YEP, it’s a buzz word but the fact is, resilience is the determining factor for the success of your team… and your business.

 

Resilience is built through attitude and through behaviour that must be lived and demonstrated. It is the ability to positively respond to pressure, to overcome adversity and it has a whole lot to do with both the mental and physical wellbeing of your team.

 

A highly resilient team will adapt to change more effectively and will have less stressed- and burned-out employees.

Some people will naturally be more resilient than others, some will need to develop it with intentional practise. The great news is resilience can be learnt and as a business you can set the tone and put processes in place to keep your team thriving and building resilience.

 

But how do you know how resilient your business is and how do you know who in your team is more naturally resilient and who may require that extra support?

 

The culture that you have created is a direct reflection of how resilient you have built your business because in the work environment, a big part of resilience comes down to the leadership and the support offered.

 

So, let’s look at how your culture is fairing.

The culture is made up of the energy that the people bring, it’s the attitude that they have, it’s the style that the business has, the ethos of the business, the intangible stuff that you can’t really touch.

Although you can’t touch it, it makes a massive impact on the experience that the team has inside the business, and a huge impact of the experience that all the customers have. Customers return when they feel they’ve had a great experience.

Therefore, culture improves the bottom line of the business, creating much more financial success; because of having a positive and thriving culture.

A supportive culture will build resilience; a higher ability to overcome challenges, more chance of ‘bouncing back’.

 

A great culture also really determines what kind of people work inside the organisation. If you have a crappy culture, you’re not going to attract high performers or really great people because they won’t want to work in a crappy culture.  If you have a great culture, you will have a business that does attract high performing people.

If you have more high performing people, your business is going to do better.

 

Great culture… Higher resilience factor… Business doing better… Greater bottom line.

 

Crappy culture… Lower resilience factor… Less success… Lower bottom line.

 

The culture begins with the leader as it is the leader that determines the mission of the business, the vision of the business and most importantly, the values of the organisation. Not many businesses truly have values that they consciously live, work, hire and fire by.  It is the values that determine the experience that both staff and clients have, and they also determine that standards by which the business lives and breathes. This is the essence of the culture.

 

Why is it that you can have two coffee shops over the road from each other and one is successful, and one isn’t? Probably not because of the coffee… it’s likely because of the experience… which is the culture, which is determined by the values, standards, attitude, mission, and vision…. the intangibles.

 

A great culture will support their people, they will have systems and processes in place that build up their team. They will empower the people inside of their organisation to step up to new levels of leadership… this empowerment builds resilience.

 

A powerful support system will build resilience in your team.

 

Some people will need more focus and support than others. Typically, if a team member is more confident in their abilities and/or more disciplined in their approach they may be more naturally resilient. However, these people may also simply ‘push through’ at challenging times, seemingly holding their head high… but dissolving beneath the surface. Perhaps they need more social or family support at this time?

 

The best way to determine a team members resilience factor is to simply ask…

What?… Just ask??

Yep J

 

Harvard Business Review states – “One of the first things you can do is establish a “resilience inventory dashboard” Check in 1 by 1 with your team and simply ask –

1-How comfortable are you (insert obstacle or task here)?

2-How do you plan/schedule your workdays?

3-How can I support you with any life or family commitments.”

 

Seek out answers and provide support as necessary.

 

To compliment that, a weekly feedback report (submitted end of week) is a powerful method to evaluate where your team are at & where to offer more support.

This simply covers 3 areas-

1-What was achieved/completed this week

2-New plans/sales ideas/business generating ideas

3-Road blocks

 

The World Health Organisation states that over a quarter of people say that work is their #1 stressor! Setting up a culture of excellence means that you are setting up a culture of trust. When people feel trust, they feel valued, they feel strength, they build resilience.

These team players are more likely to contribute to the overall success of your business. It’s now more important than ever to build a resilient culture to effectively support your team and ensure longevity of your business.

 

If you’re looking to build a resilient culture in your business and would like support around this, reach out for a chat – sally@team-resilience.com.au