Let’s stop using weaponising resilience in the workplace

By Lucia Mabasa

Resilience is perhaps one of the most over-used words in the corporate lexicon. We have always understood the importance of being resilient, you cannot be a South African at any level or from any quarter unless you are resilient – and have a sense of humour.

But these days resilience has become a vital attribute for any person anywhere on the globe, beset as it is by pandemics, a climate in crisis and countries at war.

The problem is that resilience is increasingly entering corporate-speak, beloved of business leaders in boardrooms from Aberdeen to Zeerust. “Resilience” though in the corporate world is very rarely what it means in the outside world. In fact, in the corporate world, the higher up the ladder you climb, resilience can have quite sinister overtones. People who aren’t resilient are seen as problematic, or – if there is fault to be apportioned – to be blamed because they aren’t ‘resilient’.

Being resilient means being able to bounce back from misfortune and having the capacity to withstand disappointment, but in a corporate environment it often becomes a catch-all phrase that shifts the focus to individuals allowing cynical managers and business leaders to sidestep the root cause of the problem. Sometimes people aren’t resilient, but more often than not it’s a case of people who actually were resilient simply burning out because of the sheer weight of the institutional dysfunction within a company, trying to cope under an impossible burden of insufficient resources, staffing and skills.

There’s only so many times you can stretch an elastic band before it snaps under the continuous tension, but that hasn’t stopped the weaponising of the concept of resilience to shift the blame.

So how do you become more resilient? Some companies have instituted mental health awareness campaigns, others have no meeting Wednesdays, the opportunities to work from home at times, in-house gyms… The list is long, but if the actual cause isn’t addressed, these are just Band Aid plasters on a tumour that will eventually metastasize with catastrophic consequences.

The key to resilience can be summed up in three key points: purpose, knowledge and awareness. We need to believe in the importance of what we are doing. That’s what gets us up in the morning. Purpose is what allows us to work late into the night and over weekends to see projects through, even if it means missing birthdays and anniversaries.

For purpose to be sustainable, we need to understand our roles within the company, what is expected of us and what we know we can deliver. To use a more contemporary phrase, we need to know our lane, because then we can know when to stay in it, or when to step out of it and why.

Making the most of our purpose, means ensuring that our own skills are at the best level they can be and that we are committed to improving these continually, whether through self-study or attending conferences to be briefed on global trends. One of the greatest sources of learning in the business is the people around us. Many of our older colleagues are the custodians of institutional knowledge about the company and our mentors invariably have made the same mistakes that we are about to make and who have been beset by the same crises we are facing. Befriend these people and let them become your corporate GPS, rather than having to blaze your own trail when there are perfectly good trails that exist that you might not have known how to get onto.

When we know more about the company and about ourselves, our confidence grows – and with that our agency. We can bring about change, rather than being the recipients – and invariably victims – of change. Most of all though, being on top of our personal skills, knowing the systems (the rules and regulations) within the company and having the situational awareness of the players involved and the context of things, allows us the best possible arsenal to manage conflict in a sustainable and equitable way.

It also allows us to set boundaries too, whether it’s taking the night off to spend time with your partner or getting a weekend away without the ping of a WhatsApp or the warble of an impending video call.

It is vital that we all develop resilience, but it’s not a one-way street and certainly not an excuse to open yourself up to corporate abuse. Resilience is not an infinite quality, on the contrary it can be used up very quickly if we aren’t careful which can lead to burn out, which in turn can lead to some people going beyond the point where they can ever return – and that’s unforgivable.

To create a culture of resilience we must all be agile, flexible and adaptable, not just some of us. When we get that message inculcated, we can start working together to create resilient businesses which not only survive this incredibly challenging and disruptive environment but thrive too.

So, the next time someone claims another person isn’t being flexible, don’t take it at face value, look a bit closer and find out if the issue isn’t the individual but the institution – and act accordingly.

* Lucia Mabasa is Chief Executive Officer of pinpoint one human resources, a proudly South African black women owned executive search firm. pinpoint one human resources provides executive search solutions in the demand for C suite, specialist and critical skills across industries and functional disciplines, in South Africa and across Africa. Visit www.pinpointone.co.za to find out more or read her previous columns on leadership; avoiding the pitfalls of the boardroom and becoming the best C-suite executive you can be.