After the sudden death of her husband, Sheryl Sandberg Facebook’s chief operating officer, felt certain that she and her children would never feel pure joy again. “I was in ‘the void,’” she writes, “a vast emptiness that fills your heart and lungs and restricts your ability to think or even breathe.”
Her friend Adam Grant, a psychologist, told her there are concrete steps people can take to recover and rebound from life-shattering experiences. We are not born with a fixed amount of resilience. It is a muscle that everyone can build.
Resilience in a workplace context, is “the capacity to manage the everyday stress of work while staying healthy, adaptable and learn from setbacks and prepare for future challenges proactively.” In other words, it is not just about coping, but also personal growth and workplace fit.
The book, ‘Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy’ combines Sheryl’s personal insights with Adam’s eye-opening research on finding strength in the face of adversity.
Beginning with the gut-wrenching moment when she finds her husband, Dave Goldberg, collapsed on a gym floor, Sheryl opens up her heart - and her journal - to describe the acute grief and isolation she felt in the wake of his death. But Option B goes beyond Sheryl’s loss to explore how a broad range of people have overcome hardships including illness, job loss, sexual assault, natural disasters, and the violence of war. Their stories reveal the capacity of the human spirit to persevere . . . and to rediscover joy.
Resilience comes from deep within us and from support outside us. Even after the most devastating events, it is possible to grow by finding deeper meaning and gaining greater appreciation in our lives.
The business environment that we are all increasingly operating in is; Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA). As a result, we now need a different skill set to thrive in today’s workplace.
And it does prompt a couple of important questions about the responsibility of business owners and/or senior managers in organisations - how well equipped are the organisations to deal with this rapidly changing environment and how can they best support their people to not only handle it but also excel?
In today’s dynamic and demanding business environments, resilience has emerged as a skill that often determines whether a leader is successful or not; whether they are able to rise to new challenges or not.
Resilient people are more optimistic, adaptable and independent. They are also better at solving problems and have sound levels of self-control. Resilient teams have similar characteristics, and find it easier to rebound from setbacks and adapt to change and pressure.
The Resilience at Work (R@W) Scale
Designed in 2011 by organisational psychologist Kathryn McEwen, together with researcher Dr Peter Winwood, the R@W Scale is a scientifically researched measure of individual workplace resilience.
It measures the seven components that interrelate and contribute to overall resilience.
Resilience at Work Scale Benefits
Focuses specifically on work rather than general resilience
Relates to everyday behaviours that can be changed, rather than personality factors
Feedback is easily translated into practical actions to boost resilience
Emphasis is on building strengths as well as managing current challenges and stress
Provides a simple yet powerful model to build a common language and understanding
Allows benchmarking on the seven aspects of personal work resilience
Quick and easy, taking only 5-10 minutes to complete on‐line.
The scale is an excellent development tool and has been used successfully for a very wide range of jobs and professions at all organisational levels – from front-line to executive. PINNACLE Business Solutions is accredited to use the R@W scale.
For further information contact our office, 0142 667 864 or 02 6687 7765.
Reference: Sheryl Sandberg: ‘Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy’
