Hi Sue
I just finished an escalated call and whilst hearing the customer rant, I was thinking about our coaching. I finished the call feeling calm and quite proud of myself and my colleague said ‘Hey Emily, you handled that call really well’. My reply was, ‘I chose to not let him affect me’. During the call, the customer said I was a maggot and I should harm myself. At that moment I smiled to myself and apologised to the customer, saying I couldn’t help him further and how sorry I was how he had become so upset. Not once did this make me upset or make me angry, I just felt sorry for him instead. Normally I would be using sign language on my computer screen or pulling faces with my co-workers. Today I was in the  ‘Unshakeable  Zone’.  Hee Hee.

 Obviously it’s going to take me a lot of time to be good at this and to think of the ‘powers’ I have, but I would definitely like to pass this onto my co-workers as I feel they can benefit from this, as that call above is similar to what we receive on a daily basis.

 Sue, the main message I got from our coaching is you have the power to choose the way you feel and think, that until we accept responsibility for the role we play in creating or maintaining it, our stress levels will remain outside of our control.

 Looking forward to seeing you again. 

Emily

Being resilient is essential to your wellbeing at work. 

Rather than you just being able to withstand difficult conditions, how would you like to thrive in them?  Hopefully, in your role, you don’t have to listen to extreme abuse like Emily does. However, there are many roles in which you do need to develop your resilience.

Does your role include:

• Helping to resolve other people’s issues and getting abused along the way.

• Being the bearer of bad

• Listening to sad stories, all day, every

• Listening to complaints, problems and situations to which there is no resolution you can offer that the person will be happy

• Trying repeatedly to explain some information to people who just can’t (or won’t) hear

• Making decisions that have a huge impact on people’s lives.

When many people think about resilience, they talk about ‘bouncing back quickly’. Rather than getting up quickly every time you get knocked down, what if you have tools and strategies to reduce the likelihood of getting knocked down in the first place?

The key to recovering more quickly is being less affected in the first place.

*Research indicates that resilience training can improve your personal resilience and is useful in developing your mental health and wellbeing.  Research also shows that resilience training has a number of wider benefits, including enhanced psychosocial functioning and improved performance.  What are you doing to actively develop your resilience at work?