9,99 €
Mehr erfahren.
- Herausgeber: Haufe Lexware
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Serie: Haufe TaschenGuide
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015
Resilient people have an easier life - they can overcome setbacks better than others. This pocket guide contains techniques and strategies for greater resilience. Numerous practical examples will help you to strengthen your powers of resistance. Managers who want to make their companies more robust will find all the answers in this book. Contents: - The meaning of being resilient: inspiration from the fields of brain research and neuroanatomy - Managing crises and change with confidence: coping with insecurity and mastering complexity - The three elements that foster resilience - Self-regulation and stress management - The resilient company as a mission statement: eight guiding principles for resilient leadership
Das E-Book können Sie in Legimi-Apps oder einer beliebigen App lesen, die das folgende Format unterstützen:
Seitenzahl: 111
Ähnliche
Table of content
Copyright Notices
Haufe-Lexware GmbH & Co. KG, Freiburg
Imprint
Bibliographical Information of the German National Library
The German National Library lists this publication in the German National Bibliography. Detailed bibliographical data can be accessed on the internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.
ePub: ISBN: 978-3-648-06834-2 Order no.: 10710-0100
ePDF: ISBN: 978-3-648-06835-9 Order no.: 10710-0150
Ella Gabriele Amann
Resilience
1st edition 2015
© 2015, Haufe-Lexware GmbH & Co. KG, Freiburg, Federal Republic of Germany
www.haufe.de
Project and product management: Jürgen Fischer
Editor German edition: Nicole Jähnichen
Translation: Stephanie Shellabear
Proofreading: Rita Forbes
Cover: Kienle gestaltet, Stuttgart
Cover design: RED GmbH, 82152 Krailling
Composition: Beltz Bad Langensalza GmbH, 99947 Bad Langensalza
All information/data to the best of our knowledge but with no guarantee of its completeness and correctness.
All rights, including but not limited to printing of excerpts, photomechanical reproduction (including microcopy) and analysis using databases, are reserved.
Foreword
The new world of work: we perceive it as fast-moving, ambiguous, complex, precarious, unpredictable. Planning was yesterday; today, rapid reactions are what count. For more than a decade now we have been seeing a dramatic increase in stress-related illnesses. Burnout is the term on everybody’s lips.
We wish we had greater powers of resistance and more flexibility to be able to cope with the large and small crises that bring changes in their wake. But how are we to gain these skills?[2]
The answer is resilience. Research into resilience has uncovered ways to deal appropriately and successfully with stress and remain psychologically and physically healthy.
In this book, I invite you to explore the subject of resilience for yourself, your team or your company. Learn how to conquer difficult situations steadily and securely, and build your confidence for dealing with crises and turbulent times.
Ella Gabriele Amann
The phenomenon of resilience
Why do some people and companies manage to emerge even stronger than before from crises and periods of high stress, while others literally fall apart when faced with the same challenges?
In this chapter you will learn
what resilience means,
what factors influence our powers of resistance,
why a crisis does not always have to be a bad thing,
why resilience is something that we can acquire.
What it means to be resilient
Resilient people are able to deal with pressure or stress in such a way that they can return to their normal state once the period of tension is over:
Sick people become healthy again.
Sad people become happy again.
Stressed people find peace and tranquillity.
Overworked people are able to relax.
Life crises are overcome and economic problems are conquered.
Similar to our immune system, which protects our body from illness, resilience refers to the immune system of our psyche or soul: it helps us to deal with stress, pressure and crises.
A person’s or an organization’s resilience is, however, not regarded as a permanent state that has always existed and is retained forever, but rather as a lifelong learning process. Our resilience and thus our powers of resistance can vary from situation to situation and be stronger or weaker depending on the stage of life we happen to be in.[3]
Example
Walter Strong is the director of a mid-sized company. He can well remember the year 2008. The economic crisis hit his company quite suddenly. Within just a few weeks he had to make several people redundant and negotiate severance packages. It was mainly the older employees who were affected. Walter could hardly bear having to discharge so many competent, loyal colleagues into an uncertain future.
