Resilience isn’t just about grit or ‘toughing it out’, it’s a core strategic asset that drives productivity, retention and long-term business performance. In this thought-provoking op-ed, Jenny Segal, author, speaker and workplace culture expert, explores why financial advice firms must treat resilience as a business-critical capability, not a soft skill. Drawing on insights from her latest research and her new book, Jenny outlines how firms can build psychologically safe, high-performing cultures where advisers and teams truly thrive.
Jenny joined us recently – with Annabel Gillard- on IFA Talk, the IFA Magazine podcast, to discuss leadership and workplace wellbeing in financial services with particular reference to AI. It’s a great listen, even if we do say it ourselves, and you can find the episode [here].
By Jenny Segal, author, speaker and expert on workplace culture. Jenny’s fifth book, “On Motivation: Personal & Professional Resilience” is available now.
After the COVID lockdowns, resilience has become something of a buzzword and a topic widely discussed. Businesses need more of it. People need more of it. Generation Snowflake needs a LOT more of it. We have come to think of resilience as something that we either have or we don’t, and if we don’t – well – we just need to pull our socks up, buckle down and sort ourselves out.
Why financial advice firms can’t rely on the old view of resilience
The trouble is that, for many people, this traditional grin-and-bear-it approach just doesn’t wash. And whilst hard-nosed businesses might say: ‘So what? It’s not my problem’, their success depends on the input of their employees, and if employees are falling short because they are not coping with the stuff of life, their personal problems hit the bottom line and become the business’s problem. That’s what.
Building resilience in financial services means strengthening it like a muscle
When we are put in a stressful situation, some of us bounce back quickly whilst others take longer, and we think of this timeframe as a measure of our personal resilience. Some people ARE more inherently resilient through a combination of nature and nurture, but we all appreciate that our own resilience increases when we navigate and survive life’s obstacles. We can think of resilience as a muscle that can be strengthened through exercise, applying targeted stress when our body has the capacity to take it. In this sense, ‘capacity’ depends on a range of factors, such as physical and mental health, how well we have slept, whether we are hungry and the variety of coping strategies we are able to deploy.
Growth and recovery follow a predictable resilience cycle
The time it takes for a challenging situation to translate into a growth experience that builds resilience varies greatly. But what does not appear to vary is the stages that we cycle through to get there, as we deal with what has happened to us. The first is that we react: in the moment of extreme stress, our survival instinct kicks in and we do whatever we need to so as to remove ourselves from the source of danger. We adopt coping mechanisms to get us through the short term, some of which are adaptive (healthy), such as reassuring ourselves with mantras or affirmations, confronting the problem head-on or distracting ourselves to allow time for our minds to self-regulate. Some are maladaptive, such as avoidance and compartmentalisation. Once the immediate crisis point has passed, we can process what has happened, and finally we can assimilate our learnings, from identifying and addressing unhelpful behaviour patterns right through to precipitating a major life reappraisal.
Financial firms must support employees through the resilience process
The interesting point is that whilst we are working through this cycle, our resilience can actually decrease from its starting level; it is only once we have completed the process (and sometimes we never get there) that our resilience increases. Through a workplace lens, this means that we should be doing everything we can to support and accelerate the React → Process → Assimilate cycle, to enable our employees to recover, thrive and return to delivering for the business.
Toxic leadership and poor culture erode employee resilience
But the role that the workplace plays in resilience has a darker side. Quite shockingly, for 38% of the interviewees who took part in my research, work was the cause of their resilience trial. Daily interaction with a dysfunctional workplace wears us down, eroding our ability to deliver our ‘A’ game. But more worrying, some workplaces are so toxic that they prevent us from functioning at all. And it is down to the usual suspects: bullying, micromanagement, sexual harassment and (typically gender) bias, often stemming from a failure of leadership. In brief, it boils down to workplace culture.
Poor workplace culture costs financial advice firms productivity and performance
This is a total own goal. A lack of personal resilience affects our ability to focus, which impacts every aspect of work and business life, from staff retention, to performance, to risk management, right the way up to decision-making quality at executive and board level. Addressing workplace culture failures up front has the potential to increase the productivity of over one-third of the workforce.
Life challenges are inevitable—but supportive leadership makes all the difference
Life happens: divorce, illness, childcare issues, elderly parents. The stresses associated with these cannot be eliminated, but they can be ameliorated. The number one lifeline during times of stress is having a support network, with 73% of my interviewees explicitly stating its importance, and the good news is that we can provide support structures at work that can improve the background resilience of employees.
Financial services leaders must invest in policies that promote wellbeing
Firstly, introduce (or refresh) workplace policies, from employee-assistance programmes, to mental health officers, to whistleblowing procedures, to compassionate leave and flexible working. Then recognise that great policies can only be effective if they are backed by great managers who are approachable, empathetic and proactive when someone is struggling. This requires the business to invest in their people function, appointing managers who have the skills, interest, training and time to provide support to their team members.
Psychological safety underpins every high-performing advice business
And the foundation of it all is a culture of psychological safety. Without it, no one will ever admit they have a problem for fear of how their career might be impacted.
Resilience is a business advantage for forward-thinking advice firms
Employees’ personal resilience is a strategic asset and firms that treat it with rigour will reduce the likelihood of silent quitting and burnout, paving the way to outperformance. Resilience is not just a ‘nice-to-have’: it is a true strategic enabler.
