Resilience is described as the ability to ‘bounce back’ from change and challenge, but it is usually applied to individuals. What about teams? What do team leaders need to know, to go about building a resilient team?

Resilient Teams Typically Display The Same Key Elements As Individuals:

• They have healthy habits,
• They leverage strengths,
• They are responsible and accountable, and
• They create and focus on goals.

Healthy Habits

There is a part of our brain called the Basal Ganglia. It is responsible for procedural learning and routine behaviours. Moreover, the Basal Ganglia doesn’t know the difference between right and wrong. All it recognises is repetition and the creation of processes based on recognised trigger points. It is through this repetition and process that individuals develop good and bad habits. Teams can develop habits in the same way. If the team repeatedly gossips in the first five minutes of a team meeting, this becomes a habit. Conversely, if a team repeatedly bounces ideas off each other to find solutions to problems, this becomes a habit too.

Leveraging Strengths

Everyone has strengths that can be developed. When people know their own strengths and the strengths of others in their team, they are better equipped to leverage them together. This way, team members can work in partnership to maximise each other’s strengths and compensate for individual weaknesses. This means a team not only supports each other’s strengths, they also pinpoint development areas to create strategies and learning opportunities. Resilient teams also practise the celebration of learning to build individual and team growth. When resilient teams are put under stress, they have been shown to learn from these situations and grow.

Responsibility And Accountability

If you want to build a strong and effective team, you need to foster a culture of accountability and resilience. Resilient teams take ownership of their actions, and they don’t shy away from their mistakes. In fact, they see mistakes as opportunities for growth and improvement. By celebrating their mistakes and reflecting on them, they can learn valuable lessons and avoid repeating them in the future.

When you build a resilient team, you’re creating a group of individuals who are committed to continuous learning and development. They’re not afraid to take risks and try new things, knowing that even if they make a mistake, they’ll come out stronger on the other side. By encouraging your team to embrace their mistakes and take responsibility for their actions, you’ll create a culture of trust and accountability that will drive success and innovation. So, don’t punish your team for their mistakes, celebrate them as opportunities for growth and watch your team thrive.

Goals

Resilient teams know the goals of the organisation and align their own goals with them. This enables them to develop specific and clear strategies for success. Furthermore, when the team creates goals collectively, they attach greater value to them. Therefore, they are more inclined to dedicate themselves to accomplishing the team’s purpose. Moreover, as long as there are clear goals and strategies for achieving them, resilient teams are more likely to hold a positive image of the future. This includes maintaining a positive outlook and envisioning brighter days ahead during times of adversity.

Organisations devote an immense amount of time and effort to building the best teams. But if a team can’t overcome setbacks and challenges, then those resources are wasted. Highly resilient teams can undergo large amounts of adversity, but they don’t wallow or dwell on what went wrong. Instead, they acknowledge the situation, learn from their mistakes, and then move forward.

Work With Odyssey Training To Build Resilient Teams

Contact Odyssey Training on 1300 793 951 to talk about our range of training courses designed to help organisations in building resilient teams. We empower clients with hands-on training, let our expert training facilitators help to develop your organisation.

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