Building and Leading Resilient Teams: Module 1
Module 1: Raise morale in the workplace by creating a positive climate for people to work in.
When morale is low, performance suffers. When morale is high, performance can soar. Climate is about the shared perceptions and attitudes of teammates. Your team’s climate can change quickly, for better or worse, based on your actions and the actions of your teammates. You can raise your team’s morale by creating a positive climate for people to work in. The result is more flexibility, creativity, and openness to new ideas. Positive emotions help people cope with stress. Teams that work in a positive climate are better able to overcome adversity, and then adapt and grow together because of that adversity.
Why build and lead resilient teams?
In any organization, getting the work done can be hard. Resilient teams thrive in challenging environments because they can overcome adversity, and then adapt and grow together. Leaders build resilient teams by creating a positive climate, developing cohesion, and providing purpose. Building resilient teams makes team learning possible. Team learning is the foundation of organizational learning and change.
Learning Objectives for Module 1: Raise morale in the workplace by creating a positive climate for people to work in.
Assignment 1. Learn the following key terms and ideas. Knowing these key terms and ideas is essential to understanding the concepts that support each leader task in this module. (0.5 hours)
Key Terms and Ideas
- Climate is the shared perceptions that people have regarding the attitudes and emotions that characterize their team.
- Culture is the shared values and beliefs that govern how people behave across an organization.
- Competence is having the knowledge and skills to do something well.
- Integrity is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles.
- Authenticity is about being transparent with your thoughts, emotions, values, and beliefs.
- Vulnerability is being open to the risk of emotional exposure.
- Dignity is the inherent importance, value, and worth of a person.
- Active listening is seeking to understand meaning and intent without preemptively judging.
- Accountability is the obligation and willingness to accept responsibility for one’s actions.
- Standard is an expectation, norm, or rule that is generally accepted or specifically required.
- Character is the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual.
- Moral Courage is acting for moral reasons despite the risk of adverse reactions.
- Honesty is being free of deceit and showing genuine principles, intentions, and actions.
- Humility is having a modest opinion or assessment of one’s importance.
- Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.
- Transparency is open, honest, and accessible communication.
Assignment 2. Reflect on your unique leader/follower experience with each of the leader tasks and concepts below. Consider ALL the reflection questions in detail. The articles are provided to prompt critical thinking about the topics. (5.5 hours)
Leader Tasks and Concepts
1. Analyze team climate.
Climate is the shared perceptions that people have regarding the attitudes and emotions that characterize their team. Positive climates are characterized by positive attitudes and emotions. Emotions and attitudes, both positive and negative, can be contagious. Creating a positive climate raises morale.
- How would you rate the climate of your team? Is it mostly positive, or mostly negative? Why?
- How does being around people with positive or negative attitudes affect you?
Culture is the shared assumptions, values, and beliefs that govern how people behave across an organization. It’s possible to have a positive team climate inside of a not-so-good organizational culture. Bad team climate inside of a great organizational culture is also possible (and unfortunate).
- Have you worked on a team with positive climate inside an organization with not-so-good culture?
- Have you worked on team with bad climate inside an organization with great culture?
- Have you worked on a team with positive climate inside an organization that also had great culture?
Culture can only change slowly over time. However, climate can change quickly depending on the actions of team members and leaders.
- Have you experienced the slow change of an organization’s culture? Was the culture getting better or worse over time?
- Have you been on a team when the climate got better or worse quickly? What was the cause?
In a positive climate, people are more flexible, creative, and open to new ideas. Working in a positive climate improves the team’s ability to solve problems and overcome challenges. Creating a positive climate is essential for building resilient teams.
- Are you personally more flexible, creative, and open to new ideas when you are working on a team with a positive climate?
- In your experience, how does raising morale help teams overcome adversity and the adapt and grow together because of that adversity?
Reading:
4 of the Most Important Positive Emotions and What They Do
The Benefits of Positive Emotions for Inhibiting Anger
Practice Emotional Inclusion at Work, Not Toxic Positivity
2. Earn Trust.
When people trust their leaders, they are more willing to give a 100% effort at work. Trust is hard to earn and easy to lose. Earning trust helps create a positive climate.
- How would you rate your ability to earn trust?
- Have you earned someone’s trust and then lost it? Did you earn it back?
- Have you ever worked for someone that did not earn your trust?
- In your experience, how does trust in leaders affect morale?
Leaders earn trust when they demonstrate competence and integrity. Competence is having the knowledge and skills to do something well. Integrity is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. Earning trust takes time.
- How would you rate yourself on competence?
- Do you think your team would describe you as having integrity?
- Have you ever worked for someone that was not competent? Did you trust him or her?
- Have you ever worked for someone that did not have integrity? Did you trust him or her?
