Conclusion – Tying it All Together
Having looked at the four main elements of resiliency (Hope, Self-Efficacy, Coping, and Competence), how do they fit together?
Hope is a clear and positive vision of the future (the necessary part of great leadership) and the belief we have what it takes to get us there. Leaders play a powerful role in inspiring hope at an organizational level. Hope is the most powerfully emotional part of resilience. It is also the part that can be most influenced by those around us, especially our leaders.
The core of Self-Efficacy is agency: the belief that we are the agents and authors of our own stories. It is the most ‘internal’ of the elements, and probably the most difficult to teach.
Like self-efficacy, Coping is largely the result of internal forces, but environments/organizations that encourage reflection and learning can contribute significantly to our coping abilities.
Competence is directly related to self-efficacy. But where self-efficacy (particularly a strong sense of agency) are something we bring forward even from childhood, competence is more affected by external forces. Training plays a role, and perceived competence is something assigned to us by others based on our performance. Real competence has agency at its core, but is augmented, strengthened, and confirmed by training and recognition.
How Do We Get There?
So what does all that mean for an organization trying to become more resilient? What is required?
- Positive, visionary leadership – Communicating a hopeful vision is a function of great leadership. That ability to communicate the vision that drives us and motivates us through successes and failures, is the greatest gift of those who would lead us. Whether your organization is in the weeds or sailing under blue skies, our leaders must relentlessly communicate a positive vision of where we are going.
- The right people on the team – Hire the right people, both for their basic competence, and for that internal sense of agency that results in taking full responsibility for solutions and failures.
- Strong internal values – Capture and communicate the way good things have been done right from the beginning. These are the elements that are captured in great mission statements that describe ‘organizational agency’. Demonstrate moral leadership by walking the talk on dealing with toxic behaviours and failures to take personal responsibility. Including your own.
- A learning environment – Leadership and management must build and maintain an environment that gives more than lip service to encouraging risk taking and challenging the status quo. Organizations that shoot the messenger, and punish people for risking and failing, become rigid and brittle. You don’t have to celebrate failure, just the courage that made creative failure even possible.
- Ongoing positive feedback – There is nothing that encourages coping skills, competence, and self-efficacy like positive feedback. Communicating to team members what is needed, and then recognizing every step in the right direction, builds a tough, resilient core and the emotional reserves to swing again when at first things don’t work out.
- New talent – another way to stay flexible and resilient is to ensure an inflow of new talent, and the new ideas that come with it. Required competencies are constantly evolving as the environment evolves. Training existing team members keeps them current, but there is no substitute for the fresh perspectives and ‘new-to-us’ thinking that fresh blood brings with it.
Dump the Empty Slogan
Without resiliency, what does not kill us does not make us stronger. We don’t bounce, we crater. When our organizations are resilient, they have the hopefulness, self-efficacy, coping skills and levels of competence for that emotional and operational ‘bounce’ that resiliency gives. In good times we move forward faster. In bad times we learn from obstacles and failures, and incorporate that learning to come back even stronger.
In these times more than ever, this is something any organization must develop.
I work with business to redesign their futures help them become what they were intended to be in that initial vision… Want more out of your business? Contact me. From my home base on Vancouver Island, I provide planning and coaching support to businesses across Canada.
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