This proved to be an informative and entertaining insight into the latest thinking about resilience, in both sport and business.
The day kicked off with the opening presentation by the England footballer, Earl Barrett, (now coaching at Stoke). His stories about having to cope with adversity in his career ranged from racism to injury to being dropped from the team. And this set the tone for the day; resilience is one of those things that we all recognise, but is actually quite hard to define and to measure. Does what it takes to recover from injury tap on the same resources that it takes to perform well in a key sales-pitch?
Research shows that resilience can and does change with context. It varies within and between individuals and is influenced by internal factors like personality and also with external factors such as environment and culture. The good news is that it can be learned.
Resilience is a key factor in coping with stress and each speaker was able to advance our knowledge on building resilience. Even a change in perception can produce dramatic results. Perceiving a situation as either a challenge or threat can have profound effects on performance. Similarly, choosing the right type of social support at the right time can also affect stress levels.
A different slant at the topic was given by Rune Todnem By on what people need to hear from their leader in times of trouble or stress. Turns out it's not the chest-beating, 'more cow-bell' motivational speech but something that attends to the needs of the audience.
They need to know that what their leader requires of them is possible, worthwhile and appropriate, to name a few of the key elements, if you want motivated staff.
The event finished with a case study from Roy White, Head of HR at Sony Mobile. Roy showed how the company had designed and delivered a resilience training programme for staff, built on the three pillars of 'Body', 'Mind' and 'Spirit'.
Thanks to all the speakers for laying on such a useful event, particularly the staff at Staffordshire University, Marc Jones, Jamie Barker and Martin Turner. I would also like to recommend Jamie and Martin's book, 'What Business can Learn from Sport Psychology' (Bennion Kearny).
Also a quick shout out for another upcoming event if you are interested in this area of research. The author and consultant, Ted Garratt is running a workshop on 13 May on 'Coaching for the Zone' http://www.tedgarratt.co.uk/. Well worth a look if you want to look at practical application theories on approaches to achieving excellent performance.
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