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Maintaining personal resilience - Coggle Diagram
Maintaining personal resilience
The company secretary as corporate athlete
The company secretary can only continue to deliver sustained performance if they are first able to look after and pace themselves - they must put their life jacket on first before they are able to help others
If a company secretary is able to maintain their own resilience but also understand the components of resilience more general they are then also able to support others in building their own resilience
Resilience can be a critical survival skill in the boardroom. The ability to hang on in there and see things through can be a board saving skill as resilient directors persevere and do not admit defeat even at times when problems are not being properly addressed. The status quo is being too easily accepted. Resilient directors face up to the harsh realties of the boardroom and seek to change them and this requires an ability to play the long game, not to admit defeat and to live on the edge of the social dynamic of the existing culture of the board however dysfunctional that may be
The stress response
Demands
There are a variety of demands that people may be facing within organisations and boardrooms today
These may be linked to work overload, work conflicts, relationship issues or other work environment stressors such as poor shift patterns, lighting or physical challenges
Stress theory also takes account of whether a person is currently undergoing major life events or is currently going through or has in the past been the subject of, personal trauma or abuse
Appraisal
Stress theories suggest that the combination of demands that are currently being placed on an individual as either opportunities or threats
There is a concept called eustress, which is defined as stress that has a positive impact on an individual
Response
Once our brain has appraised something as a threat, our sympathetic nervous system goes into action resulting in a number of initial physiological responses
Being in this constant state of high alert eventually leads to a number of negative cognitive, physical, emotional and behavioural symptoms
At the cognitive level, we might experience our stress in terms of memory problems, poor judgement, indecision, attention deficit, inefficiency, brain fog and self-doubt
In terms of physical symptoms, we might experience our stress of chest pain, high blood pressure, immunosuppression, bodily aches and pains
In terms of emotional symptoms, we may experience stress in terms of increased likelihood of depression, irritability, fatalistic thinking, cyncicsim, frustration, panic or anxiety
We may notice stress symptoms as behavioural which may include behaviours such as increased isolation, demotivation, insomnia, hypersonic, increased alcohol/stimulant intake
The resilient individual
Resilience:
the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or significance sources of stress - such as family and relationship problems, serious health problems or workplace and financial stressors. It means bouncing back from difficult experiences
The resilience dynamic has three stages: 'break down', the 'break even' (which encompasses the idea of managing to bounce back which she contends much of the UK workforce plateaus at) and then the more aspirational 'break through' phase: the final phase captures the idea that there is a level of resilience that can propel one to becoming even more resourceful, adaptable and energised than one might have been before facing the sources of stress
The resilient board member
Michael Willis
contrasts resilience with what they call 'compression' as a consequence of stress which at board level has a number of causal factors that include the following
Life as a director can be lonely and largely unsupervised whereby each director has to find his or her own way of being and behaving
Managing and being part of a team that often has difficult personalities that can be a destructive force in the life of the board
Being part of a board that has unrealistic expectations of itself, its members and its chair which can lead to disillusionment at best or personal and organisational breakdown at work
Poor board processes or processes that are offered in ways that are unacceptable, inappropriate or even not available at all, such as induction, evaluation, performance management, mentoring et such that the learning board is not yet a reaity
A failure to review the work of the board especially if this does not compare well with the increasing role of accountability found within the rest of the organisation
Resilience in theory
Based on the stress model which was made up of three aspects - the demands that are all around us, the appraisals that we make of those demands and the symptoms that arise from those appraisals - we can see that all resilience techniques must affect one or more of these three areas. We can intervene by reducing he demands which is known as problem focused coping, we can find ways to change our perception of the demands that still exist which is known as appraisal focused coping or we can develop coping strategies to deal with the symptoms of stress, broadly known as emotion-focused coping
Resilience Prescription
10 Characteristics that resilient people have in common
Looking after your physical condition
Developing and training regularly in multiple areas
