Resilience - what's all the fuss about?

On 6th December 1941, the Japanese attacked the American base of Pearl Harbour.  Whilst this is not news, it struck me that 2 interesting paradigms led to the terrible loss of life. The Americans believed that:

• a war from the air was impossible

• the main weapon of war at sea was the Battleship and not the Aircraft Carrier

Within 2 hours, the Japanese had rewritten the rules of combat by showing both paradigms to be incorrect and virtually destroying the US Pacific fleet.

Many business strategists use this lesson as a discussion point in scenario & risk planning in order to formulate options to be on the leading edge of future paradigm ‘bursting’.

However, whilst important, strategists forget that the Americans were not knocked out of the war and that paradigm resetting may not be the biggest learning point from the attack.

The Americans banded together as a nation, created a shared vision and drew strength from the defeat. Production was improved and materials and resources created incredibly efficiently to give battlefield dominance.

New innovations in manufacturing and weaponry were created to give a technological edge.

Movingly and symbolically, many of the damaged ships and resources from the December attack were repaired and returned to the war and, tellingly, were part of the Battle for Midway Island where veterans of Pearl Harbour from both sides engaged in a new type of sea battle.

This national resilience was facilitated by the imperative of war, but I believe, companies and teams forget one of the key success factors of business – that resilience s the actual secret to turning disaster to triumph rather than just attempting to second guess the future.

At a practical level, seeing disasters taking place in business is too late to be tackling issues! Managers need to focus on mistakes as a practical method to begin to build resilience in the organisation by tackling the issues at the team and individual level.

Every day, mistakes are made in business and managers can choose to focus on allocating blame or to get people to bounce back better and stronger. Every day, people make mistakes and become stressed and demoralised rather than seeing this is an iterative process where things are happening and initiatives are tried and tested. Allocating responsibility and choice to people allows them to build accountability, pride and resilience by returning control to those who need it most.

Some leadership gurus discuss the relative merits of rewarding new ideas and concepts, but we suggest this should be taken further.

Managers and leaders should be rewarded on the new ideas and suggestions they have garnered and facilitated from their teams as part of a process to build resilience

Individual resilience can be created through a process of building emotional, physical and cognitive toughness and team and organisational resilience can be created by the creation of suitable performance cultures trough cultural re-engineering processes.

Recent resilience programmes have shown dramatic reductions in success and improvements in performance across a range of sectors and QED can help assess and monitor current levels of resilience and create an action to deliver tangible results in individual performance from increases in performance.

Take a look at our FREE introduction to resilience ebook, “Resilience Unravelled”.

Whilst your own company or team may not face destruction, the lessons from Pearl Harbour can help focus managers on the need to be able to raise resilience so that difficult issues can be aired and challenged, sustained innovation can take place and that everyone can contribute to the raising of standards and performance

Are people really your greatest asset in organisations?

Are people really our greatest asset?

Plenty of people in Talent Management circles become extremely vexed when considering this subject. There is no doubt that many companies like to trumpet the message loudly in their literature and in person –yet many of them find it difficult to operate as if it were true.

And perhaps, it’s not? Plenty of people point to more valuable assets including Brand, Physical Assets, Cash etc as however, in most modern organisations, most opportunity and risk really resides in the ‘Human Capital’ of the business.

There is a school of thought which subscribes to the notion that the ‘right’ people are our greatest assets –the difficulty with this is that the concept of ‘rightness’ needs to be defined and that is not always politically correct or acceptable.

In effect, being ‘right’ is a combination of high productivity, high effectiveness, high potential and present and future relevancy for the organisation –this is a challenge both for employees and organisations themselves.

The issue for people is that it places a responsibility for them to maintain relevancy in terms of capability and effectiveness. It may free them to be much more employable and commercially ‘attractive’, but may also create the need for personal career planning and ‘effort’ and some people simply like to place their careers in the hands of their current organisation while they choose to simply live their day to day lives.

The issue for the organisation is that it assumes that it can think and plan forward for the types of people and effectiveness it will need. Some organisations who simply have a number/target which defines their mission and purpose will find this difficult. Larger and, possibly, more thoughtful organisations will need to be prepared to see their precious Engagement scores drop in the face of employees who become more purposeful and demanding of the organisation in helping them achieve their personal objectives. Another issue may well be the lack of sensible development required to help the organisation create the culture and leadership management styles required to create the level of dialogue needed to create the ‘right’ people.

The HR department may also be a block to the achievement of the goal of ‘rightness’ creation as they are often focussed more on their own purpose (arguably, risk prevention) and legitimacy (deciding whether they add value to the enterprise) to create a more ‘adult’ dialogue and introduce the concept of ‘rightness’.

Oddly, unions may well feel that their members would benefit from these approaches if they can get past the language used (‘rightness’ etc) which is too much the preserve of academics and consultants at the moment.

So a dilemma presents itself….the rhetoric is achievable, but only with some real change. The change must start at the top of the organisation –possibly the most tricky place of all where the pressure to deliver short term results gets in the way of the conversations and focus necessary to think differently and deliver the rhetoric. Ironically, the Board or Exec Management team (those who trumpet the loudest) may be the least ‘right’ for the organisation.

Maybe the debate needs to move away from the Human Capital arena and into the world of accounting. Much of the recent HCM research is (being polite) woolly and worthy and usually misses the real issues. Adding people to the bottom line of the business would focus the minds, then the work we have carried out with a range of VC’s and Private Equity firms who can value talent, would become more common place.

