CAN RESILIENCE BE TAUGHT TO ANYONE?

In today's global market, business leaders face various challenges, such as geopolitical risks and difficult market forces. Therefore, resilience is becoming increasingly essential for leaders to create sustainable businesses and secure competitive advantages. Resilience can be developed through adapting and molding attitudes to build innovation, making capital investments, and being willing to learn. However, it is also important to note that an individual's upbringing, experiences, and age when they started accepting responsibility play a significant role in determining their overall resilience.

A LinkedIn poll shows that opinions vary on whether resilience can be taught to anyone. While some respondents believe that resilience can be taught, others emphasize that the student must be willing and open to learn. Some people suggest that resilience is dependent on an individual's fundamental core, and it can be faked, but sustaining it is another matter altogether.

Furthermore, the concept of resilience varies among different people and sectors. For instance, resilience is not only about surviving or adapting but also thriving. Businesses that embrace this holistic view have a competitive advantage. Moreover, resilience investments, including making, receiving, supporting, and connecting, can result in a return on resilience value, making businesses less likely to fall into a recovery treadmill.

In summary, resilience can be taught, but it is crucial to have the right mindset, attitude, and investment in place. Individual experiences, upbringing, and willingness to learn also play a significant role in developing resilience. Businesses that aim for holistic and equitable resilience have a competitive advantage in today's global market.

MORE ON RESILIENCE:

Resilience can be defined as the ability to recover from setbacks, adapt to change, and cope with stress in a healthy way. While some people may be naturally more resilient than others, research has shown that resilience is a skill that can be taught and developed.

There are several factors that contribute to resilience, including:

1. Positive self-beliefs: People who believe in their ability to overcome challenges and succeed in the face of adversity tend to be more resilient.
2. Social support: Having a strong network of supportive relationships can provide a sense of belonging and help people cope with stress.
3. Problem-solving skills: Being able to identify and solve problems can help individuals feel more in control and better able to manage challenges.
4. Emotion regulation: Being able to regulate emotions, including managing negative emotions and expressing oneself in healthy ways, can help individuals cope with stress.

To teach resilience, there are several approaches that can be taken:

1. Building positive self-beliefs: Encouraging individuals to focus on their strengths, celebrate their successes, and recognize their ability to overcome challenges can help build positive self-beliefs.
2. Cultivating social support: Encouraging individuals to build strong relationships with friends, family, and coworkers can provide a sense of belonging and social support.
3. Teaching problem-solving skills: Providing individuals with opportunities to practice problem-solving skills can help build confidence and enhance problem-solving abilities.
4. Teaching emotion regulation: Providing individuals with strategies to manage stress and regulate emotions, such as mindfulness, breathing exercises, and cognitive restructuring, can help build resilience.

Overall, resilience is a skill that can be taught and developed. By focusing on factors such as positive self-beliefs, social support, problem-solving skills, and emotion regulation, individuals can learn to cope with stress and overcome challenges in a healthy way.

The rationale for this research paper by Stephen Fahey was to identify how people felt about teaching resilience, even though Stephen states, as a former teacher, it was very hard to instill it into his students. The main obstacle for his students learning resilience is not enough self-awareness training, which just was not on the curriculum. However, ten years or so after Stephen Fahey first began teaching, he would argue that in today's world of business, emotional intelligence training on courses to embed resilience training is paramount. How lecturers go about delivering such micro-courses whilst on degree programmes, certainly for business students, is fairly hard to implement. Nonetheless, to equip the business leaders of tomorrow, Stephen argues that EQ training awareness at the minimum should be on all degree programmes.