Defining resilience
Resilience can be defined as the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or significant sources of stress. This can include family and relationship problems, serious health problems or workplace and financial stressors. It means “bouncing back” from difficult experiences.
The impact of being under pressure
There are some careers, such as clinical work and the emergency services, where the ability to deal with such events and to recover from them is a key feature. We will focus on those in the next article in this series. For the rest of us resilience is more about feeling under pressure by the volume of work or by family or relationships. That pressure may be un-relenting, for instance due to high pressure of work, or it may be short-term, due to a particular up-coming event.
Research on resilience points towards it being influenced by both inter and intra-personal, as well as environmental factors.
Implications of different levels of resilience in the workplace
Those with higher levels of resilience may:
- Be able to deal with pressure of work generally;
- Experience few occasions when the pressure of work has an adverse effect on their performance or well-being;
- Have strategies to manage those times when under pressure;
- Be unaware that their actions or decisions cause others to feel undue pressure (although that will also be influenced by their level of empathy).
Those with lower levels of resilience may:
- Find it more difficult to deal with day-to-day pressures;
- ‘Choke’ under pressure, with sudden deterioration in performance or well-being;
- Interpret feedback from others negatively;
- Have difficulty switching off;
- Have an appreciation of the impact of pressure on others.
What can be done to help those with lower resilience or those under pressure?
Those with lower levels of resilience, or under pressure, can benefit from support by others in their team and the organisation more widely. Some suggestions might be to
- Take time to listen to their concerns
- Provide encouragement
- Be open to any requests for advice. Offering it unsolicited may increase the anxiety.
- Ensure they feel valued.
Developing Resilience
There is also the suggestion that personal resilience can be developed. Self-awareness and understanding of our individual sources of stress will help. Some find mindfulness allows for a mental or physical pause and an opportunity to ‘step back’. Others find spending time with family or undertaking an activity that takes their mind off work completely is effective. Taking action to improve resilience can reduce anxiety and allow an individual to thrive in the workplace.
What helps you to cope with pressure? We’d love to hear from you.
For more information about increasing self-awareness or team awareness, through psychometric profiling or coaching, contact viv.walton@deardenassessment.co.uk