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Resilient teams create effective visions of where they want to be. They have the ability to achieve their goals even in the face of adversity. They set clear goals associated with specific actions. Let's look at some of the characteristics of these teams.
Characteristics of Resilient Teams
Assess Their Own Work
Resilient teams encourage members to assess their own work using constructive feedback rather than by applying standard auditing techniques. Constructive feedback enables employees to honestly consider the quality of their work, think about what has been learned, and understand how they performed in relation to their own expectations. As this insight develops, employees can begin to evaluate their own work. Supervisors can guide and encourage discussion. Questions to ask might include, "What was easy or challenging? "What might be done differently next time? What can be learned from this situation that can be applied across the organization?" It is this sense of ownership that is the cornerstone of resilience and that resilient employees must practice.
Develop Their Own Standards
Resilient teams encourage members to develop their own standards. This ownership helps to avoid statements such as, "I didn't know that was the quality you wanted." It also means that teams won't be frustrated with mixed messages from management, and their efforts will be evaluated in a fully transparent way.
Stimulate A Culture Of Humor
Humor is a daily part of life in a working environment. In times of great change, there might be a tendency to stop opportunities for humor with the view that it distracts from the seriousness of the change at hand. However, being able to laugh within a team about mistakes, errors, and even change cuts tension and can lessen concern. It may not lessen the fear that some employees may have, but restricting humor takes away a natural release mechanism or coping strategy for some.
Set Their Own Rules
Having open discussions on rules invites employees to determine consequences and reflect on concepts like the reasons for rules and the instances when they should apply. Creating their own rules enables employees to develop responsibility and ownership for their own behavior, for one another, and for the team.
Opportunity To Make Choices
Facilitating choices encourages creativity within a team. It also reinforces ownership and the consequences of decisions.
Opportunities For Self Discovery
Being resilient requires an ability to look inside ourselves and acknowledge our feelings and thoughts. It also involves the capability to distance ourselves from these emotions and respond to the situation rather than the emotion.
Until next time...
Sheryl Tuchman, SPHR, SHRM-SCP
http://tools2succeed.com/
Change can be particularly difficult for us as adults. Here are some things that we can learn from children that can help us get through some difficult times.
Persistence: Have you ever seen a child at a task that seems impossible? If you have, you've probably also seen her achieve the task due to pure persistence. Now, how often have you seen us as adults give up before we even have begun?
Compassion For Others: Knowing others enables us to know ourselves. As children, we learn compassion for others, and this helps us to play collaboratively. We learn to understand how we would feel and react in certain situations from learning from others. The resilient child intuitively knows that compassion helps us form bonds that will propel us forward even in times of great change.
Sense Of Humor: Children have fun. They fall down, laugh and get back up again. We adults, on the other hand, complain about how life is so hard. We often don't get back up . It is as if it is easier to complain about the hard knocks of life than to enjoy what we do. Humor often puts the magnitude of change in perspective. This laughter helps us all to rise above and bounce back with a new energy.
Strong Ethics: Children learn right from wrong and apply this to different settings. This conviction can be very marked and allows children to bounce back from many situations. The baggage we carry distracts us from our goals and make us less resilient in our outlook.
Get Attention In Positive Ways: We all like praise. Children especially like reinforcement, and they often seek out positive and negative ways to get this attention. The positive actions usually create the change they desire.
Positive Outlook On Life: A positive outlook on life is a hallmark of resilient individuals. It is not what happens to us but our response to it that predicts our emotional health. Children learn to be more resilient by becoming more optimistic in response to difficulty. Children as a rule start life with an optimistic perspective. Resilient children and adults keep this outlook in later life, and it enables them to take on life's challenges directly.
Effort Can Change Things: Children know that they can effect change in their environment no matter what size they are. If you need evidence, just think of a crying child who stops crying when he gets what he wants! As adults, many of us act as if we have no control. However, as the Dalai Lama said, "if you think you are too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito in the room." You'll soon realize that size doesn’t matter.
Plan Ahead: Children can be ingenious in breaking situations down into manageable pieces and then planning and coordinating action.
Until next time...
Sheryl Tuchman, SPHR, SHRM-SCP
http://tools2succeed.com/
