The Façade of Resilience
I’m sure that, like me, you have worked with clients who believe they are far too tough to experience burnout as well as those who try and outrun burnout with willpower alone. Either way, these clients often sit in front of us with a façade of resilience that can be debilitating.
Resilience is not a feat of endurance; it is a set of practices, embedded into our daily lives that enable us to have the strength and skills that we need to face the inevitable challenges that come our way.
We are surrounded by subtle - and not-so-subtle - messages that we have to ‘work harder’. For some of us that come from within, it is self-imposed thanks to our personality type or for others among us; the messages come through the culture that has developed within our place of work.
There is an undercurrent of fear travelling through workplaces as you’re reading this. Our clients don’t have job security; two words that are only spoken about with nostalgia. Hard work doesn’t necessarily equal an uncomplicated career pathway. Perceived weakness can lead to a level of overworking that destroys our clients’ physical and mental health.
It’s our job as experienced coaches to enable our clients to recognise their strengths, understand that their façade is derailing their career and that resilience comes from being true to themselves.
This is an important time for us to be exploring burnout in the context of resilience-building. The World Health Organisation’s (WHO) International Classification of Diseases now lists burnout as a chronic condition. However, the definition only discusses burnout in relation to workplace stress.
“Burn-out is a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterized by three dimensions:
feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion;
increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one's job; and
reduced professional efficacy.
Burn-out refers specifically to phenomena in the occupational context and should not be applied to describe experiences in other areas of life.” (World Health Organisation)
It clearly states that burnout is a result of ‘workplace stress’ and with the ever-increasing threats of restructures, change management and redundancies; we have a responsibility to support our clients to evolve in such a way that they are able to successfully manage their responses and reactions at work.
I was recently introduced to a new client through a corporate organisation I work for. As part of an ongoing change management process, all of the senior staff had been allocated an external coach to support them.
‘I don’t really know why I have to be here,’ was her opening line, followed by, ‘ask anyone around here, I’m the lynchpin of the senior management team, too tough to let this process faze me and will fight to keep my job here, I’ll do whatever it takes.’
Her credentials and achievements were impressive; her no-nonsense approach matched the reputation that preceded her and ten years ago a woman of this prominence might have intimidated me. Not anymore. I could see past the wall she had built while respecting her strength. I knew I could help her to view that strength as a catalyst for positive change and not as a daily fight. The former is empowering, the latter is exhausting.
My client began by intellectualising everything yet admitted that her usual tactic of bulldozing her way through her working life was no longer a strategy for success. Soon afterwards she shared that she believed she was in the midst of burnout but that she was hardwired to ‘power through’.
‘My reputation for having it all together is why I am where I am. I can’t lose that.’
Isn’t that the myth of resilience?
Through our work together, she was able to recognise her strengths and let go of the ‘fight’. The surrender brought with it a release of tension and she immediately channelled her energy into being the leader that she knew she could be, not the leader she felt she needed to be.
She is now the most senior female member of the organisation having mastered her power, embraced the change management process in her own way, supported others with kindness and shown that true leadership comes with vulnerability and authenticity.
Join me and learn about my research-based method to enable your clients, at all levels of management, to master their power and proactively challenge the common myths of resilience.