In 2020, DTEK set about implementing a new long-term strategy predicated upon the UN Sustainable Development Goals and aligned with the ESG principles. Academy DTEK supports and facilitates the achievement of UN SDG No.4: To ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
In an effort to promote the ideas and fundamental principles of sustainable development as well as to discuss mechanisms to create and support leader resilience in a crisis environment, Academy DTEK and INSEAD Business School held a discussion. It involved experts who shared their recommendations and tools for building both personal and organisational resilience. Thus, Valeria Zabolotna, Academy DTEK’s Rector, and Declan Fitzsimons, Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD, described what resilience is and why it is especially important for companies and their leaders in times of crisis.
“Resilience is a buzzword of our times. For me, it is the way I respond to stressful situations. Another important point is that resilience is not the same as toughness or perseverance, as many used to think, because these concepts directly contradict each other”, Declan Fitzsimons said.
“For me, resilience means improvement. As a leader, I cannot fail to overcome a crisis. That is why I would rather focus on the feelings I have after the fact: whether they are the same as before the crisis or better”, Valeria Zabolotna commented.
The experts noted that it is mainly resilience that helps companies weather crises. It starts with building a conducive organisational culture. According to the experts, companies that understand the significance of their actions and know how to communicate it to their team will achieve resilience quicker.
According to Valeria Zabolotna, the companies that rode out the 2020 crisis have just begun their resilience test: “We should think, have we really changed business models and processes? Have we really adapted our business and ourselves to the new normal, as leaders? If we do not do this, then we may underestimate the opportunities in front of us. That is why, for me, the main task of this year is rethinking. In terms of education, we need to recognise that the old approaches do not work anymore. Nowadays it is not enough to simply impart knowledge, you need to teach how to work with information”.
The experts also emphasized the importance of creating personal resilience, including the need to build personal boundaries and create useful rituals and habits. For instance, lifelong learning, critical thinking, building a wide network of personal and professional relations and taking care of one’s physical health.
In order to build team resilience, the experts suggested creating a feeling of psychological safety within the team. To this end, for example, Academy DTEK developed the Feedback Cloud – a technology-based real-time assessment system that gives employees an easy and quick way to provide and request feedback both from their supervisor and from other co-workers. This helps eradicate any mental barriers and makes communication more fluid and open.
Other important aspects of resilience, as identified by the experts, are sincerity in communication, ingenuity, mutual support and empathy.
