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Resilience in Testing Times

The new government has spent the last month laying out the austerity measures that are in store for us all over the next few years. While the future remains uncertain, there does seem to be a new philosophy at the heart of the government’s response to the nation’s financial problems. From my perspective as a business psychologist, and as a director of a company that helps organisations to create well-being for their workforces, an important requirement runs through what we will all be asked to buy into as we move forward into this new political and social reality. That theme is resilience.

The effects the emergency budget

Let’s start at the top – as the pressure on the new coalition government builds to deliver real ‘change’ David Cameron must lead and support his Cabinet through the tough times ahead. The early announcement of the first £6 billion of public sector cuts and then the full emergency budget will cause pain for many people and will require the Cabinet to be resilient – as individuals and as ‘an organisation’. In this sense, personal resilience is one of the key attributes that Cameron, Clegg and their team are going to have to draw on and demonstrate over the coming months and years. Of course, the same is true for the hundreds of managers and teams across the country that will be bracing themselves for these cuts. The Cabinet can, and should, be a model for them all because the Prime Minister’s own resilience and the way he transmits it to his team could end up being the difference between the success and failure of the coalition and its aim of reducing the national debt. Right now the pressure is on for David Cameron to build a determined, cohesive and robust team despite all the differences that exist in terms of values, experience and personality. He will need to show great leadership and resilience in tackling all of the challenges that go with this new era in politics.

However, it’s not only in the highest echelons of government where there is a strong need for resilience. When you look at businesses, public sector organisations, families and all of the individuals that make up society as a whole, the more resilient we are the better we will cope with an uncertain future. Think about the government’s idea of ‘the big society’ – it is undoubtedly a compelling and challenging one – especially when we are starting near the bottom of the curve economically! In this context it might be that the first ‘macro’ quality the big society has to show is collective resilience on a massive scale as we face up to the size of the problem. As mentioned, we will need strong leadership to achieve this, but in addition it requires us all to find the strength to carry on and use this to sustain our personal roles in getting the country back on its feet.

Our reactions matter

One way in which we can all, as individuals, contribute is by displaying resilience in our response to the debt reduction measures – our reactions matter and they need to be proportionate. Extreme reactions to the cuts and their predicted implications have already been heard (even more strongly in other parts of Europe) and there is considerable anger in relation to how and why we got here. While this is understandable, doing no more than venting this frustration at those making the difficult decisions to fix the problem now is not the answer. Action has to be taken, so it’s important to consider whether there really are viable alternatives or whether to some extent we simply need to ‘bite the bullet’, accept the changes and take our medicine. We each need to take responsibility for being part of the solution in the same way as, like it or not, we were part of the problem. If you’re not in a managerial position the role you can play may not seem obvious – but, as various members of the government have said, ‘we’re all in this together’. Even making a conscious effort to avoid contributing to an escalating feeling of national panic is a valuable role we can all play, but there’s likely to be much more that we can each do and, again, being resilient so that we have the energy and desire to contribute is critical.

Developing resilience in the workplace

Developing resilience will be essential because the pressure for all organisations and their employees to perform with far fewer resources is on. A common misconception regarding resilience is that you either have it, or you don’t! Fortunately this isn’t true – a person’s levels are not fixed, which means the positive impact of high levels of resilience can be realised and organisations can take action to develop it in all staff at all levels. In fact, recent survey findings have shown a significant relationship between levels of managerial support and organisational resilience and this serves as a reminder that everyone in an organisation, however senior they might be, still needs support from their manager.

Managers can start to build resilience by challenging staff to achieve ‘stretch targets’, but they also have to watch and listen for when support is required. It might not be easy, but managers will have to be at the top of their game to get the balance right between applying pressure positively and supporting sufficiently. Don’t push hard enough and staff start to relax, press too hard and stress cases start to appear. Understanding where resilience comes from for different members of a team (and yourself) could make all the difference when times get tough and managers need to get the most from their workforce. Robertson Cooper has developed a model which divides our sources of resilience in to four key areas; confidence, adaptability, purposefulness and social support networks. Using this model allows individuals to understand where their resilience comes from making it easier to draw on when necessary. It also allows those who use it to identify which areas would most benefit from development.

Employees are also responsible

Just as at the macro-level, we, as employees, must also be ready to react appropriately in the workplace – letting managers know when the pressure is too great, but equally responding positively to change and to new challenges. It’s also important that we are proactive in taking some responsibility for our own development. Levels of resilience can be enhanced with various different tools and approaches and when you understand which aspects of your personality you draw on for your own resilience you can start the process of building it up. As per the i-resilience model discussed earlier, individuals draw their resilience from a number of different sources: returning to the Cabinet as an example, David Cameron may get his resilience from his confidence, while George Osborne may be able to bounce back because of his strong sense of purpose about fixing the economy. On the other hand, Nick Clegg may be resilient because he is highly adaptable and Vince Cable may have created a strong support network around him. Knowing what drives this ‘bouncebackability’ enables us to respond in the best possible way to overcome setbacks and negotiate challenges. In this sense, resilience is a huge, untapped source of productivity and sustainability for UK organisations and the economy as a whole.

i-resilience

Resilience can benefit us all, both individually and collectively – as part of teams, organisations and as a nation. Maximising the advantages of greater resilience requires both a top-down and bottom-up approach – a government that leads by example, the right levels of support and challenge from managers and collective personal responsibility all need to play their part. In these difficult times, resilience at work matters and it is part of Robertson Cooper’s mission to help UK workers build theirs for free. In June 2010 Robertson Cooper launches its own free personal resilience tool and web-based resource portal called i-resilience - and it’s free for everyone, forever. Follow the link to it and start building resilience in yourself and across your workforce – we’re all going to need it.

Pearson Correlation of r=0.32. All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 2017 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 23rd – 25th March 2010. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+).

Click here to find out more about the new online tool i-resilience from Robertson Cooper.