I’ve wanted to write about resilience for a while now. But if I’m being completely honest, I’ve struggled with it as a topic because it’s a little hard to make tangible and actionable. I like to give you as much practical advice as I can so that you can go away and take action as much as possible.
Resilience is such an important topic for you to think about, not just as a manager but as an individual contributor as well.
Why resilience is such an important trait to develop
Every year (and 2026 will be no different) brings a new set of challenges and disruptions. Whether it’s economic uncertainty, AI reshaping roles, friction with hybrid working or a new generation of workers with different expectations – change happens.
This change is going to happen no matter what, meaning that we need to learn how to ride the wave of disruption. It’s happening anyway and change can be hard to deal with. But it’s even harder to deal with if we don’t know how to deal with it.
If we can learn to deal with change, no matter how much disruption it brings, we can learn to:
- Stay composed under pressure.
- Communicate calmly and clearly when everything feels messy.
- Help your team stay focused on the bigger picture and what’s truly important.
I feel pretty strongly that the more senior that you become in your career, the more important soft skills such as resilience become. Yes, technical skills and experience matter, but they will only get you so far in your career before they plateau a little.
If you truly want to progress in your career and rise above your peers, focus on soft skill development just as much as hard skills.
Resilience is one of the most important soft skills that you can develop.
One final thing before we move into the more practical stuff.
Resilience isn’t just about toughness, it’s about flexibility, adaptability and sustained clarity under pressure. So avoid falling into the trap of thinking that in order to be resilient, you need to act “tough”.
Practical ways to practice resilience when under pressure
You can’t manage a resilient team unless you can manage yourself first. So to start with, focus on you and try a few simple, practical approaches for building resilience.
Ultimately, your team will be a reflection of how you behave. If you can’t perform well when stressed or under pressure, they won’t be able to either.
Manage your energy, not just your time
Managing your time is a key aspect of being an effective manager. I actually think that it’s one of the most overlooked areas of management and being productive is a key enabler of being a great manager.
Having said that, it’s also about managing your mental energy. One tactic for this is to ensure that you have “recovery” time in between meetings or key projects. Even a 15 minute reset where you go for a quick walk or go and make a coffee can help you mentally reset and improve your ability to handle whatever comes next.
Focus on what you can control
When the inevitable happens and uncertainty hits, focus on what is certain. What can you actually influence and do? What is within your control? This may be team priorities, tasks, conversations, decisions – whatever remains in your control should be your starting point for what to do when change happens.
This can help reduce anxiety and restore that feeling of control over most situations.
Take time to reflect each week
At the end of each week, take a few minutes to reflect on what you’ve worked on. Ask yourself questions such as:
- What drained my energy this week?
- What gave me the most energy?
- What worked well for me this week?
- What did I find really difficult this week?
- What can I change and improve next week?
Resilient leaders don’t ignore stress and anxiety – they process it, think about it and try to improve.
Build a support system for yourself
Being a team manager, particularly a very senior one, can be a little lonely sometimes. You can’t always share your problems, challenges or anxieties with your team. But you do need to share them with someone.
Look around for mentors, peers or coaches who can formally or informally offer you a perspective on what you’re experiencing. They may not be able to instantly solve your problems, but they can enable you to reflect on them and build resilience for the future.
When the pressure in your role rises, don’t isolate yourself.
Be a role model of calmness and transparency
As mentioned above, the way you behave will set the tone for how your team behaves. Your tone and attitude towards problems will set the emotional temperature of the room and your team will act accordingly.
This doesn’t mean that you can’t show emotion – hence the need for transparency. You can show emotion but the key is to display composure and respond thoughtfully to difficult situations instead of reacting impulsively.
Creating a psychologically safe environment for team resilience
We’ve talked about what you should practice as an individual. Let’s finish by talking about a few tactics for building resilience within your team, focusing on day-to-day situations that you can start to infuse resilience into.
A team can’t be resilient if people are afraid to speak up about problems, scared to admit mistakes or share bad news.
Building psychological safety (the belief that it’s safe to take interpersonal risks) is the foundation of team resilience. Here are a few ways that you can start to do this.
Normalise mistakes as learning opportunities
Mistakes are going to happen – it’s a way of life. You’ll never prevent them 100%. The important thing about mistakes is learning from them and trying to prevent them in the future.
This can’t happen unless people feel safe enough to admit mistakes and not feel like they are going to be punished for them. Instead, people need to feel that they will be given the opportunity to learn from their mistakes and be given the chance to improve next time.
Of course, if mistakes are made over and over again, you need to take this seriously and not ignore them, but the starting point for a team should be that mistakes are a chance to learn, not to punish.
Ask for help and input when things go wrong
As a leader, people will often look to you for answers when things go wrong. You may well have the answer but more often than not, you may need help in order to figure it out.
So, don’t be afraid to ask your team.
Some leaders worry that this will lead to a lack of confidence in them – surely a leader should always know what to do?
Not necessarily.
Your team doesn’t expect you to know everything. But they do expect you to lead a process for how to figure things out. This starts by asking your team for input and working together to get to where you need to be.
Respond with curiosity when things go wrong
When something goes wrong, many leaders will default to a position of blame. This does nothing to enable psychological safety and build resilience.
Instead, be curious about what’s happened – ask questions and try to get to the root of the problem but be clear that you’re not looking to blame someone. You’re trying to understand the situation so that you can help solve the problem.
Share your own uncertainties
Following on from a previous point, sharing when you are uncertain about a problem or are feeling a bit nervous about change, can signal to your team that vulnerability is acceptable.
Of course, there is a line here and you need to instil confidence in your team. But again, they don’t expect you to know everything – so don’t try to fake it and pretend that you do. They won’t buy it!
So demonstrate vulnerability when appropriate and it will enable your team to do the same. When this happens, it can build trust and long term resilience when difficult situations appear.
To wrap up, resilience isn’t just about being “tough” or being gritty or showing perseverance.
It’s about the ability to bend without breaking and to grow stronger with each challenge that you get presented with.
As a leader, your calmness and thoughtfulness will set the tone for your team. They’ll become more confident in you and this confidence will spread to them – setting the foundation for long-term strength and resilience.
