With resilience in the workplace, you and your team can reach higher or peak performance. This contributes to the company’s success and encourages its employees to take on challenges with confidence and learn from their mistakes. Understanding and how foster it within yourselves can help you build an adaptable, competent and efficient workforce.

What is resilience?

It’s like being a rubber ball that can bend and stretch, but still able to return to its original shape. Resilience is the ability to bounce back from challenging situations. Life is tough sometimes, and each one of us face setbacks and obstacles along the way. This is what helps us keep going when things are not the way we want it. It’s the emotional and mental toughness that allows us to get through stress without getting overwhelmed or even giving up.

his does not mean that we never feel normal emotions.

This just means that being resilient helps cope emotions and come out on the stronger side of things and be more prepared for whatever happens next. This is an important quality that helps us face challenges with greater ease and grace. When people are resilient, they can face the challenges ahead and successfully achieve their goals. Building resilience can be the path to a successful life.

Importance of staying resilient in economic crisis

Let’s be real, when our economy is struggling, it can often lead to financial instability, job losses, and uncertainty about our future. Being flexible in these situations can help us focus more on overcoming them rather than getting stuck. Even when things seem bleak, resilience is what helps us to hope.

We use our resilience to stay motivated and seek new opportunities that we might not have even thought of before. It keeps us going and helps us adapt to change instead of getting discouraged. Resilience is the key to weathering the storms of tough economic times.

How economic crisis can affect the company and its people

An economic crisis can definitely have a big impact on both companies and their people. Companies may experience reduced demand for their products or services, lower profits and increased competition. Eventually, this leans towards layoffs, reduced working hours or even bankruptcy.

Employees may be worried about losing their jobs, facing a reduced quality of life and struggling to make ends meet. Depending on how the companies handle this type of crisis, employees may also experience pressure to perform and increased workloads because of fewer resources which can take a toll on the employees’ physical, mental and emotional health.

It is common to know that longer working hours, job uncertainty and financial stress can bring burnout, depression and anxiety. However, an economic crisis can also possibly provide growth and innovation opportunities. Companies can find new ways to stay competitive and pivot their strategies which can create new roles for employees. Being resilient helps a company and its employees to adapt and show willingness to embrace such big change while being able to get through and emerge stronger on the other side.

Ways to stay resilient in times of crisis

This takes a lot of time, self-reflection and effort to make it a more personal aspiration. To ensure personal resilience and optimize performance, employees should enhance their clarity of mind and adopt strategies that proactively address workplace stress. Staying resilient during times of economic crisis can be challenging though. Things are easier said than done but it can be possible.

Here are a few strategies to help build and maintain our resilience:

1.  Try to stay positive: In difficult times, staying positive can go a long way. Try to focus on the things that you can control and use that to look for opportunities to develop growth.

2. Stay connected: During difficult times at work, it is important to stay connected with your friend, family and even co-workers which can help us feel better connected and supported. Staying connected can maintain a sense of community.

3.  Focus on solutions: Instead of letting yourself drown in the challenges of economic crisis, focus on finding solutions. Try to be proactive in seeking new opportunities and skills or even taking on new responsibilities to help your team improve while being challenged.

4. Self-care: Maintaining our physical, mental and emotional in good status is important in building resilience. By taking time to relax, eat healthy, exercise regularly, meditating or doing yoga can help prevent stress and tension that builds up in our body when we are stressed.

5.  Keep learning: Sometime focusing in times of crisis on the short-term and stay with them, what we know can be tempting, but the best way to build resilience is to learn new skills and trends that help us to be agile and adaptable

Summing up, it can be said that the focus on solutions, that remain positive and connected, and at the same time are in the position to take care of yourself, can contribute to building the resilience and maintaining the resilience that we need in times of crisis at the workplace. 

More information and references on Resilience:

• For some additional techniques to help you build resilience: Harvard Business Review has information on “Resilience Is About How You Recharge, Not How You Endure” by Shawn Achor and Michelle Gielan https://hbr.org/2016/06/resilience-is-about-how-you-recharge-not-how-you-endure
• Then we have the  “6 Ways to Build Resilience in the Workplace” by Christine Comaford posted over at Forbes https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinecomaford/2019/01/12/6-key-trends-successful-leaders-must-address-in-2019-infographic/?sh=35fbb5c35f1c
• One of our favorite resources on Psychology Today – “The Importance of Resilience in the Workplace” by Emma Seppälä, Ph.D. https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/feeling-it/201401/the-best-kept-secret-exceptional-resilience To help you build stronger resilience.
• Our last reference and resource we refer to is from Mayoclinic.org Build skills to endure hardship. https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/resilience-training/in-depth/resilience/art-20046311