On How Resilience Is Not What You Think
There is a general concept in the corporate world that employees and leaders alike need to endure and be more resilient. But what does resiliency really look like? Spoiler: it has a lot to do with how you rest and recover.
You just need to be more resilient.
This is the ‘buck up’ message many of us have heard at some point in our careers.
Or the message that comes from leadership about employees needing to boost their resilience.
The theme of resilience is even more present in the eye of the storm of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mental health has taken a sharp dip since the start of the pandemic, and we’re not just talking about people who lost their job or had major disruption, but also for those those consistently employed. Reports of symptoms of depression or anxiety have risen from 11% to 4 out of 10 people. It’s not just employees, 82% of leaders have reported exhaustion and 68% reported their major stressor as being increased work volume.
There is this enigmatic vision of someone with hardiness who can weather these events, or stress, like no big deal. Some even say resilience is about attitude - not giving up, doubling-down, and just push through. Indeed, we celebrate people who work until midnight or on weekends with promotions and raises and praise - not just employees, but even from a young age with students. Why can’t we all just be tougher, weather change better, or be more determined to get through?
With more than half of leaders reporting seriously considering leaving their positions due to Covid-19 - leaders who have made it to the top of their field because of their expertise and attitudes - do we really have our understanding of resilience right?
These dangerous questions laced with blame and shame show a fundamental misunderstanding of what it means to be resilient, and in fact drives us further into overworking and exhaustion.
What is Resilience?
Resilience is defined as “the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, or significant sources of stress—such as family and relationship problems, serious health problems, or workplace and financial stressors”. Resilience is actually behaviours, thoughts, and techniques anyone can learn or employ to their benefit. This is good news, because it flies in the face of any impression that you’re either born with resilience or you’re not. You can grow your toolbox of mechanisms that is best suited for you to weather whatever comes your way.
Resilience isn’t avoiding stress. Resilience isn’t even about not feeling stress, like water off a duck’s back. Resilience is about feeling and facing stress and what you do to cope to get through it.
Stress Isn’t Inherently A Bad Thing
There will always be stressors at work. Always. But the cool thing about it is that it’s also important to face challenges because they help you to learn and grow. Bouncing back from challenges is often related to personal growth and perspective. Indeed, though stress is often perceived as a decidedly bad thing, research has found that some stress can actually be good for you. This good stress is known as eustress, which is moderate levels of daily stress, has been shown to be protective against oxidative damage, according to research in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology, which has been linked to aging and disease.
Though, we should specify, this is about moderate stress. Extreme stress is linked to a whole host of bad health outcomes, like, according to the American Psychological Association, “unhealthy eating, skin problems, smaller brain size, and even an increased likelihood of chronic disease.
Resilience is About Recovery
Resilience isn’t about how long you hold out on an impossibly challenging project, or endure a bully in the workplace. It’s to do with the spaces in between the stress, and what you do to come back stronger.
According to the CEO of BetterUp, Shawn Achor and news anchor and researcher Michelle Gielan, “The very lack of a recovery period is dramatically holding back our collective ability to be resilient and successful.”
They cite research where recovery time of employees (or lack thereof) was directly related to mental health issues, sleep deprivation, and emotional exhaustion.
Yet in our modern working world of “hustle culture” that is all about constantly working, there is an impression that those who work all the time get ahead. There are some industries where the hustle culture and toxic productivity are worse than others, like consulting, where the average work week tends to be between 60 - 80 hours according to some reports. Plus, according to a Harvard Business School study of 3.1 million employees, we are working longer days in the pandemic, an average increase of 48.5 minutes a day.
The crazy part about all of this is that our lack of sleep and rest ironically makes us less productive. According to Arianna Huffington, our collective lack of sleep results in 11 days of lost productivity per year for each worker - an approximate loss of just shy of USD $2,300 per person!
Plus, when we’re in an energy deficit, we actually waste a whole lot more energy a) trying to power through and b) trying to get ourselves back to our equilibrium.
Achor and Gielan cite research from Jim Loehr and Tony Scwartz’s book The Power of Full Engagement that there is a trade-off: The more time you spend in your Performance Zone, the more time you’ll need in the Recovery Zone. It requires energy to overcome your ‘low arousal level’, meaning not only are you burning energy to do the task, you’re burning more energy to keep yourself focused on going at it (than you otherwise would if you just rested and got back to it).
The research shows us that we make worse decisions when we are under high levels of stress. When we are cognitively depleted, we are more likely to give in to temptation (i.e., going for that second slice of cake), being more impulsive, and being more driven by emotion.
I think this makes the case for a clear first step: stop glorifying over-working.
Rest Does Not Equal Recovery
Not all rest activities lead to recovery. Just simply stepping away from a task doesn’t necessarily mean you’re recharging the metaphorical batteries and feel refreshed after a certain amount of time. What you do in that time matters. Going from a stressful work situation to a stressful home situation does not equal recovery. Being deliberate about finding moments to reduce the high mental arousal is what counts.
Plus, we need to consider ‘internal recovery periods’ in our work day. These can look like planned or unplanned breaks, or shifting between tasks when our cognitive energy has become depleted on the first task.
You will need to play around to figure out what works for you. What we know for sure is prolonged exposure to high stress and just pushing through is not the answer. Recovery is the answer so you can come back stronger and have your full mental capacity to solve challenges and improve.
So How Can I Boost My Resilience?
The American Psychological Association has a bunch of great tips for fostering your resilience.
Focus on connection. Having your own resource of caring and empathic others can help you feel like you’re not alone in your stress. This can be one-on-one relationships or in a community or group.
Focus on your physical well-being. There are definitely physical symptoms of stress. Resilience can be boosted by making sure you have a proper amount of sleep, eating right, staying hydrated, and strengthening your body with exercise.
Pay attention to mindfulness. Strengthening your connection with mindfulness can help boost resilience and positivity. Focusing on what you can change rather than what you cannot change and finding ways to stay optimistic can help stay positive.
Find purpose. Understanding yourself and your goals better can help align your behaviours with your purpose. Helping others and contributing towards a cause can boost feelings of positivity.
Seek help when needed. Licensed mental health professionals are awesome at helping people to build their resilience!
Organizations should play a role in helping employees and leaders be and become resilient. Addressing the Hustle Culture through better coaching, management, and division of responsibilities is the first step. You cannot blame employees and leaders for their own burnout - this is their livelihood, their way to support their family, and it’s possible to lose one’s job for standing up for your boundaries. Having leaders who have enough time to balance work properly and encourage a workday where personal time is not only possible but encouraged is actually totally within our grasp. Organizations can also smooth waves of uncertainty or crisis through planning, proper communication, and support. Not only do they have an ethical obligation to do so, but it will help the bottom line. Finally, having circuit-breaker mechanisms when burnout is real - like shutting the company down for a week like LinkedIn, Bumble, and Hootsuite have done - might save you from losing employees on medical leave or to competitors.
But most importantly of all, we need a paradigm shift about the meaning of resilience. Resilience doesn’t mean pushing through. Resilience means having the self-awareness and ability to care for the self to come back stronger and wiser.
Love,
