Resilience Building for Mental Health and Well-Being

If COVID has taught us anything, it’s that mental health is indeed a workplace issue that leaders can’t ignore. The last 3 years have served up multiple simultaneous stressors that have overwhelmed the coping skills of many.

Management at all levels are now being expected to address the issue of mental health in the workplace and in particular, how the workplace itself may be contributing to a lack of well-being for employees. Many in leadership positions are struggling to meet this new challenge successfully.

Resilience building within organizations has many benefits outside of just the work environment. Employees often find broad application that extends to their personal world as well. Any time an organization helps to improve the lives of their employees outside of the workplace, it speaks volumes about the value their employer place on their stakeholders.

Its not about lighting candles or bubble baths.

Determining if a resilience training program is something other than a collection of oversimplified solutions and cliches is critical to leadership’s perceived credibility in the eyes of employees in offering something truly of value or if this is just an exercise in ticking a box. COVID brought out a plethora of well-meaning ‘experts’ offering a kind of pablum that just didn’t resonate with people the longer the pandemic dragged on.

Resilience training is not a one size fits all…and that’s why so many of these programs fall flat with employees. The curriculum for resilience building needs to relate to why and in what way your organization can use it. Resilience training can also be the starting point for how mental health and well-being is discussed and regarded within your organization, without stigma.

When leadership can model discussing mental well-being as an appropriate topic within the workplace without equating it to cognitive or emotional disfunction, stakeholders will follow.

Good mental health is a state of being…a state of well-being that requires as much attention, if not more, than we give to our physical health. What’s in our head is often reflected in our body.

Resilience doesn’t just happen after disruptive events or damaging experiences. It requires intentional effort that engages factors for success and an understanding of what contributes to resilience failure. Every human being comes equipped for activating resilience, but not an inherent knowledge of how to do that. Resilience building is work and worth every minute of effort.