7 Things Resilient Employees Do Differently
Coping with today’s stressors on the job requires a different set of strategies and skills, which is why resilience is so important.
Resilience is a person’s ability to bounce back from and grow and thrive during challenge, change, and adversity. It’s not enough to just bounce back; employees today must develop a thicker coat of armor so that future stressors don’t have as much of an impact. Here are seven key things resilient employees do differently!
They develop high-quality connections.
One big building block of resilience is connection, but not just any old connection. High-quality relationships are critical to resilience. According to business and psychology professor Dr. Jane Dutton, there are four distinct pathways for building high-quality connections at work. The first is respectfully engaging others by communicating supportively and being an effective listener. Second, facilitate another person’s success with guidance, recognition and support. Third, build trust, which can be done by relying on another person to follow through on projects and other commitments. Finally, have moments of play. Play evokes positive emotions and is often associated with creativity and innovation. Work can be a serious place, but so many workplaces take the world far too seriously.
They manage stress and avoid burnout.
Burnout is a slow erosion and progressive loss of energy and enthusiasm. If you can developed resilience at the outset of your career, you will be able to better manage the cynicism, exhaustion, and inefficacy which may come up as your career progresses. A critical part of resilience is self-care and recovery, and resilient employees know how they spend their energy each day and they take time to re-fill their tank.
They show up as their real selves.
Resilience is about being authentic. Resilient employees work in accordance with their values and strengths. If you try to do everything perfectly, your authenticity will fade away. Vulnerability feels like weakness but looks like courage to everyone else. Putting myself out there gave me the confidence to pursue loftier goals, and that feels like freedom.
They grow their grit.
Grit is perseverance infused with zest and enthusiasm. Grit has been shown to predict success in many different avenues from which salespeople succeed and make the most money to who succeeds at West Point to which women lawyers succeed at big law firms. Working on truly challenging goals means you’re going to experience obstacles, and you won’t be able to bounce back from them or get grittier without resilience.
They stay inspired.
Meaning matters a whole lot at work; in fact, it’s a main source of motivation. Meaning also builds your resilience and your engagement. The most successful and resilient people are those who are there for more than a paycheck because they see how their work has value and impact. Losing that motivation, energy and vitality is a recipe for burnout and makes work feel a whole lot more like a chore.
They have mental toughness and flexibility.
When you experience a stress-producing event at work, what do you think to yourself about that event? Do you see where you have any control, influence, or leverage in the situation, or do you fold? Some people jump to conclusions about a situation while others maintain a flexible and accurate thinking style. Some people catastrophize — they let their worst-case scenario thinking get the best of them and it stops them from taking purposeful action. Resilient employees track their thoughts, emotions, and reactions when they’re under stress in order to notice counterproductive patterns that might be undercutting success.
They manage change and setback.
When resilience becomes a practice, you can better anticipate and manage risk, deal with setbacks more appropriately, and stay engaged during times of challenge.
Creating a practice of resilience will surely impact your life in so many wonderful ways. Resilience has helped me become a better version of myself, and I’ve seen that happen over and over again with the many people I have worked with over the years. The workplace is experiencing stress and change in ways previously unseen — the time to adopt resilience at work is now.
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