Tweet

How to build a resilient workforce

Written by: Michael Licenblat

Article Overview: In today's business world, CEO's, managers and staff are under great stress to deliver more in less time. They face conflicting demands, long working hours, and constant change in an unforgiving business environment that keeps getting tougher, busier and faster. Companies are finding it difficult to hold onto valuable team members, and business owners are finding themselves working harder and longer, are spending less time with their family, and are burning out. So, what is the solution?

How to build a resilient workforce

In today's business world, CEO's, managers and staff are under great stress to deliver more in less time. They face conflicting demands, long working hours, and constant change in an unforgiving business environment that keeps getting tougher, busier and faster.

Companies are finding it difficult to hold onto valuable team members because people are quickly becoming over worked, run down, stressed out, and have very little work-life balance.

People are finding themselves working harder and longer, and are spending less time with their family and are burning out or leaving their industry altogether.

So, what is the solution?


1. Get in touch

Your staff can easily fall into a rut, feel overloaded, or unappreciated....and no-one will ever know until they resign.

Many people deal with pressure by bottling it up instead of letting it out. Instead of communicating their challenges, or talking about their difficulties, people often fall into the trap of whinging to each other, complaining or feeling sorry for themselves - which ultimately leads to a tainted morale and 'whingy' culture.

The other consequence of bottling up tension is the negative effect it has on a person's work productivity. Research has found that stewing over problems and keeping issues to themselves can lead to increased blood pressure, low self confidence and stress - all of which reduce a person's ability to sustain a strong working stamina and focus.

Leaders need to be in touch with their team and frequently 'check in' to see how they are managing their pressures. Making the effort to communicate face to face (not by email, please!) with team members in a relaxed, yet confidential fashion, encourages people to talk about their challenges and see management as support to look towards, instead of a taskmasters to impress.

By encouraging team members to openly feedback their challenges, and then openly brainstorm strategy and/or resources to hep them along, management position themselves as a resource, mentor and council. Management are then able to keep their finger on their teams 'productivity pulse' without needing to implement a time consuming staff morale and satisfaction review/audit.

Once people feel that they have been heard and understood - only then will they really listen.

Action Steps:
* Connect: Schedule in time, each week to talk and connect with each key team member.
Have an agenda of issues you will ask and discuss with them. Stick to a tight time frame or
no more than 10 minutes so staff know that they won't be losing hours of time.
* Reflect: Let them do the talking - ask open ended questions that allow them to elaborate
and reflect on their situation
* Direct: Write brief notes to keep a record of the key issues raised. Resist writing copious
notes as this may make the person feel uncomfortable as if they are being 'recorded'. Direct
questions about what support they feel they need to excel. Direct feedback that addresses
the issues they have raised. Only offer suggestion or direction after they have been given the
opportunity to speak.


2. Let Off Steam

As your staff spend hours each day sitting in front of computers, in meetings or on the phone, their bodies are slowly becoming drained. The combination of pressure combined with sedentary work habits creates physical tension in the body which, if not released, results in fatigue, poor concentration and apathy.

Like a formula one racing car, your staff also need regular 'pit stops' to refresh and refocus. Physically breaking up their day with movement is a key ingredient to sustain their working stamina.

Action Steps:
* Encourage breaks. Answering emails and returning calls whilst eating lunch is a recipe that
creates pressure and tension build-up - and can eventually to burn-out. Create a culture that
rewards self-care. Openly encourage staff to get away from their desk for lunch by providing
lunch discounts or coffee vouchers from a local café.
* Punctuate the day with activity. Incorporate morning or lunch time activity programs such
as a 'get up and go' walking session. One CEO would call a 'toothbrush meeting' once a
week at 7.30am, where staff would go for a group morning walk and discuss any pressing
challenges and issues with their team members and management.
* Use micro break reminders. By encouraging staff to get up and move every 60 minutes
helps keep their focus fresh and releases building physical tension. One method is to use a
stretching software package that regularly prompts staff to stand up and stretch, move or just
take a quick break.


3. Wind it down

Work productivity and efficiency should not be confused with the number of physical hours people are 'seen' to be doing. Work places which reward staff that put in the longest hours, who are 'seen' at work early in the morning and late at night, are shooting themselves in the foot. Consistently working long hours leads to physical, mental, and sometimes, professional, burn out.

