Resilience Leadership

Discover how to move from yellow to green on the resilience scale by weaving five factors—self-care, problem solving, meaning, social support, and a positive outlook—into daily work.

Model resilience at work by visibly practicing the five resilience factors—self-care, problem solving, meaning and purpose, social support, and a positive outlook—and walk the talk to inspire your team.

Develop self-care as a resilience factor by resting the brain through meditation and single-task activities like puzzles, photography, and cooking, plus healthy eating and sleep.

Explore activities that rest your brain and cultivate calm energy, use the resting your brain worksheet for reflection questions, and plan concrete actions to model resilience at work.

Adopt six problem solving skills to become more resilient: accept what you cannot control, seek help, say no when needed, quit when necessary, drop burdens, and apply root cause analysis.

Learn to protect your time and well-being by setting clear boundaries and saying no diplomatically. Explore why you say yes, practical strategies, and offering alternatives to manage requests.

Set clear boundaries around workload, say no to taking on more than three major projects from your boss, and propose alternatives such as reassigning work or mentoring a teammate.

Practice setting clear workplace boundaries using boundary worksheets, including saying no, weigh the positives and negatives of crossing or maintaining, and rehearse with a colleague to strengthen resilience leadership.

Develop a positive outlook to strengthen resilience by reframing negative thoughts, embracing laughter, and practicing gratitude in the workplace, with strategies to model reframing and foster group cohesion.

Write a specific gratitude note each workday for a month, detailing what the person did and the impact on you. Keep it authentic and avoid cynical or instrumental praise.

Emphasize meaning and purpose as the core of resilience, linking it to stronger health and well-being. Find meaning through family, faith, passions, altruism, and meaningful work, modeling it at work.

Strengthen resilience by cultivating social support through strong friendships, workplace peer networks, and community connections, with practical steps to reconnect, mentor, and model supportive culture.

Identify your identities and what matters, and reflect on how you honor them at work. Write your obituary to align your life with the person you want to be remembered.

Create a resilience action plan by identifying activities across the five resilience factors, complete the self-assessment, select changes to model at work, and reflect on barriers with a three-month revisit.

Mentor employees by modeling the five resilience factors, addressing low resilience with empathy and open dialogue, and guiding problem solving rather than gossip or traditional performance management.

Develop trust with your staff from day one and conduct resilience conversations that center on listening, open-ended questions, and supportive guidance, not immediate problem solving.

Lead a resilience conversation that prioritizes listening and open-ended questions, supporting a direct report facing family health challenges by offering flexible hours and deadline adjustments within the sphere of control.

Practice resilience conversations with colleagues by role-playing an employee story of eroded resilience, using tips for talking about resilience and the resilience conversation feedback checklist, iterating on feedback to improve.

Master resilience conversations by setting time limits and boundaries; focus on performance improvement, avoid overreliance and mixing resilience with misconduct, and keep resilience and performance discussions separate.

Learn how to foster your team's resilience, helping your group respond flexibly and innovatively to change, maintain productivity, and reduce emotional toll through stronger communication and collaboration.

Identify the eight red flags of low team resilience, including sick leave, conflicts, turnover, and morale, and learn how to address resilience as a manager.

Evaluate your team's resilience with the Team Resilience Checklist, rating eight indicators to identify whether resilience is high, slipping, or low, and learn how to build it.

Discover how seven Cs build team resilience by strengthening culture, communication, competence, connections, commitment, coordination, and consideration under stress.

Cultivate a resilient team culture with shared values, identity, history, and purpose, using stories to define who we are together. Promote inclusivity and address biases to ensure belonging.

Identify your team's current dynamics using a culture worksheet, gather diverse input, and outline actions to forge a shared culture, including practical approaches for virtual teams.

Adapt your communication style to employees' preferences and use emails, chats, calls, or in person to convey information at the right time. Encourage questions, spark dialogue, and strengthen team resilience.

Foster social connections to strengthen team resilience through meaningful conversations, shared meals, and collaborative activities. Cross training, virtual catch ups, and working groups build trust and improve crisis response.

Discover how committed leaders respect and protect employees, keep promises, and show up, mentor teams, and celebrate shared success to strengthen resilience and trust.

Discover how to demonstrate commitment to employees, reflect on promises, and align with the five Cs—culture, communication, competence, connections, and commitment—to boost team resilience.

Coordinate across the organization by aligning team goals with organizational aims, building shared mission through cross-unit working groups, open perspectives, and conflict resolution to stay in sync.

Lead with people by showing appreciation and care, asking about employees' lives and needs, and balancing performance with support, to build resilient teams that achieve policy and mission goals.

Conduct a group balance exercise to identify strengths and weaknesses across the seven cs of team resilience, brainstorm improvements, and establish a resilience committee and resilience corner.

Establish a resilience committee to reflect staff needs and culture. Appoint a strong chair, recruit diverse members, meet regularly, and define a mission, project charter, and budget to guide actions.

Create a resilience corner, physical or virtual, where employees relax and recover, using puzzles, coloring books, and a slack channel for quick resilience boosts.

Explore practical resilience resources, including an online resilience resources handout and a ten-book reading list, and sign up for weekly blog tips to strengthen your leadership resilience.

Reflect on your own resilience as a leader and how you're fostering your team's resilience, then come back to this course every few months to rewatch lectures and repeat activities.