Resilience at Work: The Fire That Keeps Us Going
After my third panel on Resilience (the first one had a great 6 min recap here), I decided it was time to put pen to paper and write an article about this topic.
What’s Resilience?
The definition I’ve found online was “the ability to recover quickly from illness, change or misfortune” without skipping any steps in the process, I’d add.
Often, resilience involves grief - whether due to a loss of health, a shift in status quo, or an unexpected downturn. Grief has its stages: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. The quicker we move through them, the more resilient we seem - but it’s crucial not to skip any. Skipping stages (e.g. avoiding feelings) is dehumanizing. It splits us into “rational” or “emotional” beings; we’re both.
Why I Care Deeply About This
I was lucky - or perhaps just early - to be exposed to personal challenges early in life. Growing up in Argentina, where there’s little stigma around psychotherapy (even TV anchors talk about their therapists), I began therapy at 8 years old. That gave me a toolkit for reflection and emotional processing that’s shaped my life and career.
Fast forward to today: I’ve been fortunate to create thriving work environments and be recognized for it. But more importantly, I’ve seen how resilience - both personal and collective - is essential in a world defined by disruption and constant change.
Resilience: A Capability You Can Build
There are two main sources of resilience:
1. Individual Resilience
This is built through experience - and reflection. The more we go through, the more resilient we become - if we take time to extract meaning.
Reflection is the tool that compounds learning through experience. In other words, reflecting about “setbacks” in your life can turn them into learnings that help you bounce back even higher than before.
One tool that’s helped me through personal setbacks is the Serenity Prayer: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.” For me, courage comes easily. Acceptance? Not so much. That’s why Ray Dalio’s principle resonated:
Pain + Non-Acceptance = Suffering.
Pain + Acceptance = Pain.
I come back to that often.
2. Collective Resilience
Organizations and teams build resilience by strengthening trust and connection. When we go through tough things together, we gain confidence not just in ourselves - but in each other.
This happens in real relationships, not in all-hands virtual meetings with packed agenda items. There’s no shortcut to building trust; it takes time and intentionality to getting to know each other 1:1. Vulnerability plays a key role here - but with a word of caution for leaders.
The Vulnerability Trap for Leaders
As a leader, you should go first in demonstrating vulnerability. It sets the tone. But vulnerability needs context.
If your team is looking to you for vision, saying “I have no idea where we’re going” may backfire. Instead, acknowledge the uncertainty, then share how you’re thinking about it. Vulnerability in areas where the team doesn’t need or depend on you is great. Vulnerability where they do can erode confidence as a leader. It’s a balance - one I’m still learning.
Interestingly, recent research from the Culture Factor shows that cultures with lower power distance (less hierarchy) tend to have higher psychological safety. Less hierarchy could lead to more openness and in turn more resilient teams.
The Fire: Four Ingredients of Resilience
If resilience is like a fire - the energy that keeps us going - then we need four things:
A Spark (chemical chain reaction): an opportunity or a moment of reflection
Fuel (our purpose): the more connected we are to our personal purpose the more energy we’ll feel to keep going
Oxygen (our emotional bandwidth): our capacity to be ready to confront tough moments
Heat (our environment or momentum): the people around us that we feel connected to or the momentum that creates a sense of agency/mastery within us
Three Ways to Build Resilience at Work
If you’re looking for a starting point, here’s a simple framework:
Know Yourself: Reflect on your past. Identify your values, write your life principles, commit to a personal purpose.
Get to Know Each Other: Connect one-on-one. Build trust by being human - open, curious, vulnerable.
Co-Create a Psychologically Safe Environment: Create the heat needed for psychological safety. Foster a non-judgmental space where people can learn from setbacks, not hide them.
Final Thought
Resilience isn’t just a buzzword. It’s a capability. And like any capability, it can be practiced, refined, and scaled - starting with you, and sharing it with to your team.
So, ask yourself: Are you building resilience - or just hoping to have it when you need it?
Disclaimer: This post was originally written on LinkedIn in 2025. Everything shared in this content represents my personal viewpoint. It reflects my perceptions, memories, and interpretation of events, and should not be understood as factual claims about others. Any mention of people, organizations, or situations is intended solely to illustrate my personal experience. I do not assert, imply, or intend to assert any defamatory statements about any individual or entity.
