Manager verlangen mehr Resilienz von ihren Mitarbeitern. Doch Menschen sind weder Schildkröten

Resilience is not an indestructible shield. Managers need to abandon myths surrounding the concept. Have you experienced the feeling that everything is too much? Images and news from war zones, economic and geopolitical crises, and the unstoppable climate change with its tangible consequences weigh heavily on us. Faced with our own helplessness in many of these issues, we long for a thick armor that keeps us untouched by all of it.

Business leaders would love to buy such armor for their employees. They would like people who can handle stress and crises without needing time off. They want to build resilience! "We send people to a half-day workshop for that," they decide. Soon, they quickly pick up the phone. Foolish, though, when a workplace psychologist sits on the other end, criticizing the trendy theme.

Especially when it's about making employees more resilient to finally perform better and feel less stressed. But let's continue. Resilience has become an all-purpose cure in these turbulent times. Books, courses, videos, and podcasts about the topic are booming. They promise to strengthen inner strength so that people can better cope with crises and challenges in both private and professional life.

However, the more we talk about resilience, the stronger the myths surrounding it grow. One myth originates from physics and refers to the ability of a material to return to its original shape after deformation caused by pressure and stress. But humans are not rubber balls that simply snap back into shape after a blow. Those who have experienced burnout or a life-changing event come out of it changed.

Some shift their priorities or values, others develop new habits or skills. And some change employers. This is a sign of human adaptability, which has kept us alive since time immemorial. A second myth is the panther myth. Many believe that you either have a panther, i.e., are resilient, or you don't. This overlooks two facts. Firstly, the learned component of resilience is greater than the genetic component.

Resilience is more something you do than something you possess. Everyone can strengthen it – or neglect it. Consultant Liane Stephan and her colleagues write in their book that resilience is a skill "that must be practiced daily, weekly, monthly," and we each have an individual responsibility to become more resilient. Secondly, the panther metaphor fails because personal resilience has limits.

Stephan explains that even the most resilient person in the world is overwhelmed when there are too many stressors at work, factors that trigger stress. Studies by her team show that the more stressors there are at work, the fewer people describe themselves as highly resilient and the more as low resilient. The reason is that with increasing stressors, the ability to behave resiliently decreases.

When there is too much workplace stress, people consciously forgo resilience-promoting activities like physical exercise, relaxation, sleep, controlled breathing, or social connections. It's precisely when we need it most that we don't do it. The third myth about resilience is the assumption that it is exclusively a personal matter.

But resilient individuals do not make a resilient team. The half-day resilience course evaporates when a team is constantly understaffed or even afraid of its dissolution. Such situations crush a team. Psychologists Marcel Baumgartner and Lea Waldner from the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland research team resilience.

Their studies show that team resilience emerges when a team has a shared understanding and clarity about goals, roles, and decisions, when the relationship quality is right, and when the team continuously adapts and develops. They emphasize that "team resilience helps to cope with burdens together, but it replaces organizational decisions on resources, priorities, processes, and realistic performance expectations.

And that requires leadership. I sometimes jump over my shadow and give resilience workshops, but only when the conditions are right. Ordering a panther is not the solution. Failing is not provided for in our performance-oriented society. Even small children learn in school that winners and not losers are produced. The goal is to set everyone under stress, because failure can also open up new horizons.

Research understands resilience as the ability to adapt to and cope with adversity, but can we simply train endurance like countless guides claim?