We are in a different world and we need to act differently. According to Deloitte's study "Willing and Able: Building a crisis resilient workforce", the people who integrate and give life to organizations have seen their routine change and face, among others, the challenge of quickly adapting to the new situation while they continue to add value to their jobs from their homes. In these uncertain times, leaders - in the broadest sense of the word - play a determining role in helping to keep focus.
We need leaders who feel the responsibility to help their collaborators. Leaders, who actively promote communication and dialogue....that are able to guide and create clarity in the midst of uncertainty. Leaders who promote the exchange of ideas and promote commitment ... who feel that their contribution to their teams, their clients and society is transcendent. And that they contribute so that the people they lead feel supported in these exceptional moments ... and all this, remotely. It doesn't seem easy, right?
Many companies have opted for remote work in response to the need for imposed social distancing. This has highlighted the importance of corporate resilience! Resilience is a term that the social sciences adopted from the factual sciences and these days it gathers importance, due to its applicability to the new work scenario.
Resilience is the ability of human beings to adapt positively to adverse situations. However, the concept has undergone major changes. Initially it was interpreted as an innate condition, then it focused on factors that were not only individual, but also family and community, and currently cultural.
Similarly, resilience is the ability to succeed in a way that is acceptable to society, despite stress or adversity that normally involves a serious risk of negative outcomes. It can also be defined as a process of competitiveness where the person must be positively adverse situations.
However, currently the concept extends to the organizational field where responsibility and actions fall on both the worker and the company's management. It is a 360° approach that need to be learned by everyone.
On one hand, leaders can focus on the 5 "C" calls of confidence, collaboration, communication, contribution and celebration.
Confidence: in order to obtain the best result from the workers, the leader must express his confidence to them and gain confidence from them. Remote work can be highly conflictive, so we must build trust to generate in the worker that same trust in the organization, promoting a sense of belonging and making the contribution greater than oneself.
Collaboration: in times of crisis, those organizations with group philosophies stand out, teamwork and the sum of the multidisciplinary elements help organizational adaptability and provide tools with which remove threats from the environment.
Communication; open and constant. Supports the management of emotions, fears and uncertainty; allowing brainstorming that creates spaces to develop.
Contribution: opening the opportunity to incorporate new ways of acting and interpreting the market by new members and people in different layers of the organization, it allows to refresh and reorient objectives in diverse emerging scenarios
Celebration: evaluating the collective and individual contributions, special or not. It maintains cohesion and motivation. In times of crisis it is important to find positive aspects to celebrate.
Other actions indicated in the literature that a resilient organization must comply with, are:
-Commit to all parties involved in the organization.
-Promote remote work whenever business activity allows it.
-Maintain fluent internal communication with employees.
-Increase technological support in the face of possible incidents that occur.
-Promote communications with customers, adapting to existing channels.
-Implement a solid structure and guarantee an action plan, creating a crisis committee that can assess possible impacts on business activity, as well as market and financial risks, in order to build a short, medium business transformation roadmap long term.
But what about me? as a person, as a worker; what makes me a resilient person?
Being resilient will help you gain greater control over your own situation and get you to a positive path in life. how can you do that? Most coaches talk about few things;
Change your perspective, put a positive light on the affairs. Maybe sounds silly but it works. You will find more opportunities and your strategy will become more encouraging. The hardship that scares us also grants us wisdom.
Focus: Realistic optimism people identifies points of control, like for instance, , the ability to communicate, and takes advantage of them. Resilience is the act of taking a step forward despite dire circumstances. When we look critically for something we can control, we lay out the path for ourselves.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help: even though the traditional heroes are self-reliant with enough strength to cope with adversities, you don’t have to deal with everything. It is healthy to seek for support because it is ultimately a sense of community that enables true resilience. Tending to your most important relationships when times are good builds the trust and intimacy that will help those relationships stay strong when adversity hits.
Go for the challenge and to be afraid to the failure: it is difficult, but success involves getting risks, and learned from them. If you don’t take the chance, you’ll lose the opportunity. We shouldn’t seek for problems, but we embrace the possibility of them. Identifying with the process of trying, rather than outcomes, is a resilience-building approach to life.
Resilience is a skill you can work to build. Put in the effort to develop it, and you'll be able to meet challenges and learn from them. What are you waiting for?