Building Resiliency in the Workplace. What does that mean today?

Resilience has been defined as the course of adapting well in the face of hardship, shock, tragedy, pressures, or significant sources of stress—such as family and relationship problems, serious health problems, or workplace and financial stressors.

In these times of the Covid outbreaks, we are living in challenging times testing our coping skills. Katherine King, assistant professor of psychology at William James College, identifies seven ways to enhance well-being in these trying times.
• cultivate a belief in your ability to cope
• stay connected with sources of support
• talk about what you are going through
• be helpful to others
• activate positive emotion
• cultivate an attitude of survivorship
• seek meaning

How is resiliency developed?
Resilience is made up of five pillars: self-consciousness, mindfulness, self-care, positive relationships and purpose.

You can build resilience in many different ways. First, exercise regularly and get enough sleep to control stress more efficiently. The stronger you feel physically and emotionally, the easier it is for you to overcome life’s challenges. Another example of building personal resilience at work is by developing and strengthening emotional insight. Insight is closely related to emotional intelligence. Individuals with a level of understanding have a group of awareness about the full range of emotions they experience, from ‘negative’ to ‘positive.’

Why are some people so resilient?
People who are resilient to hardship, exertion, and stress quickly rise to the top. A lack of resilience may be associated with stress leave, absenteeism, poor performance, and ultimately mental illness. Resilience is the holy grail of positive human functioning.

Organizational Resiliency
Incorporating organizational resiliency helps to reduce stress when managing and working through significant events. It will increase the trust and confidence of employees in the leadership, their colleagues and support the plan to move forward. Research shows a reduction in absenteeism because employees are happy and self-assured in the decision-making of their colleagues and their everyday job responsibilities.

In a happy workforce, productivity increases, and there is a significant reduction in workplace injuries and accidents when the employees are alert.
With overall personal health and well-being, the drive to succeed and the willingness to be flexible in the event of a change go hand in hand to becoming overall adaptable to resiliency.

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