We have all been horrified by the devastation that flooding has caused in Cumbria. Yet something that many commentators have noted has been the resilience of the local communities, their ability to support each other and turn towards restoring the fabric of their daily lives in the face of dreadful damage. This 'Dunkirk spirit' is often found in circumstances of extreme hardship or threat and can be either individual or collective.
We can also observe this in the current business climate, where some individuals, teams and organisations are able to manage well and even thrive in circumstances that are causing massive stress, despondency and depression in others. According to a recent issue of the Harvard Business Review, even more than experience or training, it's a person's level of resilience in the face of stressful circumstances that will determine whether they succeed or fail.
Characteristics of resilience
So what are the characteristics of resilient people and groups, those who manage to cope or even thrive in challenging or threatening situations?
- The ability to 'bounce back' - recovery from setbacks and failures
- 'Where there's a will there's a way' attitude - even when things are tough
- Tendency to see problems as opportunities - looking for positive possibilities
- Capacity to see windows of possibility - looking for small things that can make a positive difference, even in the midst of apparently overwhelming difficulty
- Flexibility in ways of handling diverse situations - being prepared to 'have a go'
- Wide comfort zone - able to feel reasonably comfortable in ambiguous situations
- Healthy support network - ability to ask for & also give help and support
- Humour - the ability to see the funny side, even in difficult situations
These characteristics are key to succeeding in challenging times. Can you identify areas where these could be useful, either to nurture in yourself or others? Do you have any colleagues who have these qualities, and how can you learn from them?
Seven learnable skills for increasing resilience
Dr Karen Reivich, co-author of 'The Resilience Factor', notes that while resilience is an innate capacity in some people, it is perfectly possible to develop certain abilities that increase resilience. She identifies 7 of these learnable skills:
- Emotional awareness - the ability to recognise and manage how you're feeling
- Impulse control - stopping to think rather than rushing into things
- Realistic optimism - looking for the positive in a realistic way (not pie in the sky)
- Causal analysis - thinking things through analytically from different perspectives
- Empathy - ability to read and understand others' emotions
- Self efficacy - confidence in your own competence to cope and solve problems
- Reaching out - being willing to take appropriate risk and see failure as part of life
Resilience at work
In their book 'Resilience at Work' Salvatore Maddi and Deborah Khoshaba base their findings on research they did in a large organisation that was undergoing continuous and massive change. What they found was that those who succeeded under even the most difficult circumstances were those who shared three attitudes; commitment, control and challenge.
So when times are tough, if you hold these attitudes, you'll believe that it is best to stay involved with the people and events around you (commitment) rather than to pull out, to keep trying to influence the outcomes in which you are involved (control) rather than to give up, and to try to discover how you can grow through the stress (challenge) rather than just bemoan your fate.
Challenge + support = achievement
Essential to resilience is to think of change as a meaningful challenge rather than as an unfair circumstance of fate. Look for small positive opportunities and seek ways to resolve conflict and build an environment of support and encouragement with those you work with, accepting that stress is a normal part of life that affects us all and that we can help each other to manage it in a constructive way.
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience but where he stands at times of challenge and change."Dr Martin Luther King