Robertson Cooper’s research has shown that the amount of support provided by managers is related to how resilient people perceive their organisations to be. Of all working respondents, just over half (55%) felt that their manager provided either ‘a lot of support’ or ‘a fair amount of support’.

Of those respondents who felt their organisation was ‘very naturally resilient’, nearly three-quarters (72%) felt their manager provided this level of support.  Essentially, what this demonstrates is the significant correlation  between perceptions of support and perceptions of how resilient an organisation is.

At a time when many organisations are facing major change – budget cuts, restructures and downsizing – the pressure is really going to be on for managers to continue to provide the support required for their teams. Building and maintaining resilience, as individuals and as organisations, will be vital to ensure we are able to deal with the difficulties that will need to be faced. While senior teams can, and should, be a model for the rest of the organisation; however it is the way individual managers transmit this to their teams that could prove the difference between the success or failure of delivering significant change. The support a manager provides for their team is likely to be reflected in their individual and collective responses to maintaining performance and bouncing-back from any problems they encounter. If handled badly, damage to the organisation and the employer brand can be long lasting.

While change at any time can be hard for leaders faced with teams of people with different values, experience and personalities; it’s even more challenging when cutbacks mean that some people will be leaving while others will remain. And having established the importance of managerial support above, no one could be blamed for finding navigating a team through difficult times a daunting task. What it is important to keep sight of is that there are actions that can be taken to invoke the best possible outcome for all those affected.

Obviously the specifics will be different for each group affected – both those leaving and staying, and also for the managers themselves. The latter in particular will require broader training in order to manage their own responses as well as supporting others. However, there are some approaches that will be effective across a range of different situations, for example assessing conditions using the ASSET framework. This can help managers approach their responsibilities with confidence and ensure they’re doing the best they can for their teams.

The framework identifies six key factors, including work relationships, resources and communication, work life balance and control, which have been identified as being the major enablers and barriers to morale and resilience, and therefore performance outcomes. Taking resources and communication as an example, one of the best things a manager can do in this situation is be honest, open and frequent in their communication of what is happening. Uncertainty can be a huge source of pressure and a drain on motivation and sense of purpose, but effective communication can help alleviate these risks.

Another way to equip all staff to handle change is resilience training. A common misconception is that people either have a natural resilience or they do not. However, this is not the case because resilience at any given time depends on a number of things, including personality factors (such as confidence and adaptability) as well as the situation (including familiarity, past-experience and other influences at the time). Also, a person’s resilience levels are not fixed; they can be developed with various different approaches and tools. When you understand which aspects of your personality you draw on to maintain performance and recover from setbacks, then you can start the process of building and maintaining your personal resilience. When aggregated, this leads to a flexible and resilient workforce and an organisation with a ‘stockpile’ of resilience to draw on when necessary.

Formal resilience training can be very effective but development can also take place as part of the day to day working environment, helping employees to use challenging experiences to make them stronger. This does need to be tempered with the following considerations though: goals need to be achievable, impossible tasks will undermine resilience and trust; periods of respite need to be taken, no one can continue relentlessly; their needs to be a clear sense of purpose, goals must seem worthwhile.

For more details please download Robertson Cooper’s new free download ‘Building morale and resilience – the key to surviving difficult times’.

 For more information see: http://resilience.robertsoncooper.com/

• Nick Hayter & Matt Smeed are  consultants at Robertson Cooper
  
  All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc.  Total sample size was 2017 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 23rd – 25th March 2010.  The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+).