Resilience: Can you be over-resilient?

Resilience, you’ll hear about it a lot at the moment. Described as ‘bounce-back-ability’, your ability to ‘deal with adversity’, to ‘recover quickly’ and ‘having to tenacity to continue’. We’ve also observed that in many instances resilience is also ‘just turning up’, ‘giving it a go despite the odds’, ‘functioning despite the overwhelming desire to go back to bed and shut your eyes’.

Resilience is the stuff of high achievers. It allows people to remain high-functioning when faced with adversity. It gives the edge when chipping away at long term projects or goals and equips us to face new challenges.

But can you be too resilient and how do you read the signals?

We believe that absolutely yes, you can be over-resilient. Often it manifests itself through a single-minded drive to attack the challenge at hand. There is little balance in the activity just a ‘get it done’ at all costs mindset. The consequences may lead to burn-out, physical symptoms such as headaches and will certainly become very stressful if left unchecked.

So how do you know if you are being too resilient and what can you do about it?

We developed a psychometric assessment called resilienceflow® for exactly this purpose. resilienceflow® helps people develop self-awareness and self-management strategies in order to behave in a way that is proportional to the situation they are in at work.

resilienceflow® measures 6 dimensions (observable behaviours) of resilience:

Optimism: Does the person maintain a positive outlook? Are they upbeat under pressure and excited by new possibilities?

Optimism when overused: Could be seen as unrealistic, ignoring critical points of data or glossing over negative facts.

Unbiased: Are they objective and rational? Can they separate emotions when making decisions?

Unbiased when overused: Might come across as ignoring the considerations of the people as they focus on the task at hand.

Self-Esteem: Do they have a clear sense of purpose and speak positively about themselves? Can they recognise their own strengths?

Self-Esteem when overused: Overusing self-esteem could manifest itself at someone who self-promotes at every opportunity and could, in some circumstances, over-estimate their abilities

Perseverance: Does the individual thrive during periods of uncertainty? Can the bounce back and are the persistent?

Perseverance when overused: People who over-use perseverance can drive themselves into the ground and become so focused they lose sight of when to slow down or step back.

Adaptability: A person demonstrating adaptability seeks views and ideas. They test assumptions and can cope with limited information.

Overusing adaptability: When overused a person may become too flexible and have difficulty settling on an outcome or direction.

Assertiveness: People who are assertive deliver messages with authority. They have clear opinions and ideas. The have a positive impact on others.

Assertiveness when overused: Could come across as controlling and domineering. People overusing assertiveness might come across as such a strong force they overwhelm less assertive colleagues.

Use resilienceflow® to create awareness and determine if you and your people are using a good, healthy and proportional level of resilience in the workplace.