Leaders earn trust when they are authentic and vulnerable. Authenticity is about being transparent with your thoughts, emotions, values, and beliefs. Vulnerability is being open to the risk of emotional exposure. Being authentic can make a person vulnerable. Being vulnerable is a strength that takes courage.
- Would you describe yourself as being authentic?
- Does being vulnerable make you uncomfortable?
- Is being authentic and vulnerable something that you can personally get better at? Why or why not?
- Have you worked for someone that was not authentic? Did you trust him or her?
- Based on your experience, what are some other challenges and best practices for earning trust?
Reading:
Being Authentic Earns Trust
6 Ways to Build Workplace Trust
5 Fundamental Ways to Earn Leadership Credibility
Where Are the Trustworthy Leaders?
The 7 Habits of Truly Genuine People
How to Earn Trust as a Leader?
How Can Leaders Earn Trust?
3. Treat people with respect.
Leaders can treat people with respect by recognizing their dignity. Dignity is the inherent importance, value, and worth of a person. Treating people with respect helps create a positive climate.
- How would you rate yourself at treating people with respect?
- Have you worked for someone that did not treat you with respect? Did you respect him or her?
- Have you worked for someone that treated some people with respect, but not others?
- In your experience, how does treating people with respect affect morale?
Leaders can treat people with respect by consistently providing equal access to opportunities and resources to all team members in the workplace.
- How would you rate yourself at providing equal access to opportunities and resources?
- Have you worked for someone that did not provide equal access to opportunities and resources? How did that impact the team’s climate?
Leaders can treat people with respect by actively listening and valuing their opinions. Active listening is seeking to understand meaning and intent without preemptively judging. Valuing opinions doesn’t necessarily mean agreeing with those opinions.
- How would you rate yourself at active listening? Could you improve?
- How would you rate yourself at valuing the opinions of others?
- Have you worked for someone that did not listen to you or value your work? How did that affect your willingness to work for him or her?
- Based on your experience, what are some other challenges and best practices for treating people with respect?
Reading:
Respect Your Employees
Respect: Yearned for, But Missed in Organizations
The Fight for Fairness in the Workplace
The Wisdom of Emotions At Work
4. Enforce accountability.
Accountability is the obligation and willingness to accept responsibility for one’s actions. When enforcing accountability, leaders should be firm, fair, and consistent. Enforcing accountability helps create a positive climate.
- How would rate yourself at enforcing accountability?
- Would others describe you as firm, fair, and consistent?
- Have you worked for someone that did not enforce accountability?
- In your experience, how does enforcing accountability affect morale?
Leaders should hold themselves accountable to the same or higher standards they expect of others. A standard is an expectation, norm, or rule that are generally accepted or specifically required. Team members should also hold each other accountable.
- Have you worked in an environment where accountability was not enforced? What impact did that have in the workplace?
- Have you worked for someone that did not hold themselves accountable to the same standards they expected of others?
Enforcing accountability usually isn’t about punishments. In most cases, it means ensuring that people are learning from their mistakes. Leaders need to invest the time required to help people learn from their mistakes.
- Is accountability being enforced in your workplace? If not, why not?
- Is accountability mostly about punishments or learning in your workplace?
- Have you worked for someone that did not invest the time required to help people learn from their mistakes?
- Based on your experience, what are some other challenges and best practices for enforcing accountability?
Reading:
Why Effective Leaders Must Master Accountability
The Difference Between Shame and Accountability
Accountability – What Dysfunctional Teams Are Missing
The Right Way to Hold People Accountable
5. Encourage people to have fun.
Having some fun at work is possible no matter how serious the job is. Hard work and fun are not mutually exclusive. Encouraging people to have fun increases positive emotions and attitudes and helps create a positive climate.
- How do you and your team have fun at work?
- Have you worked for someone that thought there was no time for fun at work?
- In your experience, how does having fun at work affect morale?
Having fun at work helps people relax and take a mental break from challenges. Humor and laughter can help relieve anxiety and stress. However, leaders must ensure that people are not having fun at other’s expense. Humor must be in good taste and acceptable to all.
- How important are mental breaks in the work that you do?
- Are you personally able to take mental breaks at work? If not, why not?
- Have you witnessed humor in bad taste at work? Was that behavior addressed?
- Based on your experience, what are some other challenges and best practices for encouraging people to have fun?
Reading:
Reduce Workplace Stress Through Fun Activities
Workplace Humor Has Some Unexpected Benefits
6. Demonstrate character.
Character is the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual. A leader’s character will make or break their reputation. While there are many important character traits for leaders, the traits of moral courage, honesty, humility, and empathy are especially important for building and leading resilient teams.
- Have you worked for someone that had impeccable character?
- Have you worked for someone that lacked character?
