The 7 benefits of resilience training for your organization
As we have all faced and confronted many different challenges during the Covid-19 crisis, resilience might be the hottest topic at the moment. When I developed our Resilience Skills Training Program at the beginning of the pandemic, little did I know how much impact it would gain in the coming months. Many companies now discover their interest in the topic of RESILIENCE for their organization and for their people as it becomes clear that there will be no short-cut to this crisis and that the changes it provoked will be long-lasting.
As a short definition, we can say that resilience is the capacity to face challenges as they arise and bounce back faster after setbacks.
I think we can agree that this capacity is in itself vital for any organization today but there are many more, less known, benefits of resilience training for organization.
Here is my TOP 7 list of benefits of resilience training for companies:
Resilience is a skill
One aspect of resilience that is important to note is that resilience is a skill. A skill that can be learned by everyone in your organization. This means that you don’t have to hire “resilient talent” to make your organization more resilient but you can train your staff through several types of resilience interventions including cognitive strategies, strategies to increase positive emotions and critical relationship enhancement techniques.
2. Resilience in business enhances wellbeing in staff
Studies have shown that the same skills that enhance resilience also increase wellbeing in individuals. Which is quite obvious when you think about it. When you are already sick, run-down and fatigued every little obstacle can become an insurmountable challenge. But when you feel well and are in good physical and mental health, challenges seem manageable and solutions are easy to find. Nothing can stop you! The same strategies that make people more resilient increase wellbeing at the same time and will help to lower sick day rates, to increase satisfaction and to elevate overall performance.
3. Resilience training has a positive influence on leadership qualities
Resilience training for leadership positions is important for obvious reasons; you have to trust that the people that manage your organization will be able to withstand challenges and pushbacks and stay stable mentally and emotionally when things get tough and difficult decisions have to be made.
But resilient leaders are also more capable to motivate and engage the people they work with. Resilience is not only about mental and emotional strength but about building a support network that you can rely on. Enhancing the relationships with the people you work with is just as important as working on your personal resilience.
4. Team resilience for more collaboration and trust
One very important aspect of resilience training focuses on our ability to build strong relationships with the people around us. No one is an island, least at work. Unfortunately, when things get tough many teams lose their connection and start blaming each other instead of working together towards a solution. Resilience training for teams focuses on building strong relationships through effective communication, psychological safety and better collaboration.
5. Resilience enhances optimism
Optimism is the belief in a positive future and we know that that's critical in resilience. You can think about resilience as kind of an endurance run. Optimism might very well be the engine of resilience. It gives us the attitude to continue to persist. And being able to separate from what you can control and what you have to accept. Knowing where to invest your energy wisely.
Something that resilient people do really well is they think about stressors, not as threats, but rather as challenges.
So when there is a problem or a challenge in front of them, they have a mindset of, yeah, this is a challenge I can overcome, I'm going to lean into it. Versus this is a threat and I'm going to withdraw.
6. Exercises for resilience increase mental agility
We know from the science that one of the variables that helps with resilience is perspective taking. It's being able to look at a situation, not just from one vantage point, but from multiple vantage points.
Exercises for resilience can enhance our mental agility and increase our capacity for problem solving. Just basic skills and being able to identify the root cause of a problem, and then to be able to identify solutions, and enact those solutions.
7. Building resilience through self-mastery
Variables like knowing what your talents are, knowing what your strengths are, having an “I can” attitude and the belief that you can master your environment and that you know how to leverage your talents to overcome challenges are critical resilience skills.
But also knowing yourself from the inside out. Developing the self-awareness to notice your thoughts and your emotions and their influence on your behavior. And ultimately, the capacity for auto-regulation. Being able to change your thoughts and unproductive emotions when they are not helping you in a given situation. Being the master of yourself instead of the victim of your mind.
The benefits of resilience skills for organizations are numerous and go way beyond the classical “overcome challenges & bounce back faster” which are, of course, amazing skills but the way to get there is sprinkled with amazing “by-products” like enhanced wellbeing, an optimistic outlook on the future, better relationships with the people around you and knowing and trusting your strengths and talents.
If you’d like to train your staff with our 8-week Resilience Skills program
