4 ways top leaders can build resilience in their teams

4 ways top leaders can build resilience in their kollektivs4 ways top leaders can build resilience in their teamsWork can be a gratifying place where people are able to extend themselves, overcome challenges, and find purpose and belonging. Yet despite the potential for work to contribute to individual growth and development, it often falls short of these aspirations.Today, stress in the workplace is a growing concern for both employees and their employers. This is theresult of changes including thedecline of manufacturing in several countries, and downsizing and the resulting lay-offs.The increased use of mobile phones, laptop computers, and PDAs often means that employees dont ever really leave work, which can limit downtime to recover from workplace stress.Too much stress can have a negative effect on employee resilience, the capacity to bounce back quickly from stressors and adversity.So how can we ensure thatwork is a place of flourishing, rather than a place where individual re silience is eroded?The answer could lie with managers. Here are four ways managers can hilfethe resilience of employees.1. Reduce unnecessary obstaclesHindrance stressors are workplace demands that can impede goal achievement or personal development. A good example of a hindrance stressor is bureaucracy or considerable administration that is a barrier to actual work outcomes.Research thatI didin 2016 with Ben JosephSearle demonstrated thathigh levels of hindrance stressors have the potential to erode the degree that employees see themselves as resilient over a period as short as three months.Managers often underestimate the impact that these frustrating stressors have on employees lives and wellbeing. They also may not considerhow changes thatincrease the amount of administration or red-tape can negativelyaffect employees.These stressors should be identified, minimized, or removed all together. Managers need to play an important role in protectingtheir employees from hindrance stres sors. They should seek to identify improvements to processes and question the need for excessiveadministration.2. Promoteadaptive behaviorsHow managers respond to setbacks is another critical aspect of managing for resilience. A managers response can either be a model for building resilience or eroding it.When managers showresilient behavior and thinking, they caninspire it in others. These behaviors and thinking styles might includepromoting optimism and agency about the achievement of organizational goals, celebrating success, and promoting learning from, but not dwelling on, failure.3. Develop a sense of purpose and belongingManagers are in a unique position to develop a collective sense of purpose, cohesion, and belonging among their team members.Organizational psychologists have described the benefits of organizational belonging during times of organizational change. Research has also shown that the more resilient families tend to promote family cohesion, celebrate family event s, develop a culture of their own, support and advocate for one another, and display good communication.You can probably think of a manager you have worked with whowould ventabout other team members. Now consider the impact this had on you and the people you worked with. In contrast, a manager who is willing to celebrate team success or sincerely takes on feedback appears to have only positive effectson the employees in their charge.4. Give employees what they need to cope with the demands of their rolesManagers need to be willing to ask, listen, and respond to the strategies that employees believe will help them to cope. Access to coping resources can be many and varied and may be as simple as allowing employees greater flexibility in their work schedule so that they can respond to the stressors in their personal lives, or take breaks when needed.This point reflects thefrequent observation among psychologists that most people are resilient and have an initiative understanding ofhow they can adapt to the challenges they face.Although employee resilience can at times seem insurmountable, making the nurturing of resilience part of a managerial roleshows a positive way forward.Dr. Monique Crane isa lecturer in Organisational Psychology at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia and the editorof Managing for Resilience A Practical Guide for Employee Wellbeing and Organizational Performance.