Resilience – Nurturing

In this series, I am introducing you to the twenty superpowers that leaders need to possess to create an environment for resilience. This is an environment in which individuals and teams are resilient in the face of constant change.

Individual resilience is critical when the world around us is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. Resilience means we can adapt to difficult situations and not just survive but thrive. Unless we do, the stress will overwhelm us, and we will suffer physically and mentally.

Each week we will explore one of those twenty superpowers.

Superpower: The Nurturer

The Nurturer builds a culture of trust and respect. When there is trust and respect, employees are connected. They feel safe to express their feelings knowing that there will be respect and their voice will be heard and valued. They trust you, as their leader, to be true to your commitments. It also reinforces that you trust them to do the right thing.

This results in resilience.

Leaders have to listen to their employees and seek their feedback on a regular basis. Everyone should feel comfortable sharing with you and their peers.

Provide education on effective communication, listening techniques and how to lead with empathy.

As a leader, you have to demonstrate that you care. You have to be accountable for any commitments you have made. When employees give you feedback, you need to show that you have heard them. If you cannot act on their feedback, tell them why that is the case.

The Nurturer encourages collaboration across the team and actively promotes team members to support each other. These behaviours are encouraged and reinforced. See The Reinforcer.

Every member of the team should be able to present as their authentic self. There is an environment of psychological safety built on trust and mutual respect.

Actions

* Provide education in communication and listening.
* Provide education about empathy.
* Listen to each other.
* Show your team that you care.
* Support each other.
* Encourage authenticity.
* Be transparent.
* Model a behaviour of trust and respect.
* Challenge behaviour that does not promote trust and respect.
* Recognize and reinforce behaviours of trust and respect.

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