How Resilient is your Business?

Last week I went to the CIPD conference in Manchester. It's an annual event where HR and training people meet to catch up with the latest trends and best practice.

I attended the seminar led by A&DC about resilience: what it is, why it's important, and how to recognise it. Personal resilience is important in today's ever-changing workplace but I also thought that the eight components they identified were relevant to businesses too. These components are:

1.    Self belief - how much the person or the business believes in what it is doing and the value it is adding.

2.    Optimism - the extent you expect things to work out well, and don't transfer setbacks in one area to all areas of your business.

3.    Purposeful direction - having clearly defined goals and more importantly knowing how you're going to achieve them. Resilient businesses will keep their goal in mind and everything they do will take them towards it.

4.    Adaptability - the ability and willingness to change behaviour in relation to the circumstances… The ability to move with the times if you like.

5.    Ingenuity - the extent to which your business is creative, embraces new opportunities, and solves problems that it encounters.

6.    Challenge orientation - successful businesses never rest on their laurels. They strive to continuously improve and raise the bar of whatever business they are in.

7.    Emotion regulation - the need to take a balanced approach to business. Recognising that being in business is a marathon and not a sprint, not overreacting to specific incidents or being tempted to ‘put all your eggs in one basket’.

8.    Support seeking - behind every successful business there is a whole network of people. You cannot hope to be successful without other people. Whether that is friends and family providing emotional support and encouragement, whether it is employees who share the workload, or whether it is simply a network of other business owners with whom you can discuss ideas.

Note: The definitions I have provided are not the 'true' definitions as defined by A&DC - I have taken the main idea and adapted it.

So my challenge to business owners, team leaders and individuals is to quickly assess how well you are performing against each of these eight components. What gaps do you have? How can you fill them? What will you do today but will ensure the success of your business tomorrow?

Louise Gelsthorpe

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