Resilience is a worker’s ability to recover from hardships and difficulties faced on-the-job. It’s whether or not the hardships that are faced keep a worker stuck and unable to move forward, or whether they can cope with challenges faced and keep progressing.
Psychologists believe that people who are more resilient are better able to handle adversity and rebuild their lives after a catastrophic event like a layoff (Cherry, 2019). Resilience is a muscle that must be worked and maintained, but when it is developed it can help those who possess it to live better, more meaningful lives.
Adaptability
Employees who are able to bounce back from difficulties often have to learn how to adjust and adapt to circumstances in order to do so. In learning to cope with the adversity they are faced with, they learn how to pivot in a way that ultimately helps them become more flexible. This then becomes a skill that can be applied to future tough circumstances to help them become even more resilient. Because even when COVID-19 has been beaten, day-to-day work conditions will remain and act like a rollercoaster and more resilient workers will get ahead.
Confidence
People that are resilient workers have faced hardships or dilemmas at work and ultimately overcome them. They have learned how to adapt to situations and navigate difficult assignments in a way that allows them to recover and move forward with relative speed and ease. It is this continual ability to operate resiliently that builds confidence in one’s self.
When an employee or a manager has experienced and overcome challenges in the past, she believes that she possesses the ability to do so again in the future. She begins to see the skills and knowledge that aided her in overcoming past work issues and therefore develop a positive view of herself and confidence in her strength and abilities to solve problems (Ackerman, 2019). Thus, there is the tendency to have a more positive outlook and attitude towards challenges which then better helps workers to navigate those challenges.
Equanimity
Equanimity can be defined as a state of psychological stability and composure that is undisturbed by the experience of or exposure to emotions, pain, or other stimuli that might cause someone to lose mental balance (Fronsdal, 2004).
If your workforce has developed resilience also develop a measure of equanimity simultaneously. In order to quickly recover from adversity and stress, one must also learn how to respond to situations so as not to be so easily shaken or moved by emotions or negative situations. Thus, resilience helps workers better manage their mental and emotional state so that they can navigate and recover from challenges without a lot of baggage.
Satisfaction
As it turns out, individuals who are more resilient workers also tend to be more satisfied than those who are not. This is because learning to deal with complex problems or situations drastically improves the chances of feeling better again. Realistically, there is no such thing as forever work satisfaction. This means everyone will experience negative situations and emotions. Thus, when a worker can learn how to navigate through those negative times and feelings, they can essentially get themselves back to a place of wellness and satisfaction and with relative quickness. And research shows that companies with more satisfied workers are more productive and more profitable (Livni, 2018).
Reasoning
In order to be resilient, there is a measure of reasoning and analysis of situations that must occur. Employees must be able to assess their circumstances in order to respond in a rational and reasonable manner that will help them overcome the challenge. Thus, those who are resilient learn to apply logic to their situations in a way that helps them better respond and better recover from them (Ackerman, 2019).
Resilient workers benefit from the development of additional skills and qualities that helps them become more fulfilled. These skills not only help them respond to future glitches like equipment breakdowns or late deliveries, but help them as they navigate those things that may be positive but still complex. Thus, the development of resilience proves to be a strong foundation upon which other useful qualities can be built and obtained.
References:
Ackerman, C. (2019). What is resilience and why is it important to bounce back? PositivePsychology.com. https://positivepsychology.com/what-is-resilience/
Cherry, K. (2019, November 27). How resilience helps with the coping of crisis. Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-resilience-2795059
Fronsdal, G. (2004). Equanimity. Insight Meditation Center. https://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/books-articles/equanimity/
Livni, E. (2018, May 27). Resilience is the new happiness. Quartz. https://qz.com/1289236/resilience-is-the-new-happiness/
Resilient people are typically better employees. (n.d.). The Resilience Center – Welcome. https://www.resiliencecenter.com/what-is-resilience/resilient-people-are-typically-better-employees/