Executive Summary

Stress and burnout in our professional and personal lives harm our physical, emotional and mental health and prevent us from performing at our very best. Women, particularly those women with complex intersectional identities, from underrepresented groups who may are more likely to experience both conscious and unconscious bias and microaggressions, and are more likely to be affected by stress more acutely. Resilience is a skill that enables us to tackle adversity, crisis and stresses such as interpersonal problems, serious health threats or financial and workplace pressures. Resilience also gives us the ability to emerge stronger as a result of these challenges. Fortunately, there are practical and research-driven ways you can build your resilience and reduce stress.

How To Build Resilience

Depending on one’s identity and needs, there are many ways to build resilience. This toolkit will explore the following tactics in detail: 

• Create meaning through altruistic behaviors, such as volunteering.

• Connect with others to develop a strong social support system by joining communities such as civic or faith-based groups or professional women female or other affinity networks.

• Develop compassion as a conduit for empathy, inclusivity and empowering others (core attributes of accessible leadership).

• Practice self-compassion to protect against the negative effects of self-criticism and feelings such as isolation, anxiety, anger and imposter syndrome.

• Adopt a growth mindset by viewing failure as a “not yet” and an opportunity to learn from mistakes, investing in learning, gathering feedback and taking risks.

• Be agile and optimistic by transforming obstacles into opportunities for success and continuing to adapt and evolve.

• Practice becoming comfortable with discomfort by controlling and tracking emotions during moments of distress through mindfulness, breathing and other tactics.

• Manage time with greater efficiency by prioritizing tasks and creating moments for relaxation and self-care to reduce stress and build resilience.

• Build self-awareness of internal feelings, behaviors, strengths and weaknesses and, through the feedback of “loving critics,” learn how others perceive us. 

• Develop emotional intelligence, or the ability to manage and be sensitive to both one’s own feelings and those of others.

• Be authentic by aligning one’s identities and passions with workplace responsibilities and activities, as well as adapting one’s approach to a specific situation or individual without compromising one’s values.

• Use humor to mitigate workplace stress, diffuse tensions, build strong personal relationships and lay the foundations for difficult negotiations.

• Meditate to promote health, peace, relaxation, compassion for others and self-care.

• Prime the physical through regular exercise, healthy eating and plenty of sleep—all linked to improvements in mood, energy levels and reduced stress and fatigue.

• Practice gratitude by keeping track of positive events and interactions, creating gratitude lists and taking the time to write letters or call otherspeople to express appreciation.

Developing resilience is a proven way to combat the negative effects stress may have on your success, performance and wellbeing. These tactics can help build that resilience in order to navigate the unpredictable nature of life and work, while also nurturing the motivation to continue your leadership journey with strength, meaning and joy.