Hard, hard things happen at work. Things that impact employees’ mental health, their ability to pay rent, and their ability to operate more broadly in the profession.

Resiliency in the workplace is impacted by key capacities that the employee has sole control over. This course works on concrete resiliency skills identified in the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale out of the Duke University Medical Center. The National Institutes of Health was a grant sponsor of their work.

See below for a section by section summary of the content of this course. It includes originally produced videos, Knowledge Checks at the end of each section, frequent opportunities for Skills Building, and three exercises:
+ Identifying work values
+ Writing a self-compassion letter
+ Diagraming a values-based decision making process in the library

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This course focuses on:

Resiliency

+ The science behind building resiliency.
+ Specific skills and attitudes that resilient people embody (Connor & Davison, 2003).
+ Takeaway: Emotional resilience can be strengthened the same way that physical resilience can: by practice.

Identifying Your Work Values

+ The opportunity to Identify Your Work Values (adapted from NovaWorks.org, 2023).
+ Appreciating other people’s values, even when they differ from your own.
+ Takeaway: You can work from a place of integrity, even when you are working in circumstances that are not to your liking, or when you are working toward goals that you didn’t choose.

Adaptability

+ Recognize that different viewpoints may be impacted by different priorities: you and your boss may see things very differently and neither of you are wrong.
+ Takeaway: If you are known as an individual who tells the truth – even when it reflects an inadequacy or failure to perform on your part – you build the trust necessary to carry you through to another opportunity to prove yourself and your worth.

Building Optimism

+ Optimism can be learned, cultivated, and encouraged.
+ Optimists bring skill sets that may surprise you.
+ Acts of kindness build and reinforce optimism. Being kind to yourself allows you to put difficult situations in perspective.
+ Takeaway: When you are compassionate with yourself, you can learn to be compassionate with others. To assume noble intent when they fall short of your expectations. To extend them grace.

Having a Realistic Sense of Control

+ Understanding Circles of Control as popularized by Stephen Covey: the circle of control, the circle of influence, and the circle of concern.
+ Mastery experiences are the experiences we gain when we take on a new challenge and succeed (Akhtar, 2008).
+ How to diagram your decision-making process and consider the consequences of your actions as you work within your spheres of control, influence, and concern.
+ Takeaway: Even when you do great work and accomplish exactly what your manager asked you for, you can’t control the outcome. That doesn’t take away from your great work, or what you learned from it.

Handling Conflict

+ When you stay neutral and objective it gives you a better chance to have your views heard (Gallo, 2016). This course includes a video from the Harvard Business Review called How to Disagree with People Who Are More Powerful Than You.
+ Frame conflicts at work in ways that will help you.
+ Takeaway: Assuming others’ noble intent when you are in conflict with them, including your boss, leaves more room for a successful outcome. It allows you to be flexible during a negative moment. It can give you confidence that a bad situation will turn around. It protects hope. It builds adaptability and optimism.

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