How’s your day going?
How’s your day going?
Have you just come out of a tough meeting? Maybe that campaign you have been working on has not generated much coverage.
Perhaps something has gone wrong, and you are inundated with calls from journalists.
Working in comms is tough.
The work is fast-paced. Comms teams are increasingly asked to do more with less. You may be dealing with sensitive and emotionally draining subjects.
And in the age of social media and 24/7 news coverage, it can be hard to ever switch off.
Building resilience and being resilient have never been more vital.
But what does it mean? And how do you do it?
To answer these questions, we invited Kirsty Waite and Dan Boniface, from The BCF Group, to a masterclass for members of The Media Team Academy.
They explored:
- What is resilience?
- How can you build and improve your resilience?
- How can you support your team in being resilient?
- How improving your resilience will help with your role?
Let’s recap their expert advice.
What is resilience?
The term ‘resilience’ is everywhere and has become a buzzword.
We used to talk about resilient systems. Now we talk about resilient people.
But what does it mean?
The reality is resilience will mean different things to different people.
It could mean you are robust, determined, calm, confident, resourceful or unflappable, to use a few of the words put forward during the masterclass.
A definition The BCF Group use is that resilience is “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties or challenges.”
Dan said: “The key part for me there is how quickly can you move on? Is it going to be something we let affect us and that we carry around with us? Or can we let it go and think, ‘that’s just a moment in my life’?”
Kirsty added: “The big thing with resilience is it is intangible. There are lots of little things that make it tangible. There are lots of different things that go into being resilient. But fundamentally, it is about being adaptable and dealing with change, whether that is a change of location, people, or project.
“Being able to adapt to change quickly is important to building resilience, especially in comms where there can be quite a reactive side to it and different people come to you with different priorities.”
So, now we know what it is, how do we build it?
How can you improve your resilience?
Personal wellbeing
To be resilient, you need to think about your wellbeing.
“If we are physically and mentally not well, we will not be able to cope well with changes and challenges,” Kirsty said.
“We deal with things so much easier when we are looking after ourselves.
“Comms roles are demanding. But you must be kind to yourself. Are you eating and sleeping well? Are you looking after yourself – or are you sat at your desk from 7am to 7pm without having a break?
“If it is the latter, that is not good for mind or body.
“When you are feeling strong and are looking after yourself, you feel like you are ready to take on the world. If you are sleep deprived and are focusing on the negatives, it will be hard to make a decision in that mindset.
“The other key thing is that when things change fast in the workplace, it is not personal. If we don’t have a strong mindset and are not looking after ourselves, it can be easy to think that it is your fault when, in reality, the organisation needs to do something different to meet its priorities.”
The role of reflection
Another crucial area for building personal resilience is self-reflection.
This isn’t about dwelling on the past and letting our inner critic take over. Instead, it is about processing what has happened and thinking about what you can learn from it.
“Self-reflection can feel a bit alien and wishy-washy,” Kirsty said.
“But it feeds into emotional intelligence and self-awareness.
“If we take a minute to stop and reflect on situations, rather than rushing off to the next thing at 100mph and not giving a second thought, what we can take from that will help us learn, develop and improve.
“When we are aware of how we react and behave, it comes from reflection. And it feeds into self-awareness because we can do something about it.
“So, you need to shift your mindset from ‘why me?’, ‘this always happens to me’ to ‘what can I learn from this situation?’, ‘what could I do differently?’.
“If things have not gone that well, you might want to move on and never think about it again. But it is an opportunity to grow and build our resilience. Reflect on how your actions and behaviours could have led to a different outcome.”
But don’t forget to reflect on what went well.
Kirsty added: “You also need to recognise what went well. Then the next time you are in a challenging situation, you can think back to what went well last time you dealt with something similar.”
How much time should you spend on self-reflection?
Dan said: “I often hear people say, ‘I haven’t got time to reflect'. But how can you not have time to do that? You can’t move forward, you can’t grow, and you can’t develop if you are not reflecting.
“It is not about setting yourself an hour every day to go and reflect. You could do that. But you could also reflect in the car on the way home or on the train. Or you could keep a journal and spend two minutes at the end of the day jotting down how things went.
“I do it at the end of each webinar, course or coaching session. You do it because you pick things up that can change and things you didn’t plan to do, but that worked well.”
Timing is an important consideration in reflection.
“If something has gone badly wrong and you did not feel you reacted well, and you react on that five minutes later, you are reflecting from the wound,” Kirsty said. “It will still be raw.
“But if you wait a while, you will come from it from a different perspective, you’ll think differently, and there may be more to learn from it. Reflect from the scar, not the wound.”
Self-awareness
The other vital area of personal resilience that Dan and Kirsty focused on was self-awareness.
It is about understanding your strengths, what you need to perform at your best and what your trigger points and coping mechanisms are.
“Reflection encourages self-awareness,” Kirsty said.
“And to be resilient, you need to be aware of what you need to perform well in certain situations.