Resilient Leadership and Tough Love

Resilient Leadership and Tough Love

Being a leader can be massively challenging, as you deal with internal and external pressures whilst striving to look after the team.

Its seems as if a kind of “tough love” is required as leaders juggle the expectations and ambiguities of the business with the emotional and physical needs of the team and in return, expect their people to perform brilliantly every day.

To achieve this, leaders need the resilience to maximise potential and make the most of what you have to perform more efficiently. Resilience allows us to innovate, learn and become more creative. It helps us pull through change and meet high expectations by improving potential and boosting performance.

Building our capacity for resilience increases our capacity to perform. So, effective leaders need to be able to spot when resilience is being compromised in themselves and their teams. They then need to develop it or create the right environment for resilience to flourish so it’s there when it’s needed.

Leaders need to be skilled enough to have dynamic adult relationships, notice behaviour that is not the norm and be concerned enough about people to want to know what is going on. If people are tired and losing focus, then we know that their resilience has been compromised. Having the toolkit, knowing what questions to ask, being concerned enough to ask them  and listening to the answer is a key resilient leadership skill to possess.

We know that great leadership performance can be created ‘on purpose’ and deliver predictably outstanding results, so we develop resilient leaders who:

• Have honest relationships with people

• Can discuss behavioural performance with people

• Are aware of how they and others ‘tick’

• Encourage useful and stimulating conflict and challenge

• Have a strong sense of purpose and encourage people to join them on their journey

• Balance innovation and imagination with a desire to execute

• Solve problems and seize opportunities one step at a time

• Can endure difficulty and reliably deliver

• Are aware of risk and see risk as a series of manageable tasks

• Are clear about process and the part they should play in releasing the potential and capacity of people to build solutions

• Are aware of stress and pressure in themselves and in others and seek to build capacity to help cope in the times when resilience is needed

These resilient leaders are not perfect, but they focus on ensuring that mistakes are rectified and strive to avoid making the same mistakes more than once.

Difference is about risk and people with high resilience have a greater tolerance for risk. Difference is a sign that innovation is working and that diversity is taking place, somewhere people can get passionately engaged in professional disagreements but not get bent out of shape. Organisations need to have ideas that are different from the norm, not be threatened by them but evaluate them properly and implement them if required.

Improving Performance and dealing with change

Improving performance and dealing with change is related to levels of resilience at an individual, team and organisational level.

What is Resilience?

Resilience as a term can refer to bounce-back ability, clear thought or a successful attitude in the face of adversity. Arguably highly dependent upon thought processes and mind management, developing resilience on a personal level and, within an organisation, can boost business and personal success in addition to helping us to cope with the stresses of modern life.

Personal Resilience
With regards to personal resilience and developing an affinity for working under pressure, there are a number of prevalent ideas about the phrase. The American Psychological Association for example defines resilience as the ability to adapt in the face of adversity, trauma or tragedy.

In our continuously changing environment, coping with the stresses of modern life on a daily basis, adapting to almost incessant changes around us, both in the workplace and personally, remaining professional and keeping pace with increasing demands and competition are all components that the idea of resilience encompasses.

Those individuals attributed with resilience as one of their qualities are perceived as confident, clear-headed, proactive, organised and often possess high-energy.

Organisational Resilience
Strength in the face of adversity and an ability to cope or even thrive in tough conditions is a quality of a  resilient culture. Responding well to a single or one-off event it is not, rather a continuous anticipation and adjustment to external factors and internal changes that could otherwise hinder an organisation, its functionality or its success.

Why is Resilience Becoming More Important?
In the world of work, it’s not hard to notice that increased demands are now placed on workers for less financial and personal gain. Bonuses are reducing, the job market is more competitive, salaries are lower yet the cost of living is higher. Developing resilience both in business and on a personal level is bumped to the top of the “To Do” list.

Current Economic Climate
Let’s not beat about the bush, it’s not good! With a struggling economy there comes struggling companies and fewer opportunities; more rejections when job hunting coupled with a constant murmur of lay-offs and others questioning your value and position. A low resilience to these very real issues can result in a massive upset to your positive psychology.

Greater Expectations
We are now expected to give more for less. With 24/7 technology now sitting in everyone’s pocket, innovative technologies have rendered us accessible all day, every day. Who needs sleep? We have caffeine for that. Who needs to take a break when you can take your mobile complete with emails, call facility, sat nav, BBM, social media platforms, apps, schedules, diaries and reminders with you wherever you go. It’s even possible to get mobile phone signal on some sections of the London Underground now!

Stress & Burn Out
Following on rather poignantly from the above point, is an increase in stress. An inevitable consequence for some, burning out in an attempt to keep up with a rapid pace of change for those with people-pleasing personalities, is only going to become more of an issue. It already astonishes us how much money companies lose and how much time off work is needed to be taken due to stress and exhaustion. As well as costing the companies, it costs the NHS which in turn costs us, a vicious circle this just might be?

Resilience programmes have had fantastically proven positive results in breaking out of this cycle.

Our approach is to build “Performance on Purpose”, by focusing not just on healthy eating and exercise (physiological) but also on the way people think (mental toughness), how they feel (emotional intelligence) and how to play to the strengths of personality. We believe it is the combination of all four aspects and the development of these that will have an impact on performance.

QED delivers effective programmes for organisational, leadership and personal resilience. Using advanced psychological tools and methodologies we develop companies, teams and individuals to encompass and use effectively, those characteristics mentioned above that a resilient person or company possesses.