Resilient Leadership and Training Help Employees Roll With Change

Today’s workplaces are anything but predictable. And many of us worry when there is disruption, change and uncertainty.

Because of this instability, employee resilience is in big demand and managers play a vital role in nurturing work environments where employees easily adapt and are comfortable with risk.

The unexpected causes distress for most people. A study by Nature Communications found that a slim chance of receiving an electric shock is much more stressful than knowing for sure that you will or won’t be shocked. Study participants were asked to guess whether there were snakes under rocks, turning the rocks over as they progressed. When there was a snake, they received a small electric shock. Stress levels were monitored as participants learned which rocks were most likely to give them a shock. The greater the uncertainty, the greater the stress.

Leaving the snakes and electricity aside, consider today’s shifting organizations: a reorganization or merger happens and suddenly you have a new boss, a new team, and more work. New systems, new technology, quick adjustments to products and services to meet customers’ demands – these changes leave us scrambling. We’re making decisions with partial information, disagreeing on work-arounds, operating a man down because of a competitive job market, and are expected to keep pushing on through these challenges.

Most organizations need workers who can thrive in this kind of environment, but not everyone does. In fact, jobs are the number one stressor in 65% of employees’ lives, according to the American Psychiatric Association.

There’s good news though. Resilience and mental flexibility are learned skills.

Leaders and managers can build resilience by reacting well themselves to setbacks or high-pressure situations, by finding the lessons these events inevitably provide, and encouraging workers to do the same.

 

How can you become more resilient?

• Practice being optimistic. Most things are neither all good nor all bad. Choose to make your thinking work to your advantage. Don’t let it paralyze you.
• Learn from your mistakes. When something goes wrong, make time to stop and understand why. This stored information on what doesn’t work will help with future problem solving. Learning from our successes is equally valuable.
• Change up your daily routine. Mental flexibility grows when you step out of your routine. Solving new problems or doing things in new ways contributes to brain growth and our comfort outside our comfort zone.

Get more suggestions in our related article: Shake Off Work Stress by Building Your Resilience.

 

How can managers create conditions that encourage worker resilience?

• Create psychological safety. Change and ambiguity force organizations into uncharted territory where mistakes are inevitable. Learning from these setbacks is critical to moving forward. But employees never want to look incompetent. So, sharing mistakes, voicing concerns, and questioning popular decisions will only happen if workers feel “safe” to speak up without fear of being blamed, ridiculed, discounted or ignored. It takes an enormous amount of trust for a worker to admit to mistakes and take the right risks.
• Have crucial conversations. It’s not all sunshine and roses. Management needs to speak openly about anticipated problems. Discuss the concerns and barriers ahead. Without this dialogue, people draw their own conclusions, which can become self-fulling prophecies. By keeping vital information moving in all directions, workers are as prepared as possible and aren’t the last to know when priorities or directions shift. Also, listen and respond to concerns and differences of opinion. Ask questions to boost input and encourage any contributions.
• Remove obstacles to progress. Red-tape and bureaucracy are part of every organization. These factors can slow progress and frustrate workers by making them feel powerless. Consider how to offer greater autonomy and how to keep progress flowing. Encourage cross-departmental relationships to break silo mentality. Offer training if a worker is being thrown into a new project and is missing technical skills that will help ensure success.
• Learn as you go. Conduct pre- and postmortems on projects so employees learn from mistakes and successes. This process also helps cement the idea that mistakes are expected and part of progress and growth. Have employees share what they’ve learned with the team.
• Provide resilience training. Resilience training has increased in the past few years and research indicates positive outcomes in key resilience variables, coping and mental health, as well as decreased stress, according to Frontiers in Psychology. Content of the programs researched varies but includes: relaxation training, goal-setting, problem-solving, meditation, coaching, feedback, psycho-education on resilience, and reflective and critical thinking. The American Heart Association concurs suggesting that resilience training topics include: dealing with difficult people, improving physical health, remaining calm under work-related pressure, coping with negative stress and accurately identifying causes of problems.

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Learn more about a few of our many related live, virtual courses and register your team now:

                How to Work Better With Difficult People                                             3 hours

                Staying Calm & Confident in High-Stress Conversations                   3 hours

                Developing Your Emotional Intelligence                                                 3 hours

                Coping With Workplace Stress                                                                   3 hours

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An organization’s ability to change is determined in large part by the resilience of its workers. When they’re able and willing to adapt as needed, they’re more likely to be satisfied, loyal, engaged and get strong results. When they’re uncomfortable, scared or resistant, those things are harder to achieve. Managers are key to helping teams embrace change and see the positive side of unpredictability.

 

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