Resiliency is the ability to recover quickly from disruption or change. Resilient people express optimism and a sense of forward progress even after hardship, crisis or difficulty. Being curious, having multiple and broad perspectives, and being learning-oriented contribute to a person or a team’s ability to be resilient. Resiliency helps people navigate crises where they need to handle rapidly changing circumstances, stress and pressure.
Signals of resilience
- Flexibility
- Durability
- Positivity
- Openness to learning
- Enthusiasm for the future
- Broad perspectives
Signals of a lack of resilience
- Burnout
- Fatigue
- Malaise
- Cynicism
- Defensiveness
- Narrow perspectives
Holding up under pressure is a part of resilience, but so is self-awareness and the ability to learn from loss and failure. Many successful people point to difficult times as when they learned the most. When we think about not just surviving a crisis, but thriving after a crisis, we know that promoting resilience for yourself and others is critical.
Focus on these themes for promoting and developing resiliency:
- Embrace change – crises are change events for which we are often not prepared. People who can get past the initial reaction of fear and discomfort to seeing opportunities are able to embrace change.
- Get an accurate picture of what is happening.
- Decide what you can control and what you cannot.
- Trust that you have had some past experience successfully navigating change from which you can draw strength and guidance.
- Check your alignment – don’t be afraid to question and even change your definition of yourself. The important thing is to find a way to have your values and identity be in alignment.
- Hone in on your purpose. People need to feel that they and their work matter. Staying in touch with your personal purpose can help build resiliency.
- If you feel yourself resisting change, check in to see if this is about fear and possible loss of self-worth. Examine what makes you feel valued.
- Access your sense of personal empowerment. Be self-directed.
- Monitor physical, mental and emotional well-being – take discomfort as a signal to attend to your physical and mental needs
- Pay attention to sleep, eating and exercise habits. Make sure to prioritize maintaining good habits during times of stress.
- Understand practices that work for you regarding mental health. Make time for quiet and stress breaks.
- Maintain emotional balance during times of stress: be self-aware, pay attention to relationships, draw on empathy skills, and manage the “fight or flight” reaction that can lead to a lack of self-control.
- Get assistance from others to keep your body and mind healthy.
- Commit to continuous learning and reflection – by updating your knowledge, skillset and perspectives, you will be better prepared during times of crisis
- Evaluate your current skillset and identify what gaps you have. Work on addressing those gaps.
- Seek out new challenges that stretch beyond your current comfort zone.
- Remember that learning is not a gradual upward incline; learning causes an initial drop in performance and then moves up with improvement.
- Make time for reflection whether you are enjoying success or enduring a challenge. Reflection is a useful tool for self-awareness.
- Broaden your networks and sources of information – resilient people have a broad base of support to access during times of crisis.
- Cultivate mutually beneficial personal and professional relationships that are wide and varied. Seek diverse perspectives.
- Connect with your network to collaborate, learn, share information, and understand what is happening around you.
- Reach out beyond your network to make new connections and find new affiliations.
- Review how you relate to the world and make sure you are scanning the environment as broadly as possible.
- Plan to adapt – to the degree that you can, plan ahead so you can weather change and respond quickly. Not everyone has this privilege, but if you can do things to prepare for changing circumstances, your need to be resilient will be less than if you do not have a safety net.
- Shore up your resources. To the degree that you can, expand your skillset and increase your savings during times of success. You will feel less personal stress during times of crisis if you have transferable skills and some financial security.
- If you accept that crises are part of life, think of ways to design your life and work so that you can respond quickly when crises happen, e.g. being able to continue to work regardless of location.
Some examples of developing resiliency learning and reflection activities:
- Look back on past experiences and note what you learned from specific successes and failures.
- Create a learning and development plan and then track your progress. Keep a learning journal and write down new insights or skills.
- Experiment and try new things at work, at home or in your community. See if changing contexts allow you to grow different skills and relationships.
- Create a values deck by writing your values on index cards. Shuffle and re-order the cards as you think about different times you’ve faced challenges. What values are core to your ability to deal with hardships and challenges?
- Create a list differentiating who you are from what you do. Think about all the different roles you play in life. Focus on your sense of personal identity as this authenticity will serve you during times of crisis.
- Make a list of the people you can count on in times of crisis. How broad and deep is this list? What are you offering back to the people on the list?
- Choose someone you admire in terms of resilience. Think about that person’s strengths and observe how they handle different situations. What can you learn from them?
- Think about your life and brainstorm how you could design it to be flexible and adaptable. Think about what you can do to shore up resources and be prepared in the following areas: physical and mental health, finances, time management and life balance, skills and abilities, networks and affiliations, and understanding the world around you.