6 Ways to improve team resilience
From the The Money Files Blog
by Elizabeth Harrin
A blog that looks at all aspects of project and program finances from budgets, estimating and accounting to getting a pay rise and managing contracts.
Written by Elizabeth Harrin from RebelsGuideToPM.com.
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Last time I looked at what team resilience is and how it shows up for project teams in their behaviour. But that’s not very actionable – today we move on to actionable things you can do to improve the resilience of your team so you can bounce back and get over setbacks with a smile!
Here are 6 factors that contribute to team resilience. If you don’t already have these in place, what can you do to get them? They’ll all help your team feel more supported and able to cope with the challenges of project work.
- A clear vision and purpose
Hopefully your project already has a clear vision and purpose. Is it time to revisit that?
The point of having clarity on the mission is so that you can all stay motivated and focused on achieving those goals, even when things are sticky. Maybe put the goals front and centre on your team meeting slides each week or as a poster in the office if you work physically together.
- Strong communication
Again, hopefully you already have open and transparent communication. If not, why not (perhaps it’s to do with number 3 below?). Good communication within the team helps with sharing challenges and collaborating on problems. It’s hard to be resilient and get over a problem if no one talks to you! Get into the habit of sharing and linking people together so they can work collaboratively more easily, and when there is an issue, it will be second nature.
- Psychological safety
Team members must feel safe to voice their opinions, admit mistakes, and ask for help without fear of judgment or retribution – that’s psychological safety. Without that in your team, no one is going to put forward slightly wacky ideas that might just solve a problem, or be innovative if it’s high risk.
- Emotional intelligence
OK, this one is hard – you kind of have to recruit for emotional intelligence or give people the time to grow into it with appropriate support. You can’t wave a magic wand and have everyone on the team have amazing EI skills overnight.
You can surround yourself with people who demonstrate EI so think about who you use to fill your project teams. EI helps individuals better manage stress, communicate effectively and respond to crises. They are better at reading the room so can pick up problems before they start and they are better at reaching out to support others because they can tell it’s needed.
As the project manager, work on your own EI and lead from the front with this one.
- Supportive leadership
Continuing the theme of leadership, be the best leader you can be. Leaders who provide encouragement, guidance, and crucially the right resources so people can actually do their jobs are important to creating a resilient culture.
Resilient teams need leadership that listens, provides timely feedback, and shows understanding during difficult moments. It shouldn’t just come from you as the PM. Think about the role your sponsor or steering group plays and how they can support from the top. Team leaders, workstream leaders and subject matter experts can also all demonstrate leadership – you don’t have to be in charge of a team to be a leader.
- Flexibility and autonomy
Where you can, give the team the autonomy to make decisions and adapt their approach to best fit their preferences for working styles. With the knowledge that they have some flexibility to tackle problems the way that makes the most sense to them, they can go into those problems with confidence for dealing with them. That could also mean changing direction, if that’s the best answer.
What else do you see in resilient project teams that you would add here? Let us know in the comments!
Posted on: August 04, 2025 09:00 AM |
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Comments (5)
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Great Blog Elizbeth, your six steps—focusing on open communication, celebrating small wins, promoting growth, self-care, psychological safety, and leadership modeling—form a coherent, evidence-based resilience framework. That blend of theory and real-world application is exactly what practitioners need.
A thoughtful and timely article! It provides simple yet impactful ways to build resilience within project teams. The focus on empathy, trust, and adaptability aligns perfectly with the human side of project leadership. A must-read for anyone managing cross-functional or remote teams.
Kwiyuh Michael Wepngong
Community Champion
Financial Management Specialist | US Peace Corps
Yaounde, Centre, Cameroon
Thanks Elizabeth,
Emotional intelligence is outstanding to me
LUCY KIMANI
Project/Program Manager - Infrastructure| Consultant
East London, Eastern Cape, South Africa
Thanks for highlighting the soft skills part of PM leadership!
In my teams, we’ve learned that lessons only matter if they stay visible and practical. A few things that worked:
- Embedding key lessons into onboarding materials or team playbooks so new members see them immediately.
- Using lightweight tools (like Confluence pages or Miro boards) but linking them directly into Jira/Trello workflows so people access them in context.
- Regular “flashbacks” during retrospectives where we revisit one past lesson and ask: does it still hold true?
That way, lessons don’t sit in a folder, they become part of how the team works day-to-day.
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