Building Resilience at Work

Book excerpt: Our resilience, or capacity to bounce back and even thrive in pressured times, is critical in workplaces today. With higher workloads, declining resources and frequent change, together with the hectic pace of personal lives, resilience is almost a key to survival. While strategies to build resilience have long been of interest in the arenas of parenting, education and disaster recovery, less focus has been placed on how these ideas can be translated into building resilient workplaces. Resilient people are more optimistic, adaptable and independent. They are also better at solving problems and have sound levels of self-control. Resilient teams have similar characteristics, and find it easier to rebound from setbacks and adapt to change and pressure. All of these characteristics can be developed. Based on sound psychological theory, Building Resilience at Work is a practical and easy-to-read book providing a proven path to self-help in developing personal resilience.