Introduction
Resilience often features on the syllabus for management and leadership development programmes. Organisations generally view as a positive attribute in the workplace – for good reason. Resilient responses to the inevitable hassles and difficulties of work can support performance and productivity and can have a buffering effect, protecting employee wellbeing.
But as the saying goes, if all you have is a hammer, then everything looks like a nail. In this blog post, the first in a series on resilience at work. I want to point out the dangers of over-emphasising resilience in the workplace.
What is resilience and why does it matter??
Given its entry into everyday conversations, and the inevitable loosening of meaning, it’s important to define what resilience actually is. There are multiple definitions to choose from, but I generally find this one from Michael Neenan to be particularly useful when discussing it with my clients.
“Resilience comprises a set of flexible cognitive, imaginal, behavioural and emotional responses to acute or chronic adversities which can be unusual or commonplace.”
Michael Neenan, ‘Developing Resilience: A cognitive-behavioural approach’
It’s a nice, inclusive definition that underlines the importance of flexibility, the role of thoughts and emotions as well as behaviour, and the relevance of resilience to all kinds of challenges. From a missed train to a lost job.
When we frame it as a skill, we can see how resilience helps us deal with the ‘stuff’ that life sends our way, but also how we can be cultivate it. Research has consistently demonstrated the thinking and behavioural approaches that support our resilience. Resilience allows us to think creatively, identify solutions and ways forward, and persist through the discomfort to the other side. Without resilience, we’d fold at the first tough feedback, long meeting or traffic jam we faced.
Why it’s a bad idea to over-emphasise resilience
It’s too easy for organisations to fall into the trap of viewing increased employee resilience as an answer to all their collective problems. For all its positives, resilience isn’t a panacea. There are some challenges that an individual just can’t overcome alone. And we all know that problems don’t tend to arrive in neat, organised lines – they often overlap, leading to feelings of overwhelm. Below, I set out just some of the problems associated with an over-emphasis on resilience at work.
1. Minimising demands and stressors is just as important
I discuss this with my clients in terms of bottom-up and top-down perspectives. From a bottom-up perspective, it’s useful for individual employees to cultivate the resilience required to deal with expected challenges and setbacks at work.
However, an over-emphasis on resilience means leaders can forget about the top-down perspective. They have a duty of care to minimise workplace stressors and ensure that the various demands placed on employees are reasonable. Without this, all the responsibility for dealing with difficulties lies with the employee.
2. It can become shorthand for hard-headed persistence
I’ve found when discussing resilience with the average (non-psychologist) professional, they equate resilience with the ability to keep going. And while persistence is an element of responding resiliently to life’s problems, simply persisting with a hard-headed mindset isn’t going to work in every situation.
True resilience – as described above – involves flexible and context-aware responses to challenges. This flexibility isn’t always welcome in the workplace. And so people fall back on ‘powering through’ as the default response when facing difficulties.
3. There’s a limit to everyone’s resilience
Like so many other human qualities, resilience has its limits. Not everyone can simply ‘keep going’, and there comes a point for every employee where the demands and challenges they’re dealing with outweigh their personal resources. Where resilience is the ‘main event’, what then? When the challenges faced aren’t sporadic or exceptional, but instead chronic and worsening? When there’s no resilience left? Then we see an eroding of wellbeing, the manifestation of psychological and physical illnesses, and an ensuing decrease in performance.
4. Resilience isn’t a fixed state and needs replenishing
We’ll feel a lot more resilient when we’ve had sufficient breaks from work, know that we have support in the workplace, and have the space to engage in the kind of self-care that works for us. But this ‘re-charging’ of the resilience battery is often left out of the equation, meaning there’s little space for recovery. Without rest and recovery, employees are working off already-depleted resources, while facing the same demands. And if this cycle continues, it’s a short cut to eventual burnout. Expecting resilience when you don’t give employees adequate time off from work is hardly realistic.
5. It can turn into an excuse for unhelpful workplace behaviour
It’s very easy for goal-oriented striving and ‘powering through’ to turn into challenging and unhelpful interpersonal behaviour. Especially when we’re feeling stressed and overwhelmed, but don’t have the time and space to come up for breath. Demanding attitudes, curt exchanges and inflexible responses can all be excused in the name of ‘resilience’, making everyone’s experience of the workplace that little bit worse. And it doesn’t have to be conflict-tinged, either. An over-emphasis on resilience can facilitate toxic positivity, where employees’ legitimate needs for assistance are responded to with platitudes or superficial actions (e.g. team drinks, pizza in the office, etc.).
6. Resilience needs to be developed
While there are differences in how resilient people are, it’s not something we’re necessarily born with. We can learn to be resilient, using thinking and behavioural approaches that are truly sustainable. When combined with top-down efforts to reduce stressors, this can be a win-win for everyone. But if you’re not taught how to respond resiliently, if you’re simply told to ‘be more resilient’, how will you ever develop this important quality? It doesn’t spontaneously manifest upon command and you can’t make employees more resilient through sheer force of will.
7. It sends an awful message to potential employees
It sends a shiver down my spine when I read job descriptions that go big on resilience. Sometimes, it seems like an absolute pre-requisite for working there. I’m left wondering why the organisations in question aren’t placing equal emphasis on how they provide the resources employees need to do a great job. Rather than an environment where the onus is on the individual to somehow deal with every challenge that comes their way.
In the next blog post in this series, I’ll explore some of the more helpful approaches to balancing the demands of work with the wellbeing of employees. In the meantime, you can find out more about our wellbeing workshops here.