- In your experience, how does the character of leaders affect morale?
Moral Courage is acting for moral reasons despite the risk of adverse reactions. Honesty is being free of deceit and showing genuine principles, intentions, and actions. Humility is having a modest opinion or assessment of one’s importance. Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.
- How would you rate yourself on moral courage, honesty, humility, and empathy?
- Have you worked for someone that lacked one or more of these character traits? How did that affect the team?
- Based on your experience, what are some other challenges and best practices for demonstrating character?
Reading:
Demonstrate Character with Moral Courage and Honesty
Demonstrate Character with Empathy and Humility
The Struggle with Moral Courage in Challenging Moments
Lies in the Workplace
The Paradoxical Power of Humility
Is Empathy Redundant for Successful Leadership?
Keeping the team informed provides transparency and helps overcome resistance to change. Transparency is open, honest, and accessible communication. People appreciate getting important news, good or bad, in a timely manner. Keeping people informed helps create a positive climate.
- How would you rate yourself at keeping the team informed? Could you improve?
- Have you ever worked for someone that did not keep people informed?
- In your experience, how does keeping people informed affect morale?
Knowledge is power. Not having information is stressful. Leaders should ask themselves, what do I know, who needs to know it, and have I told them? Keeping people informed includes providing opportunities for two-way communication.
- Does not having the information you need raise your stress level?
- Is your team able to get timely answers to their questions?
- Based on your experience, what are some other challenges and best practices for keeping the team informed?
Reading:
You have Information. How do you Responsibly Share It?
Talking Points: How To Communicate the Way You Need To
Improve Your Trust Building Odds
Assignment 3a: Group Discussion. For students participating in an instructor-led course, the group discussion of leader tasks and supporting concepts is a key element of the learning experience. Group discussion of the factual (what), conceptual (why), and procedural knowledge (how) relevant to each leader task ensures that students are well-prepared for the RBLP, RBLP-C, and RBLP-T leader certification exams. Students participating in an instructor-led course may also want to make use of the Exam Prep Study Tool described below. (3.0 hours)
Assignment 3b: Study Tool. For students conducting self-study of modules 1-3 only in preparation for the RBLP leader certification exam, we recommend using our new spaced repetition study tool to improve the learning experience. Spaced repetition is especially effective for adult learners who study in shorter, yet more frequent sessions. It’s a personalized and self-paced method to retain information longer, which ensures that learners become more competent and confident as they prepare for their certification exam. The Exam Prep Study Tool is only $24.95 for a month of access. (3.0 hours)
RBLP® Leadership Certifications
Resilience-Building Leadership Professional® (RBLP) Certification.
People who earn the Resilience-Building Leadership Professional® (RBLP) certification are qualified to build and lead resilient teams in the workplace by creating a positive climate, developing cohesion, and providing purpose.
RBLP is our core leader certification for supervisors and people seeking a supervisory position. Applicants for RBLP leader certification must have at least two years of work and/or college experience.
During the 1.5-hour oral RBLP exam, the applicant is required to show competence in factual (what), conceptual (why), and procedural knowledge (how) in the Create a Positive Climate, Develop Cohesion, and Provide Purpose competency domains (Modules 1-3 only).
Resilience-Building Leadership Professional Coach® (RBLP-C) Certification.
People who earn the Resilience-Building Leadership Professional® Coach (RBLP-C) certification are qualified to build and lead resilient teams in the workplace by creating a positive climate, developing cohesion, and providing purpose. They are also qualified to facilitate team learning.
RBLP-C certified leaders can coach others on these leadership competencies.
RBLP-C is our leader certification for managers and people seeking a management position.
During the 2.5-hour oral RBLP-C exam, the applicant is required to show competence in factual (what), conceptual (why), and procedural knowledge (how) in the Create a Positive Climate, Develop Cohesion, Provide Purpose, and Facilitate Team Learning competency domains (Modules 1-5 only).
Resilience-Building Leadership Professional Trainer (RBLP-T) Certification.
People who earn the Resilience-Building Leadership Professional® Trainer (RBLP-T) certification are qualified to build and lead resilient teams in the workplace by creating a positive climate, developing cohesion, and providing purpose. They are also qualified to facilitate team learning and support organizational learning.
RBLP-T certified leaders can coach others on these leadership competencies and provide training that prepares people to sit for the RBLP, RBLP-C, and RBLP-T certification exams.
RBLP-T is our leader certification for senior managers and people seeking a senior management position.
During the 3.5-hour oral RBLP-T exam, the applicant is required to show competence in factual (what), conceptual (why), and procedural knowledge (how) in the Create a Positive Climate, Develop Cohesion, Provide Purpose, Facilitate Team Learning, and Support Organizational Learning competency domains (Modules 1-7).
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