Are your teams getting sufficient psychological flexibility?

Mental health and distress are the pandemic in the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic. A 2022 study carried out by AXA on mind-health and wellbeing highlights that Covid has had a particularly major effect on the mind-health of front-line workers.

Hospitality is one of the most affected professions and compares negatively to sectors that were able to work from home. The pandemic increased pressure for individuals, teams, and executives within a sector already under great stress: it’s the straw that broke the camel’s back.

The consequent enormous human cost of poor mental health at work has a profound impact on society and the economy, as employees are less effective, less productive or, indeed, off ill.

Today, the UK is experiencing more mental illness than any other country and, on the AXA Mind Health Index, has the highest number of people rated as ‘struggling’. So much so, that in the UK we are most likely to react badly in challenging circumstances, becoming angry with ourselves or towards others, acting recklessly or drinking more alcohol.

Indeed, the world has changed beyond recognition. We can’t go back. Those who survive and thrive are those who support their individuals and teams to develop greater psychological resilience.

At EP we are supported by Marco Truffelli, a hospitality colleague and mental health scholar, who has partnered with Dr. Jan Ferris, an esteemed clinical psychologist, to found RESILIRĒ - a psychological fitness and resilience practice - specialising in hospitality and service sectors.

They use the work of Nobel Prize laureate Elinor Ostrom in understanding how teams work best together and combine this with established psychological science to effect positive, sustainable change. This is called Prosocial.
RESILIRĒ affirms that team led behaviour, coupled with positive mind-health, leads to stronger team and individual sustainable performance. To the benefit of the individual and the team. History is teaching us that this is more relevant than ever.

Indeed, Hospitality is about Teams of Teams and our collective and individual adaptive responses to the current world’s evolution are of paramount importance. With RESILIRĒ, the hospitality sector can focus in adding, rather than subtracting, and responding, rather than reacting, to attract and nurture the professionals of today and tomorrow.