At the same time, Walter’s wife was diagnosed with a serious illness. She had to spend three months in hospital, followed by a long stay at a rehabilitation facility. Practically overnight, Walter was left alone to look after their two small children. He had to be there full time not only for his company but also for his wife and children – a balancing act that took him to the brink. Yet he succeeded. Now his wife has regained her health and the company has recovered.
When Walter reflects on this time of crisis, he sometimes does not know how he coped with it and survived. He only knows that the events have brought his family closer together. Without his company’s understanding and the active support of his parents, he would not have been able to master the situation. And he knows that, despite all the fears and worries, he never lost his optimistic attitude, his sense of humour or his confidence.[4]
Through long-term studies, researchers have discovered that around a third of us possess the resilience needed to face crises and difficult situations and emerge from them even stronger than before. Many people display this talent in their very early years; others develop it later, over the course of time.
A serious illness, a separation or an unexpected job change, for example, might act as a trigger, causing us to question our patterns of behaviour and develop a new, positive attitude to life.
Example
A former senior manager: ”Now, after my burnout, I set totally different priorities. I no longer try to satisfy everyone. I’ve learned to pay attention to my own needs.”
Getting back on one’s feet
The term ”resilience” (meaning ”elasticity” or ”vigour”; from the Latin resilire, meaning ”rebound”) originates from physics and describes the ability of a material to change shape, then afterwards regain its original form. In general, resilience stands for a system’s tolerance to disruption.
The term was embraced by psychologists to describe the human ability to recover from adverse circumstances, failures, grievances and illnesses and to start afresh. Resilience stands for psychological robustness – or in other words, psychological elasticity.
Why some people are more resilient than others
Within the framework of long-term studies, foundational research into resilience identified a number of protective factors that can increase a person’s powers of resistance when dealing with crises. These are divided into internal and external protective factors.[5]
The internal protective factors
Internal protective factors exist within each individual. They may be genetically anchored within us, or they may evolve from childhood to old age through our education, learning experiences, and experiences of crises. They include, for example,
character or personality traits,
inner attitudes, opinions and convictions,
talents, gifts and abilities,
experience and competencies.
Character or personality traits
Resilience depends, among other things, on traits that are ascribed to a person’s character or personality. Research has established, for example, that highly resilient children exhibit a certain readiness to help at an early age. They also enjoy solving problems and are in the position to develop a realistic view of the world. In addition, resilient people are credited with a sense of humour and a willingness to communicate.
Example
In his role of manager, Walter Strong had to learn how to deal with his employees’ different ways of thinking and their various coping strategies. One particular colleague, the company’s business controller, felt a very strong sense of responsibility for everything during the restructuring process. He focused his entire attention on everything that was going wrong, for example where problems existed and what disadvantages the new computer system entailed. It was extremely important for this colleague to regularly express his worries and fears. He needed the assurance that his observations were being acknowledged. Walter noticed that the weekly team meetings were not sufficient for this. Only when he met his controller for a brief personal conversation every week was the latter able to voice his concerns – and also his suggestions for improvement – which then enabled him to relax and become more productive again.[6]
Walter also realized that there were a few employees who were not stressed by the changes. They welcomed the new computer system from the outset, recognizing the advantages and new possibilities that it brought. Walter decided to facilitate a positive atmosphere by inviting these employees to meetings where they could report in more detail on their experiences and share their thoughts and ideas with colleagues. This stimulated the learning process and led to an overall improvement in team morale.
Inner attitudes, opinions and convictions
Besides character traits, the attitudes and opinions people form throughout life also play a decisive role in their resilience. Resilient people can, for example, more easily accept that crises, illnesses and debilitating incidents are part of life. They see the glass not as half-empty but as half-full; they fixate less on the mistakes they make, since they are able to recognize what they can do well and what they are successful at. Resilient employees are not thunderstruck when they hear that their company is soon to be taken over by another. They might at first react by being just as surprised at the news as others, but they are then likely to be more interested in the new situation than shocked by it.[7]
Whether we perceive an event to be a crisis or not depends to a great extent on how we evaluate the situation and what our expectations are of life, work and society. People who are convinced that they will keep the same job until they retire will inevitably feel disappointed and under stress when they encounter the new reality of economic activity, with its permanent state of flux.
If we keep up with the times, however, and realize that change is part of the business world today, this attitude will help us to deal more easily and constructively with the transitions to come.
