Resilience at work
Resilience skills are much needed in the workplace of the 2020s with stress levels at an unprecedented high. It’s no surprise that feeling overwhelmed and unable to cope is so common. Burnout was rampant even before the global pandemic, with the World Health Organisation adding it to the ICD-11 (International Classification of Diseases). Burnout results from chronic workplace stress that hasn’t been successfully managed according to the WHO definition. It’s characterised by 1) feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion; 2) increased mental distance or feelings of negativity or cynicism towards work; and 3) a sense of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment.
Resilience is the ability to control how we respond to negative situations and bounce back from adversity. It’s about having a healthy balance between your capacity to cope and the challenge you’re facing so that you can maintain your wellbeing in unfavourable conditions. If the challenge overwhelms your resilience capacity it can send you over the edge into the red zone on the pathway to burnout and at risk of mental health problems.
The positive news is that resilience is a set of skills that can be learnt, which will not only support you in current circumstances but also future-proof your wellbeing. Our resilience workshops and coaching offer you practical tools to develop greater resilience and equip you for the future. Please get in touch to discuss your needs.
Resilience at Work
A half-day or full-day workshop tailored to your team or organisation’s needs. You will gain the knowledge and tools to help your team function well in difficult times, maintain their wellbeing and thrive in spite of adversity. The content typically might include some of these elements.
- What is resilience
- Understanding stress
- Mapping your resilience factors
- Emotion-focused coping
- Emotional management and first aid
- Positivity practices that help you feel well, undo the effects of stress and build resources
- Problem-focused coping
- Perspective check
- Optimism practices
- The ABCDE of cognitive resilience
- Psychological capital: The HERO model of Hope, Efficacy, Resilience & Optimism
- Strengths to strengthen resilience
- Grit and the Growth mindset
- Social support
- Body-mind practices such as breathing
- Action planning.
“Thank you so much Miriam for your excellent training session on resilience as part of our team day. It was packed full of interesting and enlightening professional insight as well as thought-provoking interactive exercises that created plenty of discussion at each table. On the feedback forms staff overwhelmingly voted your session as the thing they particularly liked about the whole day.” Alida Turner, the Environment Agency.
Positive Psychology Training’s resilience courses can be delivered online. Below are some comments from a recent session for Please contact Miriam to discuss further.
Miriam was very engaging from the beginning of the session and throughout, setting the scene and putting everyone at ease. Delivery of the session was perfect, informal and informative with a wealth of techniques provided in bitesize chunks making it easy for attendees to digest and apply. Participants got as much out of the session via webinar as they would have in person, if not more so as everyone was so involved. If the session had been delivered face-to-face to a group of the same size, I think that many people may have felt too shy to contribute. Feedback has been consistently positive since, I cannot recommend Miriam enough! Louise Bown, Diversity and Inclusion Officer, West Midlands Combined Authority.
‘An amazing session’ ‘Thank you Miriam. All very reassuring during this current time’ ‘Really enjoyed the session and took a lot away from it’ ‘I found the session really enjoyable and interesting’ ‘I found the session really informative, I will definitely write a playlist’ ‘Found it really valuable’ ‘Thank you, some good things to try, really great session’ ‘The session was very enjoyable and valuable. I’m adding the little book of happiness to my list’ ‘Thank you so much Miriam, the session was a gift’. Group Feedback
‘I really enjoyed the in-person Resilience training delivered by Miriam. Her warmth, enthusiasm and experience put us all at ease and being able to be together in a room, to move around and engage in the simple, fun activities really helped to strengthen the learning experience. It was a great opportunity to discover and understand more about my colleagues and myself, and the easy to use tools and worksheets are a brilliant aid to put what I’ve learnt into practice.’ Participant, Cruse, Wales.
Miriam Akhtar MAPP is an expert in resilience and experienced trainer, who has developed resilience programmes for clients including Imperial College NHS Trust leadership programme in London and community healthcare workers in North Somerset. Clients include the Environment Agency, MOD, BBC, West Midlands Combined Authority, McCormick Foods, CABA, the Gulbenkian Foundation and design agency Pope, Wainwright & Wykes. Miriam has facilitated the world-renowned Penn Resilience Program, which is being rolled out as the Comprehensive Soldier and Family Fitness Program across the American Military. She has delivered resilience training at the Defence Academy of Great Britain.
“A big thank you on behalf of the Defence Leadership Centre, and in particular the Intrinsic Leadership and Behaviours Team, for the Positive Psychology training you provided. It was perfectly pitched and practical. The entire team really enjoyed the training and we certainly got a lot of very useful knowledge and learning out of the sessions; and which sets us up nicely for delivering the Senior Leaders Mental Fitness and Resilience Training. Thank you for your professional approach and the way you adapted the training to meet our needs and maximise our understanding.” Commander K Santrian MA PGCE FCIPD Royal Navy, Defence Academy of Great Britain
“Thank you Miriam for an inspiring day. I arrived to training feeling a little preoccupied and left feeling that my thoughts were energised. I would highly recommend you as a facilitator and would give your skills from the training day as being knowledgeable, talented, clear and easy to understand and personable. We very much look forward to continuing to work with you to so more of our staff can benefit from resilience training and positive psychology” Kemi Oladapo, Head of Learning & Development.
Dr Chris Johnstone, one of our associates, is a resilience specialist (some of these images are his). His resources including the online Personal Resilience in 1 hour and the book Seven Ways to Build Resilience.
