building resilience at work

Your workforce will benefit from multiple layers of support if they are to be productive and resilient in the performance of their work. When you develop a positive environment for your employees, you will see remarkable progress in your team as a whole and within each individual member.

But how do you create a motivating and supportive environment for your staff without overspending? The good news is that building resilient teams can be accomplished with intangible changes in attitude and approach. 

In this article, we’re going to talk about several proven ways to create a happier and more productive workforce with minimal financial investment.

The Importance of Resilience in the Workplace

Highly resilient employees are flexible and adapt to new circumstances quickly, they flourish in the face of constant change. With resilience in the workplace, there is no room for the phrase “we’ve always done it that way” or “I can’t do that because I don’t know how.” 

Truly resilient teams have a supportive environment that flows from top leadership down through the ranks. This gives them the ability to cope with a high volume of change while remaining positive by:

  • Knowing that all members of the team have each other’s backs
  • Staying flexible and ready to figure out a new way when the old way no longer works
  • Having the leeway to tackle the learning curve involved in revolutionizing a process
  • Feeling the emotional safety to experiment without negative repercussions

Your organization can grow larger and go further when team members are adeptly bouncing forward and confidently overcome challenges, all while performing at maximum capacity.

Beyond Personal Resilience

“We don’t rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training.”

  • Quote often attributed to Navy SEALs

In a resilient team, no individual can survive by themselves because the majority of their tasks require teamwork. It is essential to look beyond personal resilience and acknowledge the role of the work environment, co-workers, training and other organizational factors in dealing with stress and building team resilience.

An expert resilience keynote speaker like Adam Markel will tell you that the success of an organization is not based on the superpowers of its employees, but it is built on the organization’s ability to train to the point that, when faced with a critical situation, team members immediately react with responses that have been practiced together and require minimal thought to effectively execute. 

A Supportive Work Environment Creates a Resilient Organization

According to ​Harvard Business Review​, cutthroat, competitive corporate cultures stymie productivity, whereas supportive work environments create conditions for business growth. When you cultivate an environment that supports your employees, it pays off big-time with intangible dividends that can boost the company’s bottom line. 

To simplify, build a positive and supportive work environment by actively affirming the value, dignity and worth of each member of the team. The result is a healthy company culture that benefits the individual and also rewards the organization for its investment of time and resources.

What is a Supportive Corporate Environment?

Highly qualified corporate motivational speakers focus on teaching leaders like you to be resilient and to build a mental and emotional infrastructure that provides a supportive corporate environment to take care of your team. When you take care of your team, your team takes care of you. 

This supportive environment is the foundation for building organizational resilience. Here is an example of the kind of support your employees need: 

The team completed a critical sprint, meeting the first deadline in a project. The next deadline is looming, but most team members are a little burned out. The supportive approach? Send them home early to retool for the next sprint. 

As a wise leader, you understand that recovery is essential for employee resilience, and that you can trust your employees to be twice as productive after some unexpected downtime.

Understanding that Employees are Human Beings, Not Resources

Building resilience at work includes:

  • Openly respecting each individual on the team
  • Treating them as human, not resources

Your team cannot work together like a well-oiled machine unless you treat each employee as the valued individual they are. When building resilient teams, you must care about the whole employee, not just their performance at work or their place in the team’s pecking order.

Work-life balance keynote speakers like Adam teach that a supportive work environment recognizes an employee’s desire for work-life harmony, honors promises of flexibility and reinforces the trust relationship between leaders and employees.

Employees in a resilient workplace will reach a higher level of performance and remain with the company longer than their counterparts in a high-pressure, competitive work environment.

Continuous Work Acknowledgement

Employees respect leaders who respect them. A simple act of kindness, like recognizing their achievements, creates a positive organizational culture and encourages employees to excel in their jobs. 

Even when they face a challenge, they are unlikely to give up. They are willing to give you 100% of their best effort if they feel you are giving 100% of your effort to support them.

Your team will roll with the punches when unexpected challenges arise. This is how building organizational resilience can make your organization change-proof.

Building Trust in Employee Autonomy

Delegate and butt out. It’s a challenge for any leader who takes on the responsibility for a team. You want results, you want to see progress and you want to know that employees are using their working hours wisely to accomplish their goals.

Your ability to trust them to get the job done will make or break the team’s ability to thrive, because they thrive on autonomy. If you see key personnel taking a two-hour lunch when they are on a deadline, you must be patient and hide your concern that they might be exploiting company time. Resist the urge to micromanage and especially resist the urge to reprimand them for what could be perceived as a deliberate transgression.

When you lead a resilient team, you can trust that the team and its members are committed to fulfilling your expectations. But how do you know your team is truly resilient? 

Provide an outstanding, supportive environment that empowers your team, and observe them when they are tested by adversity. The results will be amazing and verify their resilience.

Respecting Their Personal Life

We all experience stress in our daily lives, away from the workplace. Raising families, managing finances, juggling the needs of loved ones with your work schedule, all can take their toll. 

The stress doubles when your employer is rigid about your work hours. The occasional personal situation that arises during working hours can instantly become a nightmare.

Resilient organizations treat each team member as an important individual by offering flexibility during normal workday hours. Your willingness to better accommodate the demands of an employee’s private life sends a clear message that you care about them as a person and not just a job title.

This means you might allow a team member to work from home for a week while their spouse recovers from surgery or grant a parent’s request to duck out for an hour to attend their child’s after-school kindergarten activity without docking their pay.

Practicing this flexibility shows an employee that you trust them. In return, they will likely meet or exceed individual and team goals, making you shine in your leader’s eyes.

Being Understanding About Employee Mistakes

Allowing employees to try and fail without fear is the essence of resilience in the workplace. Mistakes are the stepping stones that lead outside the comfort zone and into the exciting zone of learning and discovery.

Adam Markel Helps Build Resilience One Organization at a Time

Now is the time to commit to creating a positive, supportive workspace for your team. Marry that commitment with dedicated action and you are guaranteed to see improvement in productivity, a decrease in personnel issues and a nice surprise when you look at the balance sheet.

If you enjoyed this article, you now understand the importance of resilience in the workplace and you’re ready to build resilience in your own company, book a session with corporate motivational speaker and resilience keynote speaker Adam Markel. Adam will give a keynote address tailored to your organization to ensure your entire team gets off to the right start.

Teaching companies how to build resilience at work is only one of many ways Adam’s expertise can benefit your organization. Reach out now to book your presentation with a corporate motivational speaker who can help your organization become truly change proof.