A Resilience band aid is not a solution to everything.

I wonder why so few leaders and organizations talk about Optimism and Self-efficacy. More so, most don't even work on it intentionally. To me, these are mental resources that most people would benefit from now growing. Optimism and Efficacy are forward directed resources that we need to move ahead after the big disruption. Don’t get me wrong, Resilience is needed, but’s it’s only the beginning of being your best self.

Through our research with almost 2.000 people across the world in the logistics industry, we have identified that resiliences is the competency that people have most of - and they have less optimism and self-efficacy. So why not focus on developing more of that?

Resilience

“The ability to bounce back from difficult experiences”, has been a key competency for many people in the last months. We had to cope with loads of adversities, and still be able to function.

By definition, resilience focuses on the past, and too often, it is seen as a reactive competence only. but beyond coping, resilience is also about learning from what happened, and use that in a constructive way to bounce forward.

It’s great that organizations help their employees to develop resilience, but it can only be the beginning of the self-leadership that is needed.

Optimism

“Anticipate a positive outcome and being confident of goal attainment”, is at its core a sense of hopefulness. It has nothing to do with rosy and unrealistic expectations for the future. Rather, when we have hope that things will work out, and have confidence in ourselves, these competencies help us to move ahead. Think about it; If you have no hope that something will work out, will you put all your energy into it? Probably not, and that is why we need to teach employees how to build optimism.

When we work on building optimism, we start with identifying the negative beliefs that sabotage people’s minds. Often, people feel that they do not have the right education or skills required, and they thereby limit themselves. We then work on disputing negative beliefs with questions like these:

Observe yourself in the moment from a position 10 meters above yourself. What do you see?
In case of a negative result, will it really determine other results in the future?
Are there any positive facts or logic that you have ignored, but should take into consideration?
If you think back on this situation in 2 months, how will you then see it?
What would you advise a friend who is in a similar situation?

Self-efficacy

“The belief that you can carry out a certain task or achieve a specific goal”, is in fact the belief in one’s own abilities to make things happen. It is more than self-confidence, which is about people’s self image. Efficacy is the belief one’s abilities to make things happen, and requires a more-action focused kind of self-awareness.

In our work to build more efficacy, we ask our clients to create a list of their different types of resources: Educational, Successful Experience, Role-models, Social connections etc. It is astounding to see how many people have forgotten what they have in them. We then work with the Strengths Profile(R), and thereby enable them to identify their mindset and behavioural strengths, and to expand them.

Our view

Organizations need to pay more attention to building optimism and efficacy, and expand their development agenda. We are happy to help, and you can reach out to us for more information on Henrik@novosensus.org.

Yours,

Henrik