Building team resilience makes a lot of sense. In supporting more effective management of work pressures and a greater ability to adapt to change it combines the benefit of better employee wellbeing, with better organisational performance. Given a context of reported burnout rates exceeding their covid peak levels there is a compelling case for some attention on resilience for all occupations.
A team’s resilience is, of course, influenced by the qualities and capabilities of individuals, but research suggests it is more dependent on team social and process factors1. This vindicates acting to build resilience at a team level too and measures / scales are now emerging to support assessment and improvement. One example, is below.
As the framework2 above reflects there is a substantial overlap with the actions and intent that enlightened team or organisational leaders will already be taking to drive collective success. Those I support are energetically investing in shared purpose, aligned goals, the optimising of resources, and a culture of continuous learning / improvement. That said, in applying the specific lens of team resilience I expect there will gaps and opportunities to do better.
Here are four questions for team leaders to prompt reflection:
1. Does my team practise under pressure? If you were football coach you wouldn’t skip pre-season competition. In the business world simulations or team challenges may be more difficult to arrange but there will be situations / decision-points that warrant it. Collective ‘play under pressure’ experiences away from the real event can build trust in cooperation, support safe discussion on areas to improve and enable recognition of individual strengths3. They can also contribute to shared mental models for tackling problems and a better appreciation of the capabilities needed beyond the team. Translating learning into rich case study that allows a team to review and develop their approach / decisions / actions is relatively easy. As is, inviting a team to support another team’s problem-solving challenge.
2. Are we talking about strengths and successes enough? Giving individuals the opportunity to recognise their strengths and to consider how they can be applied to goals builds autonomy and agency. Research indicates performance reviews that include strengths-based feedback lead to higher engagement and subsequently higher productivity4. Such insight emphasises the importance of collectively exploring team successes and considering how revealed strengths / resources can be used for future challenges. Success stories have the potential to build a team’s “psychological capital” (boosting hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism.)
My experience as a coach certainly suggests reflection on strengths and resources builds a sense of agency for achievement and inspiration on how to best address an opportunity or area for improvement.
3. Can my team easily access coaching when needed? Resilience is tested, discovered and developed in the context of change and challenge. Greater individual resilience will help a team’s collective resilience and there is evidence that just 2 or 3 coaching sessions can help significantly5. Supported self-reflection can lead coachees to seek social support, establish self-care habits and reframe set-backs. Helping individuals to sustain a positive perspective and wellbeing in turn supports the collective ‘realistic optimism’ needed in the face of challenge. The case for on-demand coaching availability is strong.
4. Is the team’s connection time sufficient? With team resilience depending heavily on social and process factors it makes sense to promote connection across the team and beyond. Physical interaction / proximity is the ideal so face to face workshops or regular office days in which the whole team meet are good investments6. Recognising virtual meetings are probably the norm, establishing learning projects that require collaboration and allowing time for catching up during online meetings can also help.
Daniel Coyle, author of the Culture Code, emphasises set-backs or failures have the potential to be the biggest moments for building team cohesion. A leader’s constructive response to bad news will support the open honesty a team needs to resolve issues. Reflecting together as a team will also prevent disappointed individuals withdrawing.
Of course, a resilient team will seek the learning and opportunity to bounce back stronger…
My article as ever is the distillation of research and findings from experts. These include:
- Boniwell I, Osin E, Kalisch L, Chabanne J, Abou Zaki L. (2023). SPARK Resilience in the workplace: Effectiveness of a brief online resilience intervention during the COVID-19 lockdown.
- Kathryn McEwen. (2022). Building Resilience at Work: A Practical Framework for Leaders
- Paul B.C. Morgan, David Fletcher, Mustafa Sarkar (2018). Developing team resilience: A season-long study of psychosocial enablers and strategies in a high-level sports team
- Stewart I. Donaldson (editor), Christopher Chen (editor) (2021). Positive Organizational Psychology Interventions: Design and Evaluation (Paperback)
- Mandi Sherlock-Storey, Mark Moss & Sue Timson (2013). Brief coaching for resilience during organisational change – an exploratory study.
- Daniel Coyle (2019) Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups
- Angelique Hartwig, Sharon Clarke, Sheena Johnson, Sara Willis (2020) Workplace team resilience: A systematic review and conceptual development. Organizational Psychology Review
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