“Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.” - Nelson Mandela

While people may love the work they do, so many are suffering as they don’t know how to deal with the associated stress of a demanding job and environment.

It’s time to focus on building the resilience of our leaders and team members. Resilience is defined as an individual’s ability to adapt to stress and adversity. Your level of resilience is defined as your capacity to bounce back from a negative experience to your normal state of functioning. Resilience is not an ability or trait you either have or do not have, everyone is resilient and can improve their level of resilience. It is typically enhanced by engaging in activities or techniques that help facilitate good physical and mental health. Highly resilient people are able to effectively balance negative and positive emotions and make effective responses to them.

Traditionally, organisations have placed more emphasis on physical than mental health in the workplace. As our work environments transform, employees and leaders now face the most demanding environments and positions, which is resulting in a significant increase in mental health and work-related stress issues. According to Mental Health Ireland, more than 30% of Irish employees will struggle with a mental health issue each year and work-related stress is costing Britain 10.4 million work days a year. According to an article in U.S. Health and Safety Magazine, mental health concerns are both common and long-lasting. About 18% of the U.S. adult population (44.7 million) has a mental illness in any given year.

“This is not limited to blue-collar jobs or white-collar jobs, depression and anxiety cross every industry and occupation, every socioeconomic status, every race and ethnicity.”

Researchers from Stanford University and the Harvard Business School, found that less severe mental health concerns such as stress can trigger much larger problems.

Genos International, a leading provider of emotional intelligence assessments reacted to this by creating The Resilient Leader Program. The Resilient Leader equips leaders with the tools and techniques to help build higher levels of resilience and well-being in the workplace for themselves and those around them.

The powerful 1-day program helps raise leaders’ awareness of this new key corporate responsibility and gives them the tools and techniques to facilitate well-being in their teams. Participants explore and practise applying a 3-step model for positively influencing the way others feel around a distressing event and helping them find the best possible response to make to it.

Steps to becoming a more resilient leader:

1. Look at ‘how you are seen to show up at work’ – a review of your emotional intelligence leadership behaviours.

Every attendee completes a Genos Leadership Assessment. They complete a self-assessment of their EI behaviors, then they select individuals they’d like to receive feedback from. Instead of receiving a numerical or unactionable response like “You’re EI/EQ level is 52,” the Genos assessment is unique in that it measures how you are seen to show up at work and how important your raters deem these particular behaviors to be for your position. They gather input on six emotionally intelligent behaviors:

• Self-Awareness

• Awareness of Others

• Authenticity

• Emotional Reasoning

• Self-Management

• Inspiring Performance

Each attendee receives a customized workbook for the program that includes their assessment results, along with a development tips workbook to help them develop key EI behaviors.

2. Take part in a powerful 1-day program facilitated by Bernice Lee, a Genos Certified Practitioner.

The course dives into the neuroscience of emotions along with the effects of positive and negative emotions on us. Studying emotional intelligence and emotional intelligence in leadership helps participants understand and interpret their own EI Assessment results and how to hone in to key areas for development. The program then goes through techniques and strategies to develop higher levels of personal resilience.

3. Develop an action plan to boost resilience in multiple areas of your life

Attendees work through strategies for this in four areas: physiological, relationship, thinking, and environment. Then they dive into powerful models for developing resilience in each of these areas.

Developing the levels of resilience for leaders can be truly life changing or themselves and everyone around them. With the Genos facilitator or coach, each person documents insights and builds an action plan to take back to their lives and workplace so they can start having a more positive impact straight away. It’s a comprehensive and enjoyable program to experience. Let me know if you’d like to learn more.

If you’d like to host a Genos Resilient Leader Program in your organisation, please contact me at info@eli-asia.com.

Game Changing for Business, Life Changing for People.