We all love a good success story when we happen upon them in the wild, most offering up a sense of hope that “if they can do it, I can too.” Stories of workplace resilience and individual success are often used to bolster the confidence of other workers and encourage them to lock in, pushing them to chase similar success in their own lives. While we’re all used to being uplifted by stories of resilience that showcase the full extent of the human spirit every once in a while, these tales don’t always translate into additional motivation and confidence for the listener.
New research published in the Journal of Applied Psychology suggests that storied tales of workplace resilience can often prove to be a double-edged sword, encouraging some but alienating others when offered without considering the right approach to these tales.
New research on the double-edged nature of workplace resilience shows that how we frame these stories of resilience can alter their impact. (Image: Pexels)
The Double-Edged Nature of Workplace Resilience: Generalizations Never Help, Even When It Comes to Encouragement
Brady Shanklin, Assistant Professor of Management at the University of Mississippi, and Tyler Sabey, Assistant Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship at Arizona State University, recently published their research on workplace resilience, giving us very unique insights into how we talk about such concepts today. The researchers agree that resilience is a positive trait, aiding us in confronting change, managing stress, problem-solving, and improving engagement overall. Resilience is an essential trait both in and out of the workplace, allowing us to overcome hardships and approach problems with a can-do attitude.
We frequently showcase stories of resilience, whether on social media or in our employee newsletters, and highlight how individuals have overcome adversity to come out stronger on the other side. These stories have the potential to spark off a sense of pride in their entity and hope for our own future outcomes, but they don’t always work the same way for everyone. The researchers found that observers of such stories can walk away thinking either, “If they can do it, so can I,” or “I could never do that.“
Much like every other trait, resilience at work doesn’t operate in the same way for everyone. Sometimes, individuals can hear stories of others overcoming adversity and find themselves worried that they will be unable to respond to issues in the same way. With a different mix of skills and coping capacities at their disposal, their worries are not without reason.
Making Resilience a Relatable Phenomenon
Not everyone has the same background or lived experience, and that’s not a drawback. It is, however, something to think about when it comes to sharing stories of resilience in the workplace. “We are always comparing ourselves to other people, whether that’s implicit or intentional,” Brady Shanklin explained in the story published on The University of Mississippi website. “We put ourselves in another person’s shoes and wonder what we’d do in that situation. What we found is it really comes down to how similar we see ourselves to that resilient person.“
The double-edged nature of tales on workplace resilience doesn’t imply that we should now be discouraged from sharing such stories entirely. Instead, Sabey and Shanklin’s research into workplace resilience is meant to encourage us to think more deeply about how we approach the matter of resilience, particularly when it is used as a way to rally the spirits of the workforce. The heart of the paper involves considerable work into social comparison theory and the definable impact of resilience on an observer, but one of the conclusions drawn emphasises the relevance of the observer’s perception of similarity with the resilient individual.
Workers may still walk away impressed by witnessing or listening to an act of admirable resilience, but the relatability of the experiences and their own approach towards stress and adaptability could leave them with more negative results than intended. As the researchers point out, telling a story of resilience isn’t enough. For it to have a lasting positive impact, the “story cannot just be the nitty gritty of what happened, but also the road map of how it can happen again. Try to make connection points between the story of resilience and the people listening,” Shanklin explained. “At a really high level, what does that mean? You have to know your employees.“
Building Workplace Resilience Is Vital for the Modern-Day Workforce
The workforce has always been stressed, overwhelmed, and anxious about the future of work to some degree, but in 2026, it is apparent that there are multiple factors weighing them down. Whether about layoffs, operational restructuring, the loss of benefits, or the encroachment of AI, multiple concerns are prevalent in the workplace that have employees looking around for inspiration. Many look to their leaders for support and motivation.
Optimism and stories of emerging successfully on the other side of this ordeal will be heartily welcomed by employees, but only if these stories are realistic and make a genuine attempt at connecting to the realities that prevail today. Many business leaders have spoken openly about the glory of AI and the ways that they intend to channel the success of the past into results of the future, but with employees no longer seeing themselves in the stories being told, this does little to ease their minds. This is only one example of where the narratives being framed today might need some work.
The workforce is resilient and will likely find a way to make it through the hardships they face, but leaders, managers, and good storytellers who know how to connect with them and spread a dose of optimism around will find that it is much easier to bring workers together. When the workforce sees themselves reflected in past stories and future plans, they might grow more resilient and confident about their abilities in time.
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