You know how it is. Everything is happening at once, and then one more thing gets added or goes wrong. When IT hits the fan, how do your company personnel react? Do they respond negatively or positively to stress and difficulty?
Psychologists believe people have a choice of how to react when things get tough. Your workers’ responses can be negative or positive and reflect how well they maintain control. Researchers have divided possible reactions to stressful situations to compare and contrast the differences of being distressed or being resilient.
• Overwhelming or Opportunity
• Blame or Responsibility
• Distract or Commit
• Allow or Act
• Impatience or Patience
• Pessimistic or Optimistic
Overwhelming or Opportunity
When things are tough, do your employees see their situation as overwhelming or as an opportunity? Being overwhelmed by change, challenges, and difficulties is a negative reaction. If things often seem overwhelming to your staff, they haven’t learned effective ways to cope with stress. Their negative response will keep them from overcoming a challenge and achieving more in their careers.
The positive reaction to when IT hits the fan is to see the challenge as an opportunity to learn and grow. People can’t avoid stress. Instead, they can use difficult situations to find new ways to solve problems. As your workers learn to see change as an opportunity, they learn and grow as a person.
Blame or Responsibility
Do any of your team think that everything wrong in their performance is someone else’s fault? Laying blame on other employees or supervisors for mistakes doesn’t negate your employees’ part in a difficult situation. Blaming others gives control away and keeps workers from overcoming obstacles.
Taking responsibility for their own actions allows workers to improve and better their situation. Control over their position and performance is basically theirs. Taking responsibility for their performance allows them to make needed changes to learn and grow.
Distract or Commit
Do your workers spend most of their time fantasizing about running away from their work and responsibilities? When IT hits the fan, distressed people often walk away from the challenge. They may even turn to alcohol and other drugs to distract themselves from their lack of control and their failures. When one of your team can’t face a difficult situation, they may quit their job or end a relationship, and distract themselves with something new. But if they don’t learn to deal with stress, their mistakes will follow them in their career and keep them from achieving new goals.
Resilient employees commit to their goals. They understand that while they may need to adjust their plans, reaching a goal requires commitment. If , on the contrary, they don’t get distracted by difficulties, they are showing signs of resilience.
Allow or Act
Allowing challenges like COVID-19 to keep you staff from company and personal goals is a negative reaction to difficulty. When they blame others, lose your control, and get distracted from finding solutions to work problems, they allow problems to stop themselves and maybe their team from succeeding.
If your staff are resilient, they have a goal and a plan. When they know they have control of themselves, they take action to improve their performance. Because you’re committed to helping your workforce learn and grow, you provide them the tools needed to make changes and overcome challenges.
Impatience or Patience
Challenges can create delays in reaching goals. If your workers are too impatient, they may give up their goals too quickly and never succeed. Even when IT hits the fan, you can’t insist on an immediate solution. Some goals require commitment and patience.
Patience takes practice. Are your employees willing to deny themselves an immediate distraction but instead commit to the work needed to achieve their goals? Taking a break can’t become permanent if they want to succeed.
Pessimistic or Optimistic
Ultimately, how your subordinates react to stress and success depends on if their reactions are pessimistic or optimistic. Pessimistic reactions limit ability to overcome challenges. Optimistic reactions give them the control and skills needed to succeed.
Need Assistance Hiring Resilient Workers
If you need some assistance in recruiting and hiring more resilient workers in this uncertain labor market, contact Flexicrew Today.