How is it that some people at work keep their resilience and equilibrium despite intense workplace stress while others fall apart at the slightest sign of pressure? The 2015 article by Clare Rees et al titled ‘Understanding individual resilience in the workplace: the international collaboration of workforce resilience model’ (https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00073/full) proposes a multi-factorial model of resilience in the workplace.

Two of the key elements outlined in the model of Rees et al. that captured my attention are mindfulness and self-efficacy as key components of workplace resilience. Workplace resilience is important because the higher a person’s level of resilience, the less likely they are to experience a stress-related burnout.

The first aspect impacting resilience is mindfulness. Mindfulness in the context of the workplace refers to an ability to ‘express mindful qualities of non judgement and behavioral qualities of acting with awareness rather than automatically’. This is opposed to low mindfulness which is a ‘tendency to respond reactively and inflexibly to negative thoughts and emotions’.

In the day to day pressure of delivering projects, it is not always easy to act from a place of non-judgement and awareness, though it is easy to spot the individuals that do so. Time and again, these are the people that take time to reflect and respond thoughtfully, instead of from a place of automatic pilot. This is a key trait in mindfully aware leaders who take the essential extra moment to be fully present and see the situation from a bigger picture or multi-angled perspective before taking action.

The second aspect impacting resilience is self-efficacy. In the workplace setting this refers to ‘an individual’s belief that he or she can perform a selected task’. In essence, this refers to your sense of inner confidence that you can do the work that has been given to you.

In this rapidly evolving world of work where timelines are squeezed, expectations are on the rise and information overload is the norm, sometimes having the confidence you can achieve ‘one more project’ on the pile of the existing workload may be daunting. Having the confidence that you can leverage your experience and skills to achieve the new project is essential. This confidence in your abilities helps you stay resilient in the face of stress.

Mindfulness and self-efficacy are tools to cultivate at work. These factors can help keep your level of resilience high which will therefore improve your ability to both manage periods of stress and potentially limit the impact of stress on your health. As a marketing executive and mindfulness teacher, I see the positive impact of mindfulness in my working life and also in those of my students. It is a powerful tool that supports resilience and it is inspiring to see that reflected in workplace research.

So what are you waiting for? Pull out your favorite meditation app or email your mindfulness teacher and try it out for as little as four weeks to feel the resilience-enhancing impact it can have!