To keep your staff fresh, enthusiastic and self motivated, they need to be encouraged to 'switch off 'and 'go home'.

Our bodies are designed, by nature, to follow an 'on-off cycle'. We are entrained, by daylight, to switch on and wake up, and forced, by darkness, to 'switch off and slow down'.

However, when you push your body to consistently work hard and stay 'switched on' for long periods of time, your body loses the ability to relax, regenerate and repair. Sleep becomes restless, broken and non-refreshing. When you are always in 'work/on mode', you don't get to that deep level of sleep where you body repairs itself.

Staff who fall into the work habits of always working long hours, being available on their mobile after hours, answering emails at home and waking at 3am because their mind is ticking over will not be able to sustain a high level of productivity.

Action Steps:
* Be open to flexitime, where staff can start early and finish early - or start late and finish
late. Allow staff to have more choice over their working time instead of expecting 'visible
hours' in the office
* Identify those staff who are at risk of burnout and frequently send them home early or
book them to a dinner out at a special restaurant with their partner
* Find out what hobbies, interests or activities that staff have sacrificed in order to put in the
hours at work, and sponsor a regular outing for them on a work afternoon.
* Educate your staff on how to relax and unwind by introducing meditation, stretching, or
Pilates lunchtime classes




Michael Licenblat B.Sc.(Psych) is a Resilience Expert who helps people in business bounce back fast from pressure, stress and burnout in their work and life. He is a professional speaker, coach and author of three books.

Related Articles
  What makes you happy? 10 Characteristics of Resilient People
  Strategic Planning Is About Workforce Management for Future Business Success
  A Tough Economy Can be Good for Your Career
  Ensuring Success for Florist Business
  Resilience, Resilience, Resilience

Article Tags: blood pressure, business environment, business world, ceo, challenges, consequence, fashion, management position, productivity research, self confidence, stamina, stress, team members, tension, valuable team, whinging, work life balance, work productivity



Related Forum Posts
Re: Plan Your Retirement NOW - This is a great post Barbara and I can see you put a lot of thought into it, I have been planning my retirement for the last couple of years now which is yet another reason why I decided to branch out on my own. I was getting absolutely nowhere in the ' ordinary workforce'. Just getting by week after week was not what I wanted from my life so I decided it was time I did something about it. Take care, Carol
Theft in my Store!!! - Hi everyone, I run a departmental store downtown. I have a staff of about 20-25 people, the workforce is not large. But, I have a big store and from a few days I have got the feeling that there are thefts in my shop. I have got the accounts cleared up and the items checked and there is a clear proof of some theft. I am here to get some real good ideas on how could I prevent all of this without having an adverse effect on my shop environment? Please do help me.
Re: How can a social networking site make serious money? - Hi There, It is quite interesting, that some Social Networking do produce an income. I think testimonials are always a benefit to share. See one below: This Social Network has changed my life! Every night is a Friday night and everyday is a Saturday!! Because of it, I have been able to leave the workforce 10 years early.It has given me back my life. Many of us would like to retire early. I am sure there are many more. The point is of focusing with great determination. The ongoing challenge is to stay focussed and not be sidetracked into a newer scheme or so. Also I have read, during this financial turmoil, more people turn to Social Networking for various reasons.
Re: Using Craigslist SEO to Promote Your Website - To build a Link Wheel you need to join several social sites such as squidoo, blogger, wordpress, livejournal, hubpages, etc... around 10 or so should be sufficient. Then, you build one site such as Hubpages and link it back to your main website. Then you build a second site on say Blogger and link it to your Hub that you built, and to your main website. Then you build another site and link it to your last site and to your main website. Just keep repeating this until all sites are linked to each other one-by-one. When you are done each site will be linking to only the site before it and back to your main website. These can work really well. I've only recently gotten started using them but so far I have seen good results. Don't expect just one link wheel to skyrocket your rankings, especially in a competitive niche. However, they are a good thing to include in an overall link building campaign.
Preparing a list - I'm looking to build a list. Can you point me into some directions of where "without paying for a $100.00+ rebook) where to go to learn how to build a list?


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Sales Training – Top Salespeople Are Not Dunces

You Have A Website What Now

Reverse Mentoring

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.