Resilience refers to the ability to not only persevere, but to thrive in the face of adversity. Most people will encounter some form of adversity in their lifetime, whether it stems from an acute traumatic incident or daily life stressors. However, it is how we respond to these inevitable challenges that matters most.
Resilience can be built by practicing healthy ways to manage stress. Individually, many of us have already overcome adversity in either our personal or professional lives. We all know certain people in our lives who made it through distressing circumstances, for example, a bad divorce or a work layoff, and emerged as a healthier and happier version of themselves. People should critically examine and reflect upon how they responded to hardship in the past and hone that skillset, while simultaneously seeking opportunities to build and expand a repertoire of strategies to manage stress.
Employers are well positioned to nurture resiliency so that their employees maintain wellness physically and mentally and ultimately are better able to succeed in the work environment. Employers can support and promote resilience in the workplace by doing the following:
- Encourage and offer opportunities for employees to maintain a professional network of support in the work environment by promoting networking events, diversity enrichment, mentorship programs and more.
- Offer and encourage mindfulness, meditation or spiritual practices.
- Model how to manage work challenges by refocusing on the positive, critically analyzing and preparing for the future and learning from past mistakes.
- Create a safe work environment in which people have space to set limits, prioritize sleep and physical health and have access to mental health support when needed.
- Acknowledge and encourage employee’s personal strengths by commending an employee’s strengths like problem solving or organizational skills thereby proactively validating that strength to promote self-confidence.
