Resilience – the Antidote to Stress

Kosen are resilience specialists, they provide workshops and short courses to develop resilience in business. Here, Jenny blogs about what resilience means to Kosen.  

At Kosen, one of our karaoke favourites is Chumbawamba’s ‘Tubthumping’. Its refrain "I get knocked down but I get up again", sums up our view of resilience, and the work we do with individuals and organisations.

We see resilience as being the ability to bounce back from adversity; being affected by a challenging or stressful situation, responding appropriately and coming through it as you were before, or even stronger.

We know that the economy may be out of recession but times are still difficult for businesses and people alike. Organisations in all sectors are working through change. While for all of us life events keep happening, further adding to our reported rising stress levels. The CIPD are reporting that stress is now the number one reason for long term absence, despite overall falls in absence levels this year. Challenging life and workplace events are a constant for the foreseeable future. So, how can we cope?

Adopting a more resilient perspective can help you respond more positively to challenges whether work-based or personal. 

In a career working as a senior leader, line manager and HR professional I see first-hand the impact of not coping well with stress on individuals and the organisations they work for. Managed badly it can impact on the individual, their team and line management. More widely the cost and risk to business are potentially significant.

Successful organisations are recognising the need for resilience to survive economic uncertainty and taking a pro-active stance.

Adopting a partnership approach with their staff, working together to build resilience and organisational energy, tangible benefits can follow, including improved:

• Absence levels
• Customer satisfaction
• Innovation
• Response to change
• Employee engagement
• Attrition

Organisations have to address their barriers to resilience; asking how their own mission, values, behaviours, strategy, policies, processes and procedures are aligned in support. The role of leaders and managers is therefore crucial.

For organisations to really capitalise on the benefits of resilience it’s vital to stop seeing employees and their employers as two separate entities.

We want to form genuine partnerships with organisations; where people are required to take responsibility for their own resilience, while being provided with development opportunities to build the skills, confidence and tools needed. 

Taking a proactive approach to the development of resilience in staff can only improve the resilience and energy of an organisation; empowering people to respond positively to change. 

To find out more visit our website.