The pace of change is accelerating...

The pace of change is accelerating, societal and economic uncertainty reign, and the workplace fallout from Covid is still being understood. Against this backdrop, resilience has become a sort after skillset in leadership. Our ability to manage our responses to stress, to withstand and recover from knockbacks, and to reframe setbacks as learning opportunities, have been linked to greater work satisfaction, lower levels of depression and greater wellbeing. A resilience gap can lead to worries about job security, health, financial turmoil and more, resulting in burnout and exhaustion. Effective recruitment processes must therefore explore and assess a candidate’s resilience throughout, and most appointment panels probe for it in some way.

We often talk about resilience on an individual level, but McKinsey’s work during Covid showed that organisational resilience is equally important. An organisations health and its effectiveness were shown to be linked, with those demonstrating healthy resilient behaviours such as fostering innovation, a feedback culture and knowledge sharing, outperforming those where resilience was lacking. Resilient organisations adapt to challenges quickly and can evaluate options at pace and pivot. They also find opportunity during adversity and bounce forward from challenge with a competitive advantage. The great resignation has deepened and widened talent pool shortages, but the most resilient organisations reprioritised employee experience and focused upon culture and investing in their people. Resilience has become part of the employee value proposition and is a key consideration when it comes to hiring and keeping great people. To attract the best talent, councils can demonstrate resilience by showcasing the following: their agility and adaptability; how their employees are empowered and supported to innovate; that adaptable leadership is rewarded; and a positive culture in which people are invested in.