Resiliency as defined by Webster’s
dictionary is – ‘The ability to
recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change’. It can
also be defined as the ability to bounce back from setbacks and move
forward.
We all know people who are resilient –
they suffer personal tragedy or career setbacks and they bounce back. Sometimes, they take a whole new course
in life or simply adjust to their circumstances with an optimistic
outlook. Sadly, we also know
people who get stuck. For these
people, there seems to be no hope and they despair until circumstances change
or not.
As Diane Coutu suggests in her May 2002, HBR article, How
Resilience Works, “Resilient people, possess three characteristics: a staunch
acceptance of reality; a deep belief, often buttressed by strongly held values,
that life is meaningful; and an uncanny ability to improvise. You can bounce
back from hardship with just one or two of these qualities, but you will only
be truly resilient with all three.”
In today’s business world, this is a hot, hot topic. Why? Change is constant and we have a multigenerational, diverse
workforce who expect different things from their employers. We also face near constant change
everywhere. Technology and social
media have made our lives very different.
Work and life are often blurred. With the federal workforce facing unpaid leave, and
with mergers and acquisition leaving people unemployed, uncertainty is
everywhere.
In 2010, Barbara Davis of Change Results Consulting wrote a
white paper on resiliency that describes six encouragers of resiliency and four
discouragers. From her research, Davis
developed a method to identify encouragers and discouragers that can be described
and developed.
Encouragers
•
Bounces Back from Setbacks
•
Faces Reality and Acts
•
Responds Flexibly
•
Experiments and Innovates
•
Finds Meaning in the Work
•
Expects and Encourages Resiliency
Discouragers
•
Rescuing
•
Reassuring
•
Reacting
•
Rigidity
Her premise is that you can build any competency including
one as complex as resiliency. So how do you build resiliency? The most pragmatic way is through
identifying the encouragers and the discouragers of resiliency. Once identified, building a plan to
leverage strengths and work on a weakness – similar to the Career Architect
from Lominger. It is not as simple
as it sounds but there are tools available to help leaders build the resiliency
on their teams. The key to
building resiliency is to reinforce optimistic yet realistic behaviors and
increase adaptability. For more on
resiliency, you should review the literature and case studies at www.hbr.org. For more on building resiliency, visit www.changeresults.com.
By Caroline Hanover
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