Resilience is the capacity to adapt well to adversity and recover from it. People build it over time, and the conditions they work in shape it heavily.
The word is often misused. Telling struggling people to "be more resilient" shifts the burden of poor conditions onto them. Useful resilience work covers both the person and the system.
The need is real. The World Economic Forum's 2026 Human Advantage report found more than one in five employees globally show symptoms of burnout.
Three misconceptions
Resilient people do not struggle. They do. They are more likely to seek support and keep perspective.
Resilience means staying positive. Forced positivity suppresses difficulty. Resilience includes naming problems honestly.
Resilience is the individual's job. Unclear expectations, heavy workloads and poor management drain resilience faster than training can build it.
What managers do
Create psychological safety. People cope better when they can admit difficulty and ask for help.
Provide clarity. Ambiguous priorities are a common source of avoidable stress. Clear goals and roles reduce it.
Notice early. Watch for withdrawal, irritability or slipping quality. Check in with care before a crisis.
Model sustainable work. Leaders who never rest set a norm. Leaders who protect recovery show high performance can last.
Maslach and Leiter identify six areas of work that drive burnout: workload, control, reward, community, fairness and values. Managers influence most of them.
Build this capability in your organisation
Growth Performance designs bespoke programmes that turn insight into measurable behaviour change.
Building individual resilience
Reframe setbacks. Carol Dweck's mindset research suggests treating setbacks as learning helps. Ask "what can I learn?" before "what does this say about me?"
Invest in relationships. Social support is one of the most consistent resilience factors. Gallup's 2026 report found leaders report more loneliness than the people they lead.
Manage energy. Sleep, exercise and recovery cycles shape how well people regulate emotion under pressure.
Keep perspective. Place a setback in the context of a career, a project or a long working relationship.
The organisational response
Prevent. Reduce avoidable pressure through better management, clear roles and realistic workloads.
Build capability. Develop problem-solving, reframing, self-awareness and support networks through practice.
Protect recovery. Guard non-working time, encourage breaks and provide access to mental health support.
One-off workshops rarely last when people return to the same conditions.
AI is a new source of strain
AI adds pressure of its own. Ranganathan and Ye found AI brought a faster pace, broader scope and longer hours.
BCG researchers described "brain fry" from heavy AI oversight. People with brain fry were more likely to plan to quit: 34% against 25%. When managers gave training and support, brain fry fell.
Honest conversation about the emotional side of AI is part of Adoption. For more, read Building Resilience in an Age of Algorithmic Anxiety.
Try this
Ask your team: what is the biggest source of avoidable stress in how we work? What one change would help most? Then act on one answer.
To see how well you support others, take the free Building Resilience in Others assessment.