How Leaders build resilient teams – Start with yourself!

This year is finally coming to an end, but many adversities 2020 has brought won’t be ending along with it. It has been an emotional roller coaster and employees feel exhausted, their stress levels are at a rise, and their private and work-related challenges are impacting their mental health.

There are, however, individuals who seem to bounce back from negative events more effectively than others. Being able to move on despite negative stressors does not demonstrate luck on the part of those successful individuals but demonstrates rather a competence known as resilience.

Resilience is a set of skills that supports the ability to deal with difficult situations and that enables you to bounce back from crises. It’s that capacity that allows individuals and teams to overcome challenges, obstacles, hardship and adversity, instead of being defeated by them.

It is tempting to assume that individuals who are highly resilient are born that way. However, science clearly indicates that individuals, who are resilient, have developed the skill over time. And so can you…

Build your own resilience first.

“First, I thought it is a sprint, now I realize it is a marathon.”

While you can’t control the outer world, you need to control your inner world. Research has shown that you build your resilience through watching your energy levels, practicing mindfulness, being self-aware, and building and nurturing a strong social support network.

Watch your energy level.

If your stress level is rising, it is of utmost importance that you watch your energy level. Get enough sleep, eat well, and look after your physical health by undertaking regular exercise, as your physical well-being is deeply connected to your emotional well-being. Not only does movement create all those feel-good chemicals in your brain, it also helps shift your focus away from what’s draining you or bringing you down.

Throughout the workday it’s important that you pay attention to your work-rest rhythm. Research shows that you preserve your energy when working in cycles: 90-120 minutes of deep focused work is followed by times of rest and renewal. In order to grow your capacity for resilience, you need to replenish your energy throughout the workday.

Practice mindfulness.

When adversity hits, we start to have doubts and worry that things can go wrong. But if your mind is focused on your doubts and fears, it will be difficult for you to stay focused and to show-up at your best. Hence, it makes sense to establish a meditation routine that will reduce your stress levels and improve your resilience.

Another effect of meditation practice is that you will be able to cultivate compassion for yourself (and others). Being kind to yourself and exercising self-care is a critical skill promoting your resilience by stimulating positive emotions and boosting your wellbeing.

Be self-aware.

Self-awareness is the meta-skill of the twenty-first century. Learning more about yourself and how you respond to life’s adversities makes you stronger, improves your performance and well-being, and makes you more resilient.

Tasha Eurich has identified four self-awareness archetypes based on how well you know yourself and how well you understand how others see you.

If you focus on building both internal and external self-awareness you are able to better understand your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and their precise cause. This will allow you to observe them from a neutral standpoint and label them, which will in turn help you to shift perspectives, think more positively, create options, and take the right steps to overcome any adversities.

If you are interested in working on your self-awareness, I recommend reading Tasha’s book “Insights” (2017), which contains multiple worksheets to train your self-awareness.

Built and nurture your support network.

Having good social relationships is clearly a winning strategy in life, tied to greater mental and physical well-being. Thus, it’s not surprising that relationships also matter when it comes to resilience, in part because they help you feel less stress when you are suffering, but also simply because you now have more support.

Hopefully your future will be smooth and pleasant. But if not, know you don’t need to handle difficulties alone. Leaning on your support system will enable you to bounce back from adversity much quicker.

Once you have developed your own resilience, build it in your teams.

“Energize everyone, every day”

Resilience starts with you but is also essential for your team. Now, more than ever, your team needs to be resilient, able to bounce back from heavy workload and changing priorities and keep moving forward. You need to develop a healthy culture and an atmosphere of trust and social support where employees stay positive and passionate about their goals, regardless of unexpected setbacks and challenges. But how do you build such a resilient team? Below are five tips that help you to increase resilience in your workforce in these challenging times.

Establish a culture of psychological safety and belonging.

In this context, psychological safety means that your high-performing team feels comfortable and open to share their thoughts and feelings as well as their ideas, concerns, and their mistakes. In order to achieve this, it is vital that you as the leader bring your whole self to work and encourage your team to do the same. This means that you and your team members can bring their passions and strengths, but also their vulnerability and their complex and unique personality to the team.

If there is real curiosity about problems and open communication about mistakes without blaming team members (Assume good person, bad circumstances!), your team will feel a sense of belonging, there will be higher levels of engagement, increased stress thresholds and hence improved resilience in case of adversity.

If you would like to know more about the topic, you may want to view Amy Edmondson’s TEDx talk.

Align your team under one purpose.

As a leader you need to ensure your team members understand your expectations and their responsibilities. But what is even more important is that your team needs to understand the “Why”.

Being fully aware of their purpose is a source of support for employees going through tough times. As a leader, you can set, encourage and foster the clear sense of purpose by regularly communicating with your employees on: Why are we doing this? What is the bigger picture? How does success look like? Adding meaning to their work by helping them to see how they contribute to achieving the goals and fulfilling the company’s mission, will develop a sense of purpose and build up their resilience.

Be more empathetic.

Empathy has always been a leadership quality for truly connecting with your team members and for building meaningful relationships. In these unprecedented times, however, your team may need more warmth and comfort from you than they might have before.

Being empathic as a leader starts with knowing your employees better. Check-in with them frequently and actively listening to them. Try asking questions like, “What are you bringing with you today?” or, “What’s one word that describes how you’re feeling now?”. Asking these questions about what’s happening in people’s lives inside and outside of work demonstrate that you genuinely care about your team, it fosters collaboration, and makes your team more resilient.

Practice mindfulness with your teams.

Mindfulness is the practice to bring your attention to the present moment. “Pause for a moment, chose to focus on something with all your attention (e.g., your breath), and if your attention drifts away, just return it to your point of focus without judging yourself” (Caroline Webb, How to have a good day, 2016). Research shows, if teams practice mindfulness they are better equipped to deal with stress which in turn strengthens their resilience.

Key is to implement different techniques that your team members can apply at home, in their personal lives and in the office. A possible way to start is to offer mediation sessions in your company, or to give free access to meditation apps. Starting your team meetings with a 2-minute meditation could also be very powerful and will help them arrive fully at your team meetings.

Be more coach-like.

The leader of the past is one that gives only instructions and advice, but nowadays your team rather needs a coach-like person, who leads with questions and understands other views before sharing their own.

According to Michael Bungay Stanier (The Coaching Habit, 2016) “you might have come up with a brilliant way to fix the challenge your team is talking about. However, the challenge they are talking about is most likely not the real challenge that needs to be sorted out.” And hence you might be solving the wrong problem. Also, as you don’t have all the facts, you are potentially offering a not-nearly-as-good-as-you-think-solution.

The essence of coaching lies in helping others and unlocking their potential. Such coach-like conversations encourage your team to develop its own ideas and it creates an environment where team members feel valued, empowered, and motivated — all key ingredients for team resilience.

And remember your team is watching you…

Employees are always watching you to see how you address adversity and setbacks. As an effective leader you need to showcase your resilience.

Conclusion

Resilience is complex, but it can be acquired through experience and training. Being aware of how to remain resilient yourself and how to help your team members to boost their resilience is key to building strong and successful teams.

I hope these tips work for you. Leave a comment of what you are experiencing in your journey and any additional tips you have.

Volker Hack is an Executive Director at one of the largest Contract Research Organizations and dedicated to Improve Health. He is an advocate for incorporating mindfulness into the work life.