What is resilience? According to the Oxford Dictionary, it is defined as the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties, toughness.

An article by Headsup.org tells us that resilient people are flexible, adapt to new and different situations well, learn from experience, are optimistic and ask for help when it is needed. Resilience is not just the ability to bounce back, but also the capacity to adapt in the face of challenge.

Another article, published by Frontiers, states that an interest in the concept of psychological resilience has burgeoned in the last decade, with researchers across various discipline areas investigating the relationship between an individual’s level of psychological resilience and outcomes such as levels of stress, burnout and compassion fatigue along with general indicators of well-being.

Nowhere is resilience more important than in the workplace. Here’s why we think that is:

• Work can be stressful. According to Perkbox’s ‘2018 Workplace Stress Survey’, 59% of UK adults experience workplace stress. When stress is not managed effectively, it can lead to several negative personal and performance outcomes. Building resilience is a huge factor in managing stress in the workplace and can also play a major role in helping people to better manage their social lives as well.

• Change is inevitable. An increasing number of organisations are facing pressures to ‘change or die’ from industry and the economy in general. This filters down to the workforce in terms of organisational restructuring, redundancies, office relocations, job title and job description amendments, team changes and much more. Change interferes with the autonomy of individuals by making them feel as though they have lost control. Building personal resilience and helping colleagues and employees to do the same can help make change feel more manageable.

• We are not the masters of our own universe. Unfortunately, people do not have control of all external forces in their lives – especially at work. However, people can control how they view and deal with such events. Having a positive mind-set and the ability to see change in an analytical and optimistic way is an essential part of being resilient.

Taking positive steps to look after our well-being can help deal with pressure and reduce the impact of stress. Find out more about how to cope with stress and increase resilience by reading our blog on Stress Management here.