“If you know that when someone senior comes to you and asks you to do something, you say ‘yes’ to everything because you don’t want to challenge them, and that leads you not to perform well, you need to understand what you need to succeed in that situation.
“It may be that you need to speak to your manager. Or that you have to have a conversation about priorities upfront
“Also, think about how your behaviours and reactions impact situations. When you are self-aware, you can be intentional about how you react and become conscious about it.
“You’ll know what the outcome will be on the individual, team or business when you behave in a certain way.
“So, you become intentional about that, rather than being triggered and reacting without being calm.
“The self-awareness comes from the reflection, which comes from looking after yourself – all these things add up to creating a more resilient workplace for you.”
Dan added: “One of the big things for me with resilience is self-awareness and emotional intelligence. Understand how you feel in the moment, and then think about what you are doing to regulate that.
“If someone has sent you an email that has made you feel angry, recognise that you are feeling angry and frustrated, and rather than reacting, go for a walk or make a cup of coffee and let it out of your system a bit.”
How can you help your team be more resilient?
Let’s think back to what resilience means.
It is about being able to adapt, move on quicker, and look for solutions. How much more effective and productive would it be to have a whole team that thinks that way?
One of the great things about resilience is that once you are resilient, you can help those around you better deal with a difficult situation and make better choices and decisions.
And you don’t need to be a manager to do it.
Dan said: “You don’t have to be a manager to have an input here.
“A leader isn’t someone who is in a position of power. A leader is someone that leads by example, sets the vision, a person others want to follow.”
Support
To do this, and provide the right support, you need to build relationships and better understand those around you.
“Don’t jump in and make assumptions about what people need,” Dan said.
“You could end up addressing the wrong problem or not getting to the root cause of it.
“Try to understand the people around you. I think nine times out of 10 people will be pleased you have gone out of your way to ask how they feel.”
Expectations and demands
Having clear expectations also plays a pivotal role in building team resilience.
Kirsty said: “You can’t manage expectations if you haven’t set them.
“So, be clear about what is required of the individual, team and you. And be open and transparent about that.
“If you set that at the start, and then six months later, things are not going as well as they should, those difficult conversations are much easier because you’ve been clear about what the expectations are.”
It is also crucial to be open about the demand of the role, particularly with those who may be new to the team.
Kirsty said: “The comms role is demanding. If someone new joins your team, be open with them about the demands of the job. They might be sitting there thinking, ‘is this normal?’, ‘is it just me this happens to?’.
“Then you are helping them by understanding what they need, but also preparing them so they know what tends to happen and when.”
Culture
How can you create a culture that supports resilience?
It is a big topic. But one area you can think about now is how your attitude and behaviour impact team culture.
There is a model sometimes used during the training at The BCF Group called Betari’s Box.
It is a simple model showing how our attitudes and behaviours impact those around us. If you are feeling positive and motivated, that will rub off on those around you.
But the same is also true if you are argumentative and dismissive.
“Let’s say you’ve had a bad morning, with a horrible commute, and you’re thinking ‘it is going to be a bad day’,” Dan said. “When you are in that mindset when you get into work, and someone asks you to do something, your behaviour can be almost dismissive.
“That then impacts their attitude and their behaviours.
“It is contagious. But you have a choice. You can stop it at the attitude point. If you know your triggers, you can take yourself out of the situation for 10 minutes. And that could stop your attitude from affecting your behaviours and impacting others.”
Another way to think of it is to consider the shadow you are casting.
Kirsty said: “As comms professionals, you are role models. People look up to you. And they will look at your attitudes and behaviours.
“So, think about what shadow you are casting. People are watching, so be a positive role model.”
People
To improve team resilience, we must also consider how we interact with our colleagues.
In the comms world, that can often mean senior leaders and people from outside the organisation, including journalists and stakeholders.
They may want you to drop what you are doing and focus on the work or problem they are trying to tackle.
Dan said: “Dealing with the opinions of others can be difficult. Trying not to take it personally can be tricky. You have to shift your mindset and think about where they are coming from and what they need.
“If it is an internal request, it is also about letting them know what you will need to drop or delay to make their request happen.
“If it is a request from a journalist, who is the best person to deal with that? What work would you need to put off to manage it? And who could take that on?”
How can you take this into your role?
As a comms professional, one of your roles may be to support and prepare spokespeople ahead of media interviews.
How could you use these resilience tips and techniques in this situation?
Well, you can support them by understanding what they need from you to make the interview successful. And that may involve you adapting because they need more time for briefings and rehearsals. Or they might want to be briefed differently to your other spokespeople.
If they’ve recently had an interview that did not go too well, what feedback can you give them to recover quickly and build their confidence?
“This is all around your adaptability, self-awareness of how you manage people, managing their expectations and setting the scene,” Kirsty said.
“If you are adaptable, you will make it easier for them to adapt.
“And, if you have worked on your resilience, you can help them. It becomes a collaborative process.
“You can help and support each other to make the interview a success.”
Don’t forget, you can watch this masterclass – and all the previous ones - in the ‘masterclass video library’ section of the resource hub.
