Resilient people are 60% less likely to experience burnout, 31% more engaged and have half the stress related productivity loss. Resilience is one of the core capabilities of success – and we could all use more of it! If you’d like to keep more of your employees and keep them happy, here are a few things you want to share with them on how to be more resilient.
Resilience changes over time, and now as we begin to understand that our employees well-being IS our business, we’d better be skilled at building (and teaching) and modeling resilience!
Here are some basic things to understand about resilience that I think you will find important to know:
Resilience is not fixed – it changes over time. Underpinning resilience are three really important parts of your emotional intelligence system:
Mindfulness – the ability to observe your thinking and actions
Self-efficacy – knowing yourself, your emotions and how effective you are in the world
Self-compassion – the ability to kindly forgive yourself and then move on and grow.
There are many factors that contribute to psychological resilience – and one of the most important is your ability to effectively manage and regulate your own emotions. (We teach a lot about that in The Practice of Positive Leadership E-Course.)
We are living in a world that is just beginning to understand emotions and we still often get the message that it’s not okay to feel bad and experience negative emotions – especially at work. The more we understand what we can do to make ourselves and our employees resilient, the easier our life becomes.
When we “stuff” emotions back down they can lead to us feeling isolated, anxious, depressed, and for anyone like me – even physically sick.
The good news is that resilience (like happiness and your biceps) can be strengthened through practice. And over the next month or two you will find me talking a lot about resilience – because I’ve been studying it, because I think we are ALL going to need better skills!
Resilient people thrive even in stressful environments. Providing you are cultivating a positive culture teaching employees about resilience can act like an “employee retention” program.
I recently learned from the World Happiness Summit that took place in March, that according to a study by McEwen & Boyd, resilience training improves staff efficacy, optimism, job satisfaction, goal attainment and productivity. What a great finding! It just makes sense! Help make your teams more resilient and become “unstressable.”
There are several paths to becoming more resilient and I am discovering MANY of them (I’m thrilled there ARE so many!)
So this is the first of a few communications I’ll be sending on how to build resilience – you’d be surprised how many I have discovered!
Let’s start with the one I struggle with most and have been practicing, and then I will share just a few more. (You can expect many more in the next two months – I’m on a roll!)
Practice Self-Compassion
Treat yourself with the same kindness, care and understanding that you would extend to others. Recognize that everyone makes mistakes and that you are not alone. Forgive yourself and accept your imperfections and cherish and build on your strengths.
Get very honest with yourself. No one’s watching.
Rate yourself on a scale of 1 – 10 – How Self-Compassionate are you?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
(I’m still only at a 5-6 to maybe a 7, and some leaders I interviewed recently reported the same) That’s embarrassing for me and a HUGE learning opportunity at the same time!
If YOU aren’t where you’d like to be, let me know and I will help you move the needle as I move my own. (JoAnna@ReturnOnHappiness.com subject line: Self Compassion Please.)
Know thyself! What are your tendencies? Are you quick to fly off the handle? Do you remember to take a “power pause” and step back from a challenging situation? Write 3 things you routinely do:
1.
2.
3.
If you don’t know HOW to take a “Power Pause” check it out and use it!
Cultivate Grit:
Set long-term goals: Start by setting specific, challenging, and meaningful goals for yourself that will require sustained effort over a period of time.
Develop a growth mindset: Embrace challenges as opportunities for growth and learning, believe that your abilities and intelligence can be developed through hard work and dedication.
Practice self-discipline: Cultivate habits and routines that support your goals. Find meaning in your work.
Embrace failure: View failure as a natural part of the learning process and an opportunity to refine your approach. Learn from your mistakes and use them to fuel your determination to succeed. Seek support.
Shine the light on what is right!
Ask yourself questions like, “What’s good about this?” “What’s working here? “What’s going well and why?” Look for the goodness. When you seek it, you will find it!
Well, I think that’s about enough for today! I’m happy to talk to about setting up resilience workshops at your place of work – you know how to find me JoAnna@ReturnOnHappiness.com (subject line: workshops)
My newly exercised self-compassion muscle is reminding me it’s time to take a breather from writing and do something that needs physical attention – like getting the laundry in the dryer before taking a short 10 minute meditation before taking on the next assignment.
Take good care of YOU!
With love and compassion,
JoAnna
