In a world of constant change, there’s one ultimate skill to cultivate: resilience. In this session originally presented at TEDWomen, resilience expert and licensed therapist, Nidhi Tewari, LCSW, leads audiences through a participatory session in which they develop a research-backed toolkit for improving their innate resilience in order to tackle whatever life throws their way.

Audiences will do a deep dive into the four dimensions of resilience: emotional, mental, physical, spiritual. Participants will develop emotion regulation skills, including butterfly tapping to foster emotional resilience, and attunement skills to connect more deeply with their inner and outer worlds.

Participants will learn to embrace vulnerability while building community and strengthen their mental resilience by enhancing empathy and listening skills in order to build trust and rapport. By the end of this session, Nidhi helps participants connect more deeply with their physical resilience by noticing somatic experience and releasing physical stress.

Participants will hone their spiritual resilience by exploring their values, discovering incongruences, and identifying actionable steps for living their lives in greater alignment.

SUPPORTING NEURODIVERSITY, MENTAL HEALTH AND DISABILITIES AT WORK
 
Managers and leaders are on the frontline of supporting employee wellbeing in the workplace, but it can be difficult to know what types of assistance may be the most helpful for their teams. Invisible disabilities, such as neurodiversity, mental health conditions, chronic pain disorders, and physical challenges that are unseen, require a trauma and DEI-informed approach.

In this talk, Nidhi will teach attendees how to recognize the signs that an invisible disability may be impacting a team member at work, how to engage in a meaningful dialogue with employees while maintaining boundaries, and how to attune and adapt responses to meet the unique needs of each employee.

Attendees will:

• Learn tangible signs of how depression, anxiety, trauma, ADHD, chronic pain, and other conditions present in the workplace. For example, trauma can look like people-pleasing, challenges with focus and memory, overworking, difficulties with boundaries, avoidance, and many other behaviors.
• Understand the concept of attunement and why this skill is vital to connecting empathetically with staff. We will develop self-awareness about how our internal experiences impact interpersonal interactions, and how we can leverage shifting our language, tone of voice, body language, and emotion regulation to connect more deeply.
• Cultivate an understanding of how to maintain emotional boundaries while supporting employees with their disabilities. We can normalize and validate experiences without becoming someone’s therapist, and it’s vital to find ways to engage in self-care after emotionally taxing conversations.

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS WITH A DIVERSE WORKFORCE
 
Managing and connecting with teams virtually can be challenging in a hybrid world. A computer screen can feel like a physical barrier to relationship building, and miscommunications can happen without all of the cues that we receive in person.

The good news is that we can learn the skills to effectively build trust and connect with employees both in person and online. Nidhi Tewari, clinical therapist, will teach attendees how to build psychological safety, deepen relationships, and maximize outcomes with employees balancing the demands of working remotely and in person.

Attendees will:

• Develop an understanding of the tenets of psychological safety and how to quickly build rapport and trust virtually using the 3 C’s Framework. They will learn the language to support employees as they navigate the complexities of balancing hybrid work and life.
• Understand how to maintain and repair relationships that may have been impacted by the shift to remote work. Mistakes are bound to happen in the employee-leader relationship, but it’s the repair that matters.
• Catalyze improved outcomes and reduce miscommunications by approaching conversations from a place of curiosity. Asking the right questions and knowing how to adapt responses is essential to connecting and supporting diverse staff.

THE THREE ESSENTIAL EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE SKILLS
 
The ability to relate and connect interpersonally at work is becoming a more valued, essential skill than technical know how. An organization’s success is built on the wellbeing and satisfaction of the people working there, and high EQ is the crux of positive wellbeing and belonging.

Emotional intelligence can be cultivated by developing stronger self-awareness, understanding the experiences and biases that we bring into our interactions, and learning how to be agile in the way we approach conversations, especially difficult ones. This talk will provide attendees with tangible skills to improve self-awareness, strengthen relationships, and employ a people-first approach in order to facilitate positive outcomes in and out of the workplace.

Attendees will:

• Deepen self-awareness by reflecting on past life experiences and understanding how they influence present day interactions, especially during challenging conversations.
• Identify and employ strategies to manage internal discomfort in order to hold space and provide the intervention most needed by each employee. This includes learning grounding strategies to stay present during difficult dialogue.
• Acquire the skills for connecting with employees, including enhancing empathy, curiosity, and compassion. Leaders will learn how to attune and adapt word choice, body language, tone of voice, and other facets of how they are showing up based on the situation.

RESEARCH-BACKED TOOLS TO IMPROVE WELL-BEING
 
Burnout is cited as one of the leading causes for employees leaving the workforce through the Great Resignation and Quiet Quitting, yet it can be a challenging issue for organizations to address. This is because burnout is complex and requires flexible solutions that address both individual and systemic factors. As a mental health expert and work culture consultant, this talk will teach the skills to cope with burnout, while shedding light on how organizations can shift workplace culture to promote positive mental health and wellbeing.

Attendees will:

• Solidify their understanding of the dimensions of burnout, and how to know if they or their teams are experiencing burnout,
• Delineate both the systemic and individual factors contributing to burnout so that the root causes can be resolved, creating long lasting change.
• Employ interventions to eliminate burnout, including adjusting load management, developing coping mechanisms and self-care techniques, and reconnecting to passion and purpose.