Episode 118 - Resilience Starts with Leadership

<h2 data-pm-slice="0 0 []"><strong>Summary</strong></h2> <p class="">Resilience programs are okay, but true resilience starts with leadership. We explore the research and what it means for leaders in this week’s episode.</p> <p class="" data-rte-preserve-empty="true"> </p> <h2><strong>Transcript</strong></h2> <p class="">Hello and welcome to episode 118 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. In this episode we discuss why resilience starts with leadership.</p> <p class="">I think there is a problem with a lot of resilience training that is undertaken in our organisations. It’s not the valuable skills and techniques that worry me - of course, we can all work on our resilience. However the undertone in most resilience training is that you are the problem - that it’s solely your responsibility to become more resilient. But sometimes it’s not the level of an individual’s resilience that’s the problem. Sometimes it’s the job, the work environment or the leadership that’s the problem. If we fix those external issues, that might reduce the amount of resilience people need to get through their day. </p> <p class="">I appreciate this is a balance. However I think in far too many organisations, we effectively blame the individual for not being resilient enough without first examining the work environment around them. Instead this approach is all too common - “if you’re struggling with the demands of your job and work environment, here’s a resilience program”.</p> <p class="">So what’s an alternative approach?</p> <p class="">Researchers Kyle Brykman and Danielle King found that leaders play an important role when it comes to resilience, particularly within teams. They studied 48 tech startup teams to identify what made a difference when it came to resilience and learning.</p> <p class="">They found a key element in team resilience is having a leader who is focused on learning and not solely on short-term performance outcomes. The most effective leaders rewarded a learn