Kathy Greer of KGA, Inc. was a presenter at our recent 2013 Fall Conference, speaking on "10 Ways to Boost Your Resiliency During Stressful Times". She was generous enough to share some additional thoughts on the topic in her guest post below!
On-the-job resiliency doesn't always come easily,
especially to those front-line managers who wear many hats and lead during
times of crisis. If this situation sounds familiar, you aren't alone.
Studies show that HR professionals often feel isolated
and stressed because of the nature of their work.
Common sources of stress include managing difficult
employees, managing with fewer resources, and dealing with constant change. KGA
surveyed 250 HR professionals and the results were resoundingly clear: stress
is common, and resilience matters.
Ironic, isn’t it? The very team responsible for an
organization’s employee assistance program is, at times, the perfect group to
benefit from that very EAP!
Becoming Resilient
One certainty is that the demands on the HR profession
won’t change anytime soon. You will still to be asked to serve multiple clients
and juggle numerous priorities. You will still be responsible for delivering
bad news about layoffs, benefit cost increases, and salary cuts. And when
change management needs to happen, HR will get the call from the C-Suite.
Clearly, the job of managing human resources isn’t a job
for just anyone.
So, we talk about becoming resilient and maintaining
resiliency. Resiliency is the capacity to survive and thrive under stressful
circumstances. It’s the ability to bounce back after a traumatic event. Becoming
resilient is good for HR, it’s good for the organization, and it sets an
example for employees.
One way to build resiliency is to develop a “hardy”
attitude. Salvatore Maddi characterizes hardiness as a combination of three
attitudes (commitment, control, and challenge) that together provide the
courage and motivation needed to turn stressful circumstances from potential
calamities into opportunities for personal growth.
Another aspect of resiliency is positive psychology. Inspired by names such as Carl Rogers,
Abraham Maslow, and Martin Seligman, positive psychology focuses on happiness
and pleasure, rather than just symptoms such as anxiety. Seeing the glass half full instead of half
empty is a goal of positive psychology.
We like the concepts of psychological hardiness, positive
psychology and CBT in talking about resilience.
Ways to Build
Resiliency
How do you build resiliency? First you should think about whether any
excess baggage is weighing you down. If
so, some therapy can be useful.
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can help you build resiliency by
helping you change specific thinking patterns.
In the meantime, there are smaller
things that anyone can do to work on building resiliency. The following are a handful of techniques
that KGA finds useful in developing programs for clients. Try one or more to
see if you, too, can boost your resiliency.
Glass half full:
Imagine your best possible future over the next five years, and dwell on it.
Practice gratitude:
Visit someone or write a letter to them about how they impacted your life.
Practice
forgiveness: Write a forgiveness letter and watch your anger and anxiety
subside.
Be mindful: Find
pleasure in the moment by paying attention. Sit in a garden, take a hot bath.
Take a risk: Move
out of comfort zone to increase confidence and reduce anxiety.
Surround yourself
with positive people.
Practice random
acts of kindness: This is found to improve the mood of the giver and
receiver. Try to practice 3/day.
Change your mood
with walking, talking, music or writing. Share the experience with someone for
more connection.
Write about pleasure,
not trauma, such as the happiest moments in your life.
Savor: Dwell
on a positive event or experience.
Count Your
Blessings: Think about three things for which you are grateful in your
life. Dwell.
Sing and listen to
music: Joyful music increases left frontal lobe EEG.
Humor: Reduce your
adrenaline and increase your immune response through humor.
