Learning to Handle Adversity

Since childhood we are taught that “into each life some rain must fall.” And yes, we all encounter adversity from time to time in our lives. When such adversity is delivered to us in small doses, most of us can handle the induced stress through coping mechanisms like weekend picnics, quality family time, or hobbies. At other times, life delivers adversity in large doses with seeming relentless regularity. In fact, there are jobs that deliver adversity on an almost continuous basis. Commercial fishing in the arctic, logging, and mining are all jobs made famous on TV for their adversity. Mike Roe’s show Dirty Jobs provides a particularly “enchanting” look at this kind of difficult adversity-filled work.

Despite the adversity these jobs are all somehow filled with people that are willing, though perhaps not always happy, to do the work. Companies deal with staffing issues in such work in different ways. Sometimes, money seems to do the trick; people sometimes learn to trade the stress of adversity for money which they can then use to ameliorate that stress. Of course, this strategy doesn’t always succeed and workers discover that the compensation offered for a certain level of stress just doesn’t work for them. Such work often has a relatively high turnover rate, though to be sure, some people learn to enjoy the compensation and live with the adversity. Those that find a way to live with such adversity, often do so by “growing a callous” over the stress-giving part of their job. They learn to “switch off” or disengage from the difficult part of the work; switching on again after five or when the pressure lifts.

There’s a third case, as well. In this third case, people understand the difficulties and adversity of their work but they also well understand the value their work brings to the world. Military organizations know this well and work hard to encourage this thinking. Esprit de corps is the term used to describe this sense of value in belonging to an organization engaged in a noble cause. In fact, the world’s military are not known to be the best paying organizations in the world so the power of engaging people’s sense of self-worth must be high indeed. So as leaders it is incumbent on us to ensure that our teams understand the value of their work, not just the monetary value of the work, but the societal value, the humanitarian value, the true value of the work.

Make no mistake, all work has such value. The burger flipper feeds hungry people, enabling work or fun for her customers. The sewer worker provides a clean and safe environment for all citizens, enabling custom, transportation, and a sweet smelling world for everyone in town. We need to find this value, point it out, recognize it, and thus build our own esprit de corps. How can we do this:

1. Discover the value by asking questions: What would happen if this work stopped? Who derives a benefit from what we do? What is the nature of that benefit?
2. Examine assumptions: Are there negative aspects to the work they we’ve assumed are real but may not be? For example, it’s easy for tax and bill collectors to imagine that their work hurts, rather than helps, those that owe taxes or other debts. Is that true? Are we not also helping people to live up to their responsibilities? Helping them in the creation of a working society?
3. Recognize the discovered value: We should find ways to point out when and where our work has positive value, publicly recognize those who find ways to maximize that value, and establish such value as part of the recognized mission of the firm’s work.

At the opening I mentioned that “into each life some rain must fall” and I will close with another. “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!” Who knew that leadership involved lemonade making?!