Resilient leadership: Navigating the pressures of modern working life

During the event, participants were asked: “How much, between 0% and 100%, should you care about your employees?” One attendee answered that 100% is risky; what if you need to fire this person? Professor Kohlrieser explained that high- performing leaders care enormously– they care100% for their team members– however, they know where the boundaries to the caring need to be. Specifically, they know that their role is not to rescue people.

The importance of caring for others is frequently underestimated compared to other leadership traits. In truth, even top managers often fail because they are disconnected. They close their hearts, which leads to low trust in their working relationships and low engagement in the organizations they manage.Gallup studies show that employee disengagement is widespread in Europe and especially America. For individuals who do feel highly engaged at work, the same studies show that trust-based relationships play a central role.

A high capacity to form attachments and bond with others is one of the pillars of resilience.Strong personal bonds give us the confidence to take risks and aim for stretch goals. They are also vital in supporting us as we recover from failure and disappointment. Relationships based on trust are our “secure bases.” They form a network of people we know we can count on, both in our personal lives and at work.

The concept of a secure base goes beyond people. A secure base can also be a goal, a place or even an object that allows us to go out in the world, explore and experiment with confidence. The core function of a secure base is to provide protection and comfort as well as energy. For example, Nelson Mandela credits his grandmother for enabling him to learn from his prison experience. The poem Invictus by William Ernest Henley also constituted a secure base for Mandela–a powerful reminder that hardship and fear are no match for an“unconquerable soul.”Great managers draw strength from their secure bases, and they in turn become secure bases for others.

Coping with stress

How well leaders cope with stress helps to determine how resilient they are overall. Studies have shown that stress is not, in and of itself, physically harmful. Stress reactions such as a pounding heart and fast breathing prepare our bodies to meet a threat.They energize us to act. Infact,they are an integral part of the “fight or flight” response that has allowed humans to survive dangerous situations since the dawn of our species.

Good leaders need to experience a sense of urgency when their projects are at stake. Momentary stress can help galvanize individuals and teams at a critical juncture. In contrast, people who never worry about anything cannot get their organizations to perform at optimal levels. What is the right balance between too much worry and not enough worry?The constructive approach is to return as quickly as possible toa positive state. Chronic worry is the most destructive – it saps the joy of living.

As a first step, it is useful to become aware of our stress levels (see Figure 1). How long does it take us to move out of a bad mood? Are we feeling exhausted or simply tired? Have we noticed a lowered resistance to infection or recurring migraine headaches? It is important that we heed our bodies’ distress signals. Two participants shared experiences of reaching their breaking point at work. One spoke about burnout and the other about a debilitating stress-related health issue. They both felt they had ignored their personal “alarm bells” when working under sustained pressure. One of the main lessons they extracted from their experiences is that obtaining results is important, but getting stressed does not increase effectiveness or productivity. Another lesson learned: when returning from stress leave, keep a sense of humor.

Figure 1: Stress response

Physical symptoms are one of the four areas in which stress manifests itself. Intellectual stress reactions include diminished creativity, cynicism and negative thinking. People who experience social stress reactions tend to stop seeing friends and returning phone calls. They progressively isolate themselves. Lastly, people who endure spiritual stress reactions lose a sense of meaning and purpose.

To enhance their resilience, leaders need to identify the coping mechanisms that allow them to relieve tension and regain their positive energy. These stress management options include “talking out” worries and concerns, doing something for others and healthful eating.

Resilient Teams

Leaders also have a social and moral responsibility to consider the resilience of others. They must become attuned tothe people around them and learn torecognize when acolleague is under a lot of stress. Does the person communicate a lack of meaning in their work? Does he or she exhibit negativity, over-victimization or continual anger?Social behaviors such as lateness and failing to come to meetings are also clues.

Managers who notice these signs need to reach out to the stressed person and engage in an honest discussion. Sometimes the best way to initiate the conversation is to ask a question: “Is everything all right? It appears you may be under a lot of stress. Is there anything I can do to help you?” The questions should be gentle and respectful.

Managers have a clear interest in working with vibrant and energetic employees. To avoid stress becoming a performance issue, leaders should take an active role in promoting resilience and boosting energy in their teams.

Positive Mindset

Cultivating a positive mind set is one of the keys to resilience.Despite our brain’s innatetendency to identify threats,we can consciously choose to strengthen certain thought patterns over others.It is as if we had a flashlight in our minds that we could shine in different directions.Our natural tendency is to use this flashlight to look for danger and pain. However, we can use our mind’s eye to refocus. In essence, positive and negative mindsets are malleable.

The human brain is immensely powerful and complex: it holds 100 billion neurons, and each neuron is capable of 10,000 connections. The plasticity of our brain allows us to build or prune neural circuits over our entire life spans. This means that as we learn and grow, we rewire our brains. Emotional bonding, active curiosity and deliberate practice are three essential ways to foster new neural connections. It is also worth noting that the best way to turn off our danger-seeking mental flashlight is to have a secure base.

Another reason that a positive mindset enhances resilience is that how we think about our stress affects how our bodies react to stress.Recent scientific studies have shown that people who experienced high stress in the previous year ran a sharply increased risk of dying only if they viewed stress as harmful to their health. Those who also reported high stress in the same time period but did not view their stress as harmful were at no greater risk of dying. In fact, they showed the lowest risk of death of anyone in thestudy(including those who reported low stress).

Embracing a positive mindset does not mean ignoring our feelings of grief. We must allow ourselves to grieve for what we’ve lost – colleagues, friends, projects, dreams. Understanding loss and failure are also fundamental to the recovery process. Setbacks are inevitable in life, and we must learn to welcome the lessons they yield. Extracting meaning from adversity allows us to move on.

Beyond resilience: The joy of living

Building resilience is essential, but we must also remember that the end goal is to find joy in life. We wish not just to survive, but also to thrive. To this end, it is useful to examine the combination of our organizational roles, professional roles and personal roles to ensure that the different aspects of our identity are in balance and that we are able to experience the joy of living.

Figure 3: Identity and life roles

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