Fit for the Year Ahead: Building Personal and Team Resilience. At the height of the pandemic, stress and anxiety levels rose around the world. While the threats of COVID-19 have now reduced, the challenges of the past few years have taken a considerable toll. As we move into 2023, many workplaces are on a journey to rebuild the resilience and energy levels of their workforce as they adapt to the ‘new normal’ and face new challenges.
The first few months of the year are an ideal time to pause, reflect and be more deliberate about how we go forward. This article is designed to help you reflect on those key building blocks for resilience, think about what’s working for you, and what you might like to do differently.
What is resilience and why is it important?
According to Forbes, resilience is one of the most important factors in our ability to thrive and be successful, while McKinsey believes that resilience (in its many forms) is emerging as “a vital muscle” for companies and is one of the top priorities for many CEOs worldwide.
In simple terms, resilience is our ability to adjust to or recover readily from adversity, challenge and change, while wellbeing is about judging life positively and feeling good.
Whether we are dealing with personal challenges or overcoming obstacles as a team, resilience helps us maintain focus, stay motivated, and move forward even in the face of setbacks. So, what are the ways we can help build this ‘vital muscle’ for ourselves and our teams?
Six Habits to Help Build Wellbeing and Resilience
- Reset the self-care habits that work for you. Self-care is an important part of building resilience. This includes things like physical activity, nutrition, sleep, managing boundaries and switching off. Take the opportunity to pause and think about your ‘go-to’ tactics i.e., the things that help you maintain balance and give you energy. Another thing you could try is to think about a favourite hobby or activity, one that helps put you in the ‘opposite world’ to your work, and helps you recharge. It’s an idea that Leadership Researcher and Practitioner Nick Petrie recently posted about. He found our opposite worlds tend to fall into one of six zones: physical exercise, artistic, nature, animals, volunteering and home tasks. Ask yourself ‘Am I making time for the things that energise and recharge me?’ ‘What one thing would I like to focus on more, in the months ahead?’
- Recognise the signs of stress or concern. Learn to identify the early warning signs that you’re feeling stressed or pressured. These vary from person to person, so it’s important to think about which ones specifically apply to you. Read more about the signs of stress here.
- Relax the mind and body. Take regular breaks, go for a walk outside in nature, or practice simple breathing exercises and mindfulness to help relax and re-set.
- Refocus your attention and energy to the priority task. We have some great audio exercises on our website that can help you re-focus.
- Reframe your thoughts and attitudes towards acceptance, realistic expectations and helpful action. Consciously paying attention to our ‘self-talk’ and reframing negative thoughts into more positive statements can help relieve tension and put us in a better frame of mind.
- Reconnect to the positives, your strengths, values and motivators, and the important people in your life. Having a network of supportive individuals can help to provide emotional support and offer guidance and advice in difficult situations. This can include family, friends, colleagues, or a mentor. It’s also important to stay connected to our values and strengths. To develop a greater awareness of your strengths, try the VIA Strengths Survey.
Top Tips for Team Resilience
When it comes to building team resilience, think about ways you can create a sense of connection, support and belonging in your team. Some practical tips include:
- Give everyone permission to look after their own wellbeing
- Role model good habits for wellbeing and resilience
- Have regular check-in conversations – to genuinely see how people are going
- Encourage team members to recognise and make the most of each other’s strengths
- Celebrate successes as a team
- Support each other and look out for each other
- Encourage a positive outlook – reflect on what’s going well, be open minded, notice progress and opportunities, practice reframing challenges as opportunities
- Have clear goals, know what your priorities are as a team
Some popular team initiatives include mindfulness, step-challenges, stretching or yoga, personal resilience sessions or talks on key topics, volunteering and team building activities. Interestingly, some of these employee-led, team programs can go on to become much bigger, or even go global, as is the case with HSBC’s mindfulness initiative.
Whatever you do, it’s important to think about the culture of your team, the type of work you do, and critically, ask your team ‘How can we best support each other?’
When it comes to our resilience and wellbeing, it’s definitely not a ‘set and forget’. So, why not dedicate some time right now, or block out some time in the coming weeks, to think about how you’d like to re-set for the year ahead to support your own wellbeing, and that of your team.
IN-PERSON FORUM EVENT
We’re delighted to be collaborating with DFP Recruitment to cover the topic of Building Resilience in a complimentary in-person forum of 2023, hosted by DFP. Click for Event and RSVP details.
Learn more about team wellbeing and resilience programs, including our Tactical Composure program.