Resilience Overview
Resilience has become one of the critical business skills of the twenty-first century. As organisations recognise that a strategic approach is required to achieve their business objectives and get results, we now understand that the ability to cope with change and challenges effectively and bounce back from difficult situations, will allow us to thrive.
What is Resilience?
Resilience as a term can refer to bounce-back ability, clear thought or a successful attitude in the face of adversity. Arguably highly dependent upon thought processes and mind management, developing resilience on a personal level and, within an organisation, can boost business and personal success in addition to helping us to cope with the stresses of modern life.
Strength in the face of adversity and an ability to cope or even thrive in tough conditions is a quality of a resilient culture. Responding well to a single or one-off event it is not, rather a continuous anticipation and adjustment to external factors and internal changes that could otherwise hinder an organisation, its functionality or its success.
Team Resilience
Teams don’t always deliver. One of the reasons for this we feel is a lack of clarity as to what a team is. 'A number of persons heading to a common goal' seems far less exciting and challenging than a 'group of people delivering a result greater than the sum of their parts'. The first focuses on the team as a collaborative enterprise, the second is about results. We believe resilient teams are essential to deliver the required synergy.
Managers and leaders need to maintain, improve and sustain the potential and performance of themselves and their teams in times of stability, but also in times of change. Building capacity and resilience into processes and ensuring those are supported by organisational culture are therefore essential in ensuring principles and purpose are met.
With regards to personal resilience and developing an affinity for working under pressure, there are a number of prevalent ideas about the phrase. The American Psychological Association for example defines resilience as t’he ability to adapt in the face of adversity, trauma or tragedy’. In our continuously changing environment, coping with the stresses of modern life on a daily basis, adapting to almost incessant changes around us, both in the workplace and personally, remaining professional and keeping pace with increasing demands and competition are all components that the idea of resilience encompasses. Those individuals attributed with resilience as one of their qualities are perceived as confident, clear-headed, proactive, organised and often possess high-energy.
For us, Personal Resilience is all about performance. Ensuring that people can build upon their job skills with a resilience toolkit that enhances their potential and delivers superior performance. It’s about managing energy and creating balance in the key areas of mental, emotional and physiological performance and being able to manage these within a personal context and working environment. This allows managers to not only unlock their performance potential, but also to manage the performance of their teams and feel happy and fulfilled both inside and outside of work.
All of our resilience initiatives are tailored to our clients’ specific needs. We work with our clients to create the most effective solutions for their business. These range from the creation of effective, punchy, bite-size modules through to more substantive programmes.
QED know that great leadership performance can be created ‘on purpose’ and deliver predictably outstanding results, so we develop resilient leaders who:
Have honest relationships with people
Can discuss behavioural performance with people
Are aware of how they and others ‘tick’
Encourage useful and stimulating conflict and challenge
Have a strong sense of purpose and encourage people to join them on their journey
Balance innovation and imagination with a desire to execute
Solve problems and seize opportunities one step at a time
Can endure difficulty and reliably deliver
Are aware of risk and see risk as a series of manageable tasks
Are clear about process and the part they should play in releasing the potential and capacity of people to build solutions
Are aware of stress and pressure in themselves and in others and seek to build capacity to help cope in the times when resilience is needed
QED’s most popular training courses
Reviews
“This was a really useful day and really opened my eyes to how I have been letting people affect my performance. The coach was very supportive but also made me face up to the realities of what is actually going on”
— J.A.
“The training team was very challenging and helped us see the extent to which we had more choice and control over how we work and cope with pressures – there were really useful tips and tools I can use immediately”
— L.K.
“I was worried that this course was going to be too ‘touchy-feely’, but the trainers put my mind at rest and it was a really focused on work performance and helping me practically get better results in my team”
— J.Y.
News, Views and Insights
Listen to Resilience Unravelled: The Podcast
“Russell’s podcast is eye-opening! ”
Dr Russell Thackeray has been building resilience in organizations for a number of years and knows that so many more people could benefit from what QED do.
That’s why he decided to collect stories from ‘real’ people about their lives, challenges and learning and turn them into podcasts.
With over 100 episodes, Russell shares thoughts and ideas about resilience with different specialists.
He provides a bigger picture of how building resilience can make a real difference, to help people who may be facing similar challenges.
You can access the podcasts on iTunes and other platforms, or listen on the website here.
Make sure you subscribe to be alerted of the latest releases and don’t forget to follow Dr Russell Thackeray on LinkedIn too!
Think Differently.
In these unprecedented times that the world is experiencing, QED are keen to continue to support you - whether you are senior executives, leaders or managers.