The Benefits of Proactive Resilience

In today’s modern, competitive, marketplace organisations continually strive to stay ahead of the game – recognising challenges in advance, and having the skills, tools, and tactics already in place to minimise the impact of these ever-present challenges on their business.

A key tool to achieve this is remaining proactively resilient.

So, what are the key benefits of adopting this positive mindset and approach.

The benefits of being proactively resilient

 In previous blogs, I considered the difference between ‘Proactive’ and ‘Reactive’ resilience, the overwhelming importance of developing a ‘proactive’ attitude to resilience in the workplace, and how to adopt this mindset.

Now, to complete the 360-degree argument, I want to address the benefits of being proactively resilient.

Reduced Stress

There’s no doubt that a certain amount of pressure at work help motivation.

 But if the pressure and demands become too much, this can lead to work-related stress - having a negative impact on your health and making it harder to do your job effectively. It can also put you at greater risk of other mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression.

 According to leading health insurance provider BUPA, more than 800,000 people (around one in 40 workers) were thought to be affected by work-related stress, anxiety, or depression in 2020 to 2021.

What’s more, around 18 million working days are thought to be lost each year because of these problems - over half of all the working days that are lost to ill health.

Better resilience in the workplace results in less stress within the team.

The ability to handle pressure and unexpected setbacks effectively results in a less stressful and more enjoyable working environment - in turn leading to better productivity within the workplace.

Less stress also results in less sickness, lateness, and absences, as stress is a major contributor to anxiety and depression, which is a large cause of workplace absences.

Whilst resilience doesn’t overcome issues and challenges within the workplace alone, it increases the individual’s ability to cope with the pressure without being overwhelmed by stress.

Reduced Presenteeism

Presenteeism refers to the lost productivity caused when employees don’t fully function in the workplace because of an illness, injury, or other condition.

Even though they may be ‘physically’ at work they don’t fully perform their duties, are more likely to make mistakes on the job, and are only delaying their full recovery.

Indeed, a recent study reveals the extent of this added cost:

• 46% of UK working employees felt more pressure to be ‘present’ during lockdown (Source: Canada Life UK).

• More than a third continued to work during lockdown when they were ill because they feared redundancy (Source: Canada Life UK).

• Despite a significant increase in homeworking, and the perceived flexibility brought about by new working conditions, 77% of employers observed presenteeism from colleagues working from home (Source: CIPD & Simplyhealth).

• Two-thirds of organisations experiencing presenteeism failed to take any action (Source: CIPD & Simplyhealth).

More resilient employees don’t get disheartened and lose motivation when problems occur. In fact they learn from the experiences and use them as opportunities to learn. They don’t lose motivation as a result of the challenges, and continue to be engaged within their roles.

Could your team working be improved? Photo Brooke Cagle Unsplash

Better Teamwork

Workplaces that have better resilience reduces conflict and breakdowns in communication as employees don’t take comments as personally.

Instead, employees work together more effectively without friction and negativity impacting working relationships. Better resiliency also allows employees to learn how to handle different personalities to work effectively on shared projects.

Conflict within the team is reduced, as resilience allows employees to better handle differences of opinions and personality clashes.

Improved Wellbeing

Resilience encourages an optimistic and proactive approach to life - making a big impact on wellbeing in the workplace.

Resilience isn’t reactive, it’s a proactive approach.

It doesn’t come into play when an individual faces a problem or a challenge. An individual with a high level of resilience will have a positive approach to work, and this will have an influence on the culture and wellbeing of the organisation.

Enhanced Organisation

Resilience allows staff to focus on the future and have a positive outlook.

They can plan their workloads realistically and work towards deadlines effectively. This leads to better organisation within the team.

Deadlines won’t be missed, and projects will be planned and managed more effectively.

Quite simply, by having a future-oriented mindset, employees can plan their work more effectively.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my latest series on resilience and taken some key pointers away which you can introduce into your workplace.

Look out for my next series of blogs in March addressing another key business mindset.

In the meantime, if you’d like to explore the subject of resilience more deeply, please contact me via Email: russell@theresiliencecoach.co.uk.