Resilience! What is it, why does it matter?
We kicked off this Woman’s month with the hot topic of the year – Resilience!
One thing that drives the need to be resilient is … yes, Change! Ah, change. It presents itself in so many ways that it can be too difficult to see coming or so inevitable that it can’t be avoided. Its unpredictable nature often has us in a state of panic and insecurity, threatening our livelihoods and the comfort that we surround ourselves with.
Change can, however, can be good. It can strengthen us, shape us, transform us and unite us for the better – and while we’re not always able to see the advantages, we can all agree that it always brings a whole new lease on life.
The real question is: when you’re faced with impending and inevitable change and stuck at a crossroads – which road do you take? One of reluctance or one of resilience?
Whether you’re dealing with health problems, relationship issues with family or loved ones, financial constraints, struggles in the workplace or an inevitable pandemic, resilience exists as a choice. Indeed, it’s easy to choose a path of reluctance in going forward, but with that, you end up attracting more harm than good.
Reluctance keeps you from growth; it hampers your ability to broaden and enhance your perspective and ultimately prevents you from dealing with change constructively and practically. Reluctance is also a form of resistance; in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), a common saying originally opined by the famous analyst Carl Jung: “what you resist, persists“. This simply means that whatever you resist, or push against, will ‘persist’ and push back until it’s dealt with effectively.
A resilient Mindset
According to Psychology Today, psychologists have identified a few contributing factors to a resilient mindset: optimism and a positive worldview, the ability to recognise and regulate emotions (high self-awareness), and the ability to perceive failure as a form of feedback self-improvement.
They also noted that although resilience is affected by genetics, upbringing and life experience also affect how “resilient genes are expressed”.
So, what is optimism and high self-awareness?
Optimism can be defined as “a mental attitude characterised by hope and confidence in success and a positive future”. Optimists believe good things will happen to them throughout their lives; they have consistent hope for a successful future and see setbacks as a learning curve and a way to improve.
The great thing about optimism is that it can be developed and improved by using very simple tactics. For example, acknowledging what you can and can’t control, spending time around others that are optimistic and keeping a diary to remind yourself of things to be grateful for consciously.
Like optimism, self-awareness can also be developed.
High self-awareness refers to a person’s ability to analyse, understand, and control their thoughts, feelings, and emotions.
Being self-aware is essential because we all go through life dealing with and facing different outcomes and circumstances; with different backgrounds, upbringings, environments and cultures, we all develop our own view of the world and rely on specific mental defence mechanisms to protect ourselves.
A lack of self-awareness usually reveals itself in an unpleasant and often awkward way – and nobody wants to be the person that makes things uncomfortable and unpleasant.
By becoming a better listener, being more curious about your thoughts and behaviours, actively looking for feedback to improve yourself and understanding your values (where you draw the line and why you make certain decisions) – you can improve your ability to be more self-aware.
By painting a better picture of optimism and self-awareness, you can better understand the attitudes that lay the foundation of resilience.
Attributes of the Resilient
With resilience becoming increasingly popular, more and more research exists regarding its effect on our social, physical, psychological and spiritual lives.
So, developing it would be a massive priority for us, right? Indeed, it would.
But first, we need to know how resilience looks on a person; how do they behave? What makes them stand out? What characteristics define them? And more importantly, (especially for us at Change Agility) how it translates in the workplace.
According to psychologist Susan Kobus, there are three essential elements that resilience consists of:
- Challenge (i.e. the ability to see difficulties as challenges to be overcome and a precursor for improvements to be made),
- Commitment (i.e. the compelling nature to commit and stick by their goals, relationships, commitments, etc.) and
- Personal Control (i.e. their ability to only act upon the situations that they have control over and not waste time or energy on situations that they don’t).
Other than challenge, commitment and personal control, psychologist Martin Seligman argues that how we explain failures and circumstances to ourselves is just as important in being resilient, so he’s identified three other factors that describe resilience.
He categorises these as Permanence (resilient people see adverse outcomes or events as temporary, rather than permanent), Pervasiveness (the ability to avoid letting temporary setbacks in one area of life affect other unrelated areas) and Personalisation (looking at external factors as the cause of an issue, rather than engaging in personal blame).
With the lists of attributes and characteristics giving us an even clearer picture of what resilience is and what it means to be resilient, we can begin to understand why it’s an essential component of self-development and personal growth.
At the organisation level, it becomes evident that resilient individuals would fare better to challenges, complicated situations, and significant changes like a pandemic. These individuals remain positive and steadfast when faced with the inevitable evolution of the organisation and have the emotional intelligence to find little wins in all situations.
At Change Agility, we enjoy meeting them, working with them, co-crafting solutions and moving the organisation towards its desired goals. On the other hand, we also enjoy working with wellness consultants to develop programs that encourage developing a resilient mindset and workforce. Keep your eyes peeled for the next piece, where we will unpack some of the benefits of resilience and identify ways to become more resilient as an individual.
And don’t forget to reach out for any Change Management requirements. We look forward to meeting you and your team!
