As individuals we shouldn’t just be focused on improving our own resilience. Instead, we should also think of ways to help improve other people’s resilience. This needn’t be difficult, but it does take some thought.
Summary by The World of Work Project
Help Improve Someone’s Resilience
All too often we focus on our own resilience. We’re not islands though and we all live as part of a broader social system of interactions, challenges and support.
While it’s great to focus on increasing our own resilience, it’s also great to pay it forward a bit and help others increase their resilience. This can be particularly important when we’re all working together in a team towards a common goal.
Who knows, they might even repay the favor some time…
1 – Say Thank You
Saying thank you and genuinely appreciating the things that others do will help them be more resilient. Combined with feedback, it’s even more powerful. It’s easy to do, takes little time and makes the world a better place.
2 – Celebrate Someone Else’s Success
Celebrating someone else’s success or calling them out for recognition if they are in your team can be a great way to help build resilience. Some people are shy and everyone likes to celebrate in different ways, but recognition is almost always appreciated.
3 – Say Sorry
Apologizing to people when you’ve made a mistake or been in the wrong helps them overcome their doubts and helps build their resilience. Often all that gets in the way of apologizing is pride. Give it a go, you might feel better afterwards too!
4 – Ask Someone About Their Hobbies and Interests
Showing someone that you’re interested in what they care about is a great way to build their resilience. It’s a simple and supportive thing to do and it helps people reflect on things that they’re passionate about. If you don’t know someone’s hobbies and interests are, ask them – you might be surprised by what people get up to.
5 – Go for a Walk With Someone
Exercise is a great contributor to resilience and wellbeing. If you’re popping out for lunch or a coffee, ask if someone would like to walk with you. It’s a great time to catch up with people while also building in exercise. You might want to consider walking 1:1s or meetings if you’re in the workplace, they’re good things once you get used to them.
Learning More
Our resilience can be an important factor in our Wellbeing in the workplace. It’s a bit of a difficult concept to pin down, but we can get a sense of how resilient we are with the Brief Resilience Scale.
There are steps we can take to improve our own wellbeing. Improving our self-awareness might also help us improve our wellbeing. Similarly, learning about different types of stress and how to manage stress can be helpful. The below podcast covers the concept of stress-buckets, which might of interest.
The World of Work Project View
This post details several ways to help improve someone’s resilience. We don’t have much to add to this. We’d just like to say that everyone benefits from support from time to time and that knowing support is there helps create a sense of inclusion and psychological safety. Please think about others and try and help them be more resilient.
