Resilience: A Responsibility That Canʼt Be Delegated

Abstract

MOST OF US in profession agree that we have an unusually high level of exposure to adverse conditions and stress. No matter our position or role, we are all subject to similar stressors. Each of us has an opportunity to improve and prosper from greater resilience, not only at work but also in our personal lives. The discussion of resilience in this issue of Frontiers is timely and an appropriate reminder of how leaders need to care for themselves, their families, their teammates, and their organization as delivery continues to evolve.How many times have we heard, for example, Children are so resilient, they can bounce back from anything? At one point, a similar statement was probably made about each of us. What happened as we matured? Some individuals are highly resilient as adults, having maintained that childhood quality, but others seem ill-equipped to deal with disruption.Wicks and Buck, having researched topic of management, leadership, and individual resilience, provide a helpful breakdown of importance of resilience, both to an organization and to individual and executive. And Spake and Thompson have demonstrated how to translate framework proposed by Wicks (2010) to practice at system level.IT STARTS AT THE TOPCountless books, blogs, and websites are dedicated to resilience and resilient leadership. Most of them allude to fact that organizational resilience starts at top, with senior leaders. Essentially, we must each look in mirror, because it starts with us.While both feature articles present their own definition of resilience, I find definition of Reivich and Shatte (2002, 8) to be compelling. They define resilience simply as ability to persevere and adapt when things go awry. Regardless of how one views concept, however, virtually every meaningful interpretation of resilience traces back to characteristics set out more than 2,000 years ago by Sun Tzu in The Art of War (Giles 1988).Using terms weather, terrain, leadership, discipline, and way, Sun Tzu essentially advises that leaders understand their internal challenges, strengths, weaknesses, and external environment (weather and terrain); exert leadership through ability to make difficult decisions (leadership); have discipline to adjust plans and direction to reduce vulnerability (discipline); and develop vision, trust, and approaches to communication that inspire and motivate those around them (way) (Giles 1988).The idea that leadership is crucial for resilient organizations is also consistent with Malcom Gladwell's (2000) Law of Few, which implies that a few key individual leaders, often those managers on front line, can tip organization toward an exponential buildup of resilience. As such, these individuals serve as a catalyst for positive change.IT'S ABOUT OPTIMISMOptimism, along with positive attitude, has been identified as number one factor in developing an immunity to stress, according to Everly, Strouse, and Everly (2010). The researchers define optimism as the tendency to take most positive, hopeful view of matters. It's tendency to expect best outcome, and it's belief that good prevails over evil (Everly, Strouse, and Everly 2010,137). Optimism drives hope, and hope leads to dreams. Hope and dreams together open up endless possibilities for success for both individuals and organizations.Considering profound positive impact that optimism can have on one's ability to build resilience, in following paragraphs, I highlight some comments presented in feature articles that warrant discussion.Wicks and Buck state that healthcare is one of only remaining professions in which ignoring spouses, significant others, children, friends, and even ourselves is still considered socially acceptable. This statement is commonly heard in profession, and it needs to be challenged and eliminated from our collective mind-set. …