Building Resilient Workplaces
Anna Roussos
Founder & Director at ROUSSOS Recruitment | Board Member at Jodi Lee Foundation
Last week on Tuesday morning, we hosted a Ladies Breakfast in line with International Women’s Day which was celebrated earlier this week on Monday 8 March. As a female-led business, we thought what better time to celebrate all the amazing women we know! Our industries have so many influential, like-minded women who need to come together and be celebrated.
We talked about the topic of resilience… Something I think we can all relate to in some way or another, female or not! Resilience is not necessarily something you are born with, but something you build. Resilience is made up of behaviours, thoughts and actions that anyone can learn, and I believe that resilience is a skill that can be improved.
Resilience at work is something we can all relate to – whether we have faced challenges that have forced us to be resilient, whether we have been let go from a job, or perhaps even promoted into a role that challenges us to step up. Whatever it might be, strengthening resilience can help to better cope with these challenges that life throws at us.
We need to be self-sufficient – meaning we need to be clear about what we set out to do, hold ourselves accountable, use the tools in our reach to support us and build relationships and allies that will help us gain useful information and make valuable decisions.
At our breakfast, there was a lot of chat around millennials and their potential lack of resilience (in some, not ALL!!), which left us thinking that perhaps we as leaders have to be more resilient of their weaknesses. As Manager’s we need to build stronger, more resilient businesses that can carry millennials for the tenure they are prepared to give us. If we can nurture the next generations through our businesses, we will have sustainable, honest and adaptable working environments and hopefully improve retention. A potential controversial topic, but one that has certainly got us thinking!
So, in short – resilience is trusting your own abilities, knowing your worth, adapting to change, taking on new responsibilities, being optimistic and always ALWAYS be kind to yourself.