It seems at every turn, we’re hearing about ‘resilience’ and how important it is for countries
and companies, communities and individuals. Everything and everybody seems to be
striving ‘to be more resilient’. But what does that mean? It turns out that there are
significant myths surrounding resilience. Contrary to popular opinion, resilience is not just
about ‘bouncing back’ from hard knocks. Authentic Resilience expert Gabi Lowe, co-founder
of the Resilience Factory, says “There’s nothing bouncy about resilience. It’s not simply
about presenting yourself as tough and strong; or being able to go it alone. Resilience is also
not an innate capacity; our work has proved that it can be developed.”
Authentic Resilience is actually about having the courage to be vulnerable and doing the
inner work and processing that helps you grow through times when you are experiencing
trauma, adversity and sustained stress. This is a lot different from ‘putting your head down
and ploughing through’, which can help you survive in short bursts, but cannot be sustained
in the long-term. By contrast, people with highly developed Authentic Resilience find it easy
to talk about their feelings and their vulnerabilities. They focus on their self-care during
tough times, and actively seeking out help and support when they need it.
The recently released 2021 BrandMapp Authentic Resilience Report is a collaboration
between The Resilience Factory and South Africa’s largest, most comprehensive survey of
the South African middle class. BrandMapp has uniquely captured the COVID-era opinions
of South Africans living in households with a R10 000+ monthly income. Ten resilience
survey statements, five positive and five negative, were presented to more than 33 000
middle class South Africans, giving companies, brand and media owners an exceptional
insight into the resilience of the 30% segment of the population that represents 100% of the
country’s taxpaying base and 80% of all consumer spend.
South Africa’s youth are the least resilient
Brandon de Kock, BrandMapp Director of storytelling says, “If you look at this sample
showing five of the ten resilience statements that we tested across age groups, it tells a story
of our younger generations being significantly less able to cope. A whopping 45% of Gen Z
respondents said they don’t like to talk about their feelings, an important signifier of
Authentic Resilience. 32% of Gen Z say they find it hard to recover from bad things that
have happened to them, compared to only 7% of the Silent Generation and 11% of
Boomers. When it comes to staying calm in a crisis, 54% of Silent Generation keeps
themselves together but less than a third, 32%, of Gen Z can do the same. For employers,
universities, families and society at large, this should be a red flag. We live in tumultuous
times, and by all accounts that is only going to get worse. Just think about what lies up
ahead in terms of the climate crisis. Gen Z will soon be the dominant generation in our
workplaces; what will happen if two-thirds of them fall apart when they face adversity? The
big question is what do we do about this? Since resilience can be developed, and we are
facing future-shock, which has been prefaced by the COVID-19 pandemic, how can we help
Gen Z, and the upcoming Gen Alpha, develop Authentic Resilience?”
Why is resilience important to brands and businesses?
De Kock points out, “Whether they are your employees or your customers, people with
higher resilience are going to be more successful and more wide-ranging in life. It stands to
reason that they are going to do more, buy more and spend more.”
Lowe concludes, “Many don’t realise that Authentic Resilience is a critical life skill. It is the
powerful ability to survive, thrive and grow in the face of stress, change, adversity and
trauma. Everyone has the capacity to develop greater levels of Authentic Resilience.
Understanding what it is, who has it and where it needs to be developed has impacts across
all sectors of South Africa from industry and corporates to educational institutions and
communities.”
To download the full BrandMapp Authentic Resilience report, click here.