Last week, Guild released the first-of-its-kind Talent Resilience Index, a quantitative benchmark of workforce mobility and adaptability across the US labor market, in partnership with Lightcast. What it shows? Workforce mobility is a powerful signal of systemic resilience in our country and across our industries, and it's hit its lowest point since 2016. The aggregate data tells a compelling story, but I'm left thinking about resilience at the individual level. I've gotten pretty curious about resilience as a skill - in our personal lives and professionally. It's the "bounce back" ability - the capacity to withstand or recover from challenges or failures, and come back stronger. You can't build resilience without facing difficulty or setbacks. As a people manager, I used to think of my role as being responsible for removing roadblocks for my team, for minimizing the possibility of failure, for helping bear the weight of challenges. When I consider this in the context of resilience, I wonder if this approach yields easier wins but less resilient teams. There is a balance to be struck between removing obstacles and cheering on your colleague when they face the obstacle head-on, fall down, and do that beautiful bounce back. People managers, does this resonate? How do you build resilience in your teams and organizations? Tagging in some favorite leaders for hot takes 🔥: Kristie Griffin Allison Van Voorhis Bridget Hopkins LeShanda D. Liz Longenecker Nathaniel Cole Stafford Brunk Josh Hadden-Leggett Jonathan Marek Sveta Dawant Chandler K. Jay Nancarrow Abby Hollern Crissy McConnell Claire M. Casey Boyles https://lnkd.in/gxjzCfPV
Chandler K.
7mo
While flawed in some other domains, one framework that has always resonated for me is the Taleb's concept of "anti-fragility: in teams and people. I had an experience early in my career where I was leading a high performing team that was effectively unchanged for ~3 years. I thought my job was to protect them, to shield them so they could focus and delivery. It was incredible, productive, impactful to the business, until it wasn't and shattered in a big boom. It was too fragile, and the growth of the humans within ultimately made it break as their needs changed and our team couldn't change. Since then, I continuously introduce micro-stresses into my teams so that the organism changes and adapts over time. I've found this builds resilience for the individuals and resilience for the team as a collection of people to do a job.
Michelle Kay
7mo
I think almost everything about leadership today, and in the future, will be rooted in paradox. I also used to see leadership as removing roadblocks and that's still how we often describe the role of a senior leader. And the intent makes sense - to clear the path so they can do the great work they were hired to do. But the unintended consequences are that we removed their exposure to discomfort, influence without authority, and learning how to be politically savvy. Building resilience has to include distress tolerance...but not in a toxic way :). In a way that leaders intentionally expose their teams to low risk situations and then gradually increase the risk level over time.
Sveta Dawant
7mo
I love this - and (probably a function of where i’m spending time the last two weeks) there are a lot of parallels to parenting for me. We can step in quickly to solve our teams (or kids) problems - answer the question for them, save everyone some time and frustration. that’s often the path of least resistance, and we’re tempted to take it because we care, but it doesn’t help build resilience. the Talent Code is an interesting book with some parallels on the biological need to try new stretch problems and make and fix mistakes to learn and build resilience.
LeShanda D.
7mo
Love this, Alana. The TR Index really reflects what we’re seeing on the ground. Mobility is slowing, so helping people grow through challenge feels more important than ever. From a People Ops and ER perspective, resilience builds when folks have context, safety to try and fail, and space to problem-solve. If we remove every obstacle, we also remove the opportunity to learn. Resilience isn’t just pushing through. It’s reflecting, adapting, and coming back clearer and stronger. Really appreciate this conversation.
Jonathan Marek
7mo
One of my favorite questions to ask a member of my team is “what would you do if you were me?” Then I listen and have a conversation. Sometimes they take us down the unblocking or “help me bear the weight” path, but they have more agency in that next step. Sometimes they go down the “I’d tell me to step up and solve the problem myself” path. Sometimes they just react to the idea that I think they could be and might someday be in my position, and they gain agency from that. But I’ve never seen anyone feel less agency or resilience after that type of conversation.
Love this reflection, Alana. I often find myself having similar conversations —one that recognizes individuals from marginalized backgrounds, challenging circumstances, or simply those who’ve been the underdogs. The grit, resilience, and survival instincts these individuals develop can outshine almost any credential. Yet, these life skills rarely appear on a résumé or get captured by our systems and software. But those skills come alive when we listen to their individual story. Failure should be seen as just a step closer to mastery—a powerful learning mechanism. And grit? It’s one of the most underrated superpowers.