoming adversity, adapting to challenges, and overcoming obstacles — there are a few lesser-known reasons to cultivate a garden of resilience:
Better mental health and stress reduction. The connection between resilience and mental well-being is well recognised. Resilience is a protective factor, enhancing mental well-being and reducing the risk of developing mental health issues. It helps individuals build emotional strength, develop positive coping strategies, and seek help when needed. On an organisational level, the stress decreases productivity, lowers levels of engagement and motivation, and counts the cost of additional sick leave and long-term support. In contrast, the successful outcomes of stress reduction programs1 and a healthy workplace include a lower sickness absence rate, higher productivity, improved resilience, and improved retention.
Relationship building. Resilience fosters healthy relationships by enhancing communication, empathy, and conflict-resolution skills. Feedback becomes easier to give and receive, leading to continuous improvement.
Fueling innovation. Resilience promotes a mindset that embraces failure as a learning opportunity and fuels creative problem-solving. Difficult periods can also stimulate innovation and ingenuity. Several reports discuss “post-traumatic growth,” when people derive long-term benefits from painful experiences2. Benefits include more appreciation for life, richer relationships, and more profound spirituality.
How can I improve my resilience?
There are three pillars for building personal resilience. While the road may be long to build these pillars, ultimately, they will help you bounce back from failures and setbacks — showing up better for yourself and as a leader:
Cultivate a positive mindset and self-belief (at any age). A flexible mindset promotes resilience, when you believe that personal characteristics can be developed.
For example: When you’re a teenager, only two things matter: what other people think and maybe your grades. A 2012 study3 found that teenagers were taught the intellectual and social skills needed to be resilient at school. It was discovered that they failed to use their resilience techniques unless their mindsets had developed the belief that their academic and social challenges could improve. They required the perspective that they could conquer challenges over time with work, new techniques, learning, help from others, and patience, rather than feedback that boosts self-esteem or attribute labelling ("you're really smart").
When we emphasise our potential to change, we prepare ourselves to face life's challenges resiliently.
Drop the perfectionism. Closely related to the above, you sacrifice opportunities to practise self-care and stress management by holding yourself to a high standard. “Self-compassion is a 3-step resilience-building skill – it’s not just being really polite to yourself and it’s definitely not letting yourself off the hook. Self-compassion strengthens you so that you have the energy to hold a bigger perspective and engage real support.” An interview with Katherine Morgan Schafler, author of The Perfectionist’s Guide to Losing Control: A Path to Peace and Power.
Build strong support networks. Solid relationships and social connections are essential for your well-being and allow you to seek help. Resilience is critical for building and maintaining healthy relationships. It enables individuals to communicate effectively, empathise, and adapt to different social contexts. Resilient individuals also have better conflict-resolution skills and can effectively navigate interpersonal challenges.
In sum
While we all understand how resilience kept people and organisations buoyant amid COVD-19 — it’s just as important in ordinary times. Resilience equips you with the necessary skills and mindset to navigate the challenges of the modern era and lead fulfilling lives. The words of 20th-century poet Dinos Christianopoulos4 come to mind: "They tried to bury us; they didn't know we were seeds.”
https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/business-case-for-employees-health-and-wellbeing
https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2004-11807-003
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00461520.2012.722805?journalCode=hedp20
Greek literary circles marginalised Christianopoulos for being gay — an act requiring his own resilience. Read the origin story of the couplet.