Resilience, is it a matter of nature or nurture?

Resilience is a wellness buzzword, and for good reason – being resilient is an incredibly useful characteristic, especially in a fast-changing and unpredictable work environment.

Resilience is when an individual can adapt and bounce back from challenges and stresses in the workplace. It’s about being able to spot the adversity ahead and then accessing existing protective factors to overcome a difficult situation. When someone has resilience in spades, they are better able to cope with adversity, maintain their well-being, and perform in their jobs effectively despite difficult circumstances.

The good news is that resilience can be learned. And HR and wellbeing teams can lead the way on upskilling their workforce. So, while part of resilience is innate, there’s a big part of it that can be learned.

Building resilience takes time and effort. Here are our top considerations for developing resilience programmes:

• Encourage people to think of a time when they had a setback. Then, ask them what they did to overcome it. Remember: past wins build confidence.
• Look to the future. There’s always opportunity in adversity. Ask people to write out 3 potential positive opportunities emerging from a challenging situation.
• Start mapping mental health risks the same way you map physical safety risks to catch potential triggers before they happen.
• Make it in-person. Research shows that in-person training, versus digital training, extends the impact of resilience training in a corporate setting.

We’ve pulled together several exercises for you to incorporate into your training in our “Reflection and Resilience” guide. If you’d like to discuss further, contact us at hello@scarlettabbott.co.uk