A positive attitude and optimism
Developing coping strategies and making use of them
Developing cognitive flexibility and learning to reframe
Facing your fears
Having actively found resilient role models
Recongising and developing signature strengths
A strong personal moral compass and sense of purpose
Establishing and nurturing a supportive social network
I-resllience model
Confidence: 'having feelings of competence, effectiveness in coping with stressful situations and strong self esteem'
Social support: 'building good relationships with others and seeking support' rather than trying to cope on their own
Adaptability: 'flexibility in adapting to change situations which are beyond our control top cope well with change and recover from its impact quicker'
Purposefulness: Having a clear sense of purpose, clear values, drive and direction to help individuals to persist and achieve in the face of setbacks
Resilience in practice
Physical
The physical approaches to resilience can either operate as a method of building resilience to prevent stress in first place or indeed as an antidote to stress when it arises - eat, move and sleep
Cognitive
Reframe
We know the taking a more positive view on life, being hopeful and optimistic, is associated with a great number of improved psychological outcomes. Pessimism is a maladaptive behaviour in most situations
Inoculate
Mindfulnes is the psychological process of bringing one's attention to experiences occurring in the present moment. It can be practiced through mediatation
Build belief
Self-belief can be separated into the two distinct but related concepts of self-esteem and self-confidence. Self-esteem is defined as how we value ourselves as a human being, is developed over time and is less likely to change based on current demands. Self-confidence is the trust that we have in ourselves to deliver in specific circumstances
There are 4 main methods of developing both self-esteem and self-confidence
Acknowledge one's performance accomplishments
To build self-esteem, ask questions such as 'What have I achieved?, What am I most proud of? and 'What attributes do I have that enabled me to achieve these?
To build self-confidence, rather than noticing what is missing and not achieved on the to-do-list at the end of the day or in a meeting ask 'whats better today and what have I achieved?'
Use others' success vicariously
Find a resilient role model and recognise that they may have been in the position that you currently find yourself in
Verbal persuasion
Use positive affirmations to act as if you are resilient or have already achieved the outcome
Emotional arousal
When feeling a lack of confidence, change your emotional state by using techniques such as physically moving or listening to energetic music
Active coping
The final toolkit of cognitive resilience are those active coping methodologies that are practical methods to reduce the cognitive anxiety and the feeling of being overwhelmed that are often symptoms of negative reframing for example
Morning routines: starting the day proactively and with a positive intent can make a huge difference to the rest of one's day
Time management: stopping to write down everything that is in one's head is a useful and researched way to reduce mental rumination
Assigning uninterrupted deep work time: once one's important tasks are recognised then timetabling and protecting time to work on these tasks has been shown to be incredibly mentally liberatng
Humanistic
Signature strengths
The concept is based on the acknowledgment that we each have different abilities which if fully raised through our actions will enable us to become both resilient and able to perform at sustainability high levels
Moral compass
Steare
developed an assessment of corporate ethics called the MoralDNA. This assessment helps an individual become more aware of one's moral character in relation to ones ethics of obedience, ethic of care and ethic of reason both in work and in life in general
Meaning
Developing clarity around one's own individual meaning and purpose also has significant benefits for a variety of positive physical and mental outcomes, including resilience
Social
In a board or work context this may mean giving or receiving coaching and mentoring support
How can a board create an environment that fosters resilience?
Robertson and Cooper (2017)
Resources and communication
Ensure that there is reduced pressure by providing appropriate resources and information
Control and autonomy
Ensure that there are as few limitations on how the director job is done as possible to to enable freedom to make appropriate decisions. This can be ensured by fully clarifying roles, expectations and boundaries through the induction process, by creating opportunities for input before meetings around agendas and after meetings to review meeting processes
Balanced workload
Ensure that there are peaks and troughs in workload, that deadlines and unsociable hours are managed and that work-life balance challenges are worked through
Job security and change
Manage the pressure from change and uncertainty about the future of the board through regular updates on governance changes
Work relationships
Appreciate that it is the company secretary's role to facilitate, and if necessary mediate the potentially high-pressure relationships between board directors with employees and other key stakeholders
Job conditions