Where are you headed ... up, around or down?!

Uncertainty can be fun ... provided you're on a well-maintained rollercoaster or maybe a funfair ghost train. It's not always great in business, however. Particularly if you are responsible for running that business, and have the responsibilities of having staff (and their responsibilities) to think about.

As I am writing this, the Bank of England is issuing warnings about interest rises. That links in many business operators' minds as "uh-oh - wages and prices going up". A fair link to make, and one which immediately focuses attention on the bottom line, and the business' affordability. Business resilience is something many organisations (such as CBI and IoD) have published about. However, I am pleased to report that the Institute of Directors has also published on personal resilience and this is my focus for this blog.

By personal resilience, I simply mean that someone running a business is able to cope, on a very personal level, with the stresses and strains involved in everyday trading. That ability to cope varies from person to person: one person's fit of the "jazz hands" may simply equate to another person's cathartic outburst, after which they feel much better. Conversely, one person's stiff upper lip and self-perceived stoicism can be seen by others as being buttoned-up and internalising stress in an unhealthy way. We are all of us human, with all the frailties and blessings that brings. This is about looking after your mental health and that of your team.

What that means, in terms of ensuring personal resilience, therefore varies from person to person because we all respond differently. We all of us have human needs, however. Basic, some would argue primal, needs. Abraham Maslow famously described a hierarchy of needs which is used widely (including by me!) to help people understand the motivational roots of their own actions and desires, and those of others. Crucially important to any leader in an organisation, this. I often combine my exploration of Maslow's theory with that of another American academic, Frederick Herzberg, whose Motivation to Work analysed what motivated people in the workplaces he had studied. These two combine with a convenient level of overlap, which helps me to translate basic human needs into workforce motivation for my clients and their teams. If you would like an infographic summarising the relationship between these theories, please click here to download the handout.

Knowing the theory doesn't always equip you to manage the practical implications of uncertainty. In fact, they can often be unwelcome details which get in the way of a good old-fashioned panic! So, having noted there's some really great theory to read about your motivations and understanding in the abstract why you/others do the things you/they do, how can you do something practical, right here and now, to sort out your uncertainty?

That's where simple resilience building techniques come in. First, it is important to realise, acknowledge and actually believe that you can't control every situation. That is a massive first step to being able to cope. Next, it is vital to know what you are doing, the reason you are doing it, and to be able to analyse it (as objectively as you can) to see what is actually going on. It is important to know what you want from the situation you find yourself in. It is also important to know how much you want that change. Sound silly? Some situations require such momentous change (moving house, retraining, massive investment) that you may want to change them but that simply isn't realistic ... right now. That doesn't mean you can't keep that change as a goal (or, preferably, the benefits that change would bring you, as your goal ... but that's a different blog!). And in the middle of all this knowing, you need to be doing a lot of looking too. Look at your own behaviours, look at those of others. What do you notice? What do you like and want more of? What do you want to stop doing ... or want others to stop doing? In the middle of all this uncertainty, this may sound like a really tall order. It would be, if you do all these things, all at once, the first time. How would it be, however, to give a few of them a go, to give you a bit more information, a bit more clarity? Wouldn't it feel good to have a firmer grip on some bits of the problem, so you can make a real start? You would be able to see more things, clearer. That will help you make your first few steps towards resilience. The key is to stay in that place and not move back. So keep practising, keep experimenting, and you will find that you start to respond to new stressors in different ways. You may also find others respond differently to you - better, more positively maybe. And if you want some reminders of how this can work, here's an infographic which has some top tips, to bolster you on the way to personal resilience.

So next time you sense that you are on the slippery slope downwards towards a panic, or even, heaven help us all, going around the bend with worry, try a few self-help tips to bolster your own resilience. You will soon be on the up!

If you would find it helpful to chat about your resilience, or like to discuss how I could help you/your team build resilience in the workplace, please get in touch. I look forward to hearing from you.