Question

How do you think employees (yourself included) can improve their resiliency skills in the workplace?

What are some strategies you use to demonstrate your own resilience?

Answer 1

Employees can improve their resiliency skills by the following ways

1.Treat problems as a learning process

Develop the habit of using challenges as opportunities to acquire or master skills and build achievement.

2.Avoid making a drama out of a crisis

Stress and change are part of life. How we interpret and respond to events has a big impact of how stressful we find them.

3.Celebrate your successes

Take time at the end of each day to review what went well and congratulate yourself. This trains the mind to look for success rather than dwelling on negativity and ‘failure’.

4.Develop realistic life goals for guidance and a sense of purpose

Do something each day to move towards them. Again, small is beautiful; one small step amid the chaos of a busy day will help.

5.Take positive action.

Doing something in the face of adversity brings a sense of control, even if it doesn’t remove the difficulty.

6.Nuture a positive view of yourself.

Developing confidence in your ability to solve problems and trusting your instincts helps to build resiliency.

7.Keep a realistic perspective

Place challenging or painful events in the broader context of lifelong personal development.

8.Practice optimism

Nothing is either wholly good or bad. If we allow our thinking to dictate how we view something it will take over. Make your thinking work for your benefit, rather than letting it stymie you with doubt or by seeing only the bad side.

2. Some strategies to demonstrate your own resilience

Resilient employees build strong connections and relationships with others. These high-quality relationships can be characterized by a number of features. Connections are characterized by effective communication in which an individual listens actively and is responsive to their colleague and their emotions .

In positive workplace relationships, a resilient worker will do what they can to help another person to achieve success in the workplace. The resilient worker is a team-player who aims for a win-win with their fellow employees.

Social support plays an important role in workplace resilience. It is beneficial to develop personal as well as professional networks, which can be a source of guidance and support during times of stress or simply to provide a nurturing relationship.

It is also helpful for employees to have contact with colleagues outside of their own immediate work setting. These people can provide validation to the worker, and can potentially be accessible to the individual when accessing support within their own work situation would make the employee vulnerable.

Resilient employees nurture the work networks they have developed, consistently building trust with others. However, a surprising finding in the research was that resilient employees don’t take the work environment too seriously. They introduce an element of ‘play’ to the workplace, which further fosters positive emotions amongst employees.

Modern workplaces are certainly typified by stress. Technology and access to the Internet mean that, for many, work is a constant presence. No longer does one establish a career which they then stay in for the duration of their working life. Resilient employees are able to manage stress effectively so it is not overwhelming and detrimental. By actively engaging in self-care and nurturing themselves after a stressful incident, however minor, resilient employees avoid ‘burnout’.