Riding the “Roller Coaster” of life and our ability to employ resilience during the “ups and downs” can make the difference between our success and failure in our personal life and on the job. Individuals and organizations have been faced with positive and negative experiences (the ups and downs) and have had to draw upon resilience to meet situational demands. The ability to call upon your resilience or your lack of resilience impacts every aspect of personal and organizational life.

What is resilience? Is it a trait, characteristic or behavior? Is the ability to be resilient inborn or acquired? If we have it, can we lose it? If we don’t have it, can be get it? We need only to reflect on the rapid changes in our environment to understand the need for PERSONAL RESILIENCE. It is estimated that today employees will change jobs twenty or more times and will change career fields at least seven times during their work life. Those who have mastered the art of resilience embrace change and move forward in a positive direction in jobs, careers, relationships and life.

Why is it important to understand CORPORATE RESILIENCE? The process of organizational change and how employees react to and implement changes are key to an organization’s success or failure. Successful organizations realize that corporate resilience is directly related to the resilience of its employees. Employees may respond to change and transition in a variety of ways.

Many companies are finding a workforce comprised of four generations of employees. With each generation, leadership will need to examine the beliefs, values and interests of each generation. Employee beliefs, values and interests are the motivators or drivers that will affect individual resilience and the ability to adapt to organizational change. Understanding employee responses to change and providing resilience training that is congruent with the motivators of that generation can minimize the negative impact on efficiency and productivity.

The bottom line is that organizations that face change are more creative, can solve problems more quickly and are more successful implementing change when their employees, from top management to entry level positions, are resilient. The resilient employees are the ultimate drivers of any change effort. Organizations that have mastered the art of resilience embrace change, gain the commitment of stakeholders, customers and employees and move forward in a positive direction in their industry.

The five key elements of maintaining or increasing your resilience are:
 AWARENESS (Knowing)
 PERSPECTIVE (Understanding)
 SENSE OF SELF (I can)
 RESOLUTION TO ACTION (Doing)
 PAYOFF (Resilience)

The organizational benefits of resilience are:

1. Maintain high levels of performance by buffering internal and external obstacles and negativity.
2. Demonstrate a strong sense of self and commitment to organizational planning and goal requirements.
3. Use effective communications, problem solving and decision making skills to build effective work teams, to work cooperatively in cross teaming or to support cross functional projects.
4. Embrace change and mobilize efforts to move the organizational goals forward in a positive direction.
5. Quickly move to a locus of control when in conflict situations.
6. Become proactive in learning to keep current with changing organization and industry requirements.
7. Remain productive on the job even when faced with personal crisis and challenge.

Personal benefits of resilience are:

1. Move forward in life and work with a strong sense of self and purpose.
2. Embrace change and project positive reactions to change.
3. Apply past lessons learned in current and future critical incidents.
4. Trust circumstances and outcomes as a part of life’s continuous learning process.
5. Buffer internal and external negativity.
6. Maintain high levels of performance in personal and work environments.

Contact Management Training Systems, Inc. for more information @ 623-587-7644 or sheryl@trainingperformance.com