Resilience in the workplace

The Women in Engineering Forum met for one last time in 2015 to discuss resilience in the workplace.

Based on results of recent research showing resilience to be one of the top three factors that have helped many UK leaders get to the top, this master class shared tips from top UK leaders on building resilience for career success.

In a dynamic session hosted by guest speaker Dr Gillian Shapiro of Shapiro Consulting Ltd, the group explored the question is it 'Tough at the Top?' and discussed new rules of resilience for leadership success, focusing on three aims:

• to identify the triggers that undermine your resilience
• to understand what drives your resilience
• to develop practical techniques for increasing your resilience to help you achieve your career aspirations.

The group debated what resilience meant to them and what it meant to others. The key themes to emerge concerned recovering well from setbacks, adapting to change and being tenacious. Gillian then asked the group to consider how important resilience was to their career, with the majority agreeing that resilience is an 'essential' tool for success.

The group explored where our resilience comes from, what drains us and how the relationships in our lives provide support. Recent research was discussed, showing that when asked what drains their resilience 80% of respondents said, ‘difficult work relationship/politics in the workplace’. This was furthered by 28% of women and 23% of men respondents saying that relationships outside work help to build resilience, which the group felt was reflective of their own feelings.

Each attendee was asked to think of two situations of tough times in the past where they did and also where they did not feel resilient. In pairs the two situations were discussed and their responses compared. The results made interesting discussion as forum members critically evaluated their behaviours in each situation and how they could act in the future.

Gillian then split the group into four to discuss how to develop our resilience, each covering a different area; attitudes, habits, responses and how our employer can help. Lively discussions took place among the different tables each coming up with suggestions of how employees can build their resilience.

Gillian shared her research findings comparing old beliefs with new rules, such as ‘Career resilience is about more than bouncing back’ rather than ‘Resilience is about bouncing back from crisis’ and ‘Resilience is about relationships’ rather than ‘You either have it or you don’t’.

The session concluded with future changes to enable women’s leadership success, with the group looking forward to new challenges in 2016.