The Foreign Service Journal, March 2019

38 MARCH 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL ADAPT Enhancing Resilience Beth Payne assumed leadership of the U.S. Depart- ment of State’s Center of Excellence in Foreign Affairs Resilience in October 2016. She was a career Foreign Service officer from 1993 until 2016, with postings in Senegal, Rwanda, Israel and Kuwait and as the U.S. consul general in Kolkata, India. In 2003, she opened the Office of the U.S. Consul in Baghdad, Iraq, where she received the State Depart- ment’s award for heroism. The ability to adapt in the presence of risk and adversity is crucial for members of the Foreign Service. Happily, it’s a talent that can be learned. BY BETH PAYNE FOOD AND FITNESS IN THE FOREIGN SERVICE FOCUS R esearch shows that resilience—the capacity to adapt successfully in the presence of risk and adversity and to bounce back from setbacks, trauma and high stress—is an important attri- bute often found in highly successful individuals. This has obvious implica- tions for Foreign Service professionals since resilient people and teams are able to innovate and thrive despite stressful, rapidly changing or high threat environments. People with low resilience often display common charac- teristics, including irritability, anger, persistent illness, trouble sleeping, moodiness, poor memory, reckless behavior and lack of hope. Teams with low resilience may have low productivity, office conflict and lots of sick leave; they may lack innovation, problem solving and future planning. These behaviors often interfere with our ability to achieve foreign policy goals, particu- larly when an embassy or consulate is hit by an unanticipated crisis. Fortunately, resilience is not just an innate trait you are either born with or not. Rather, it is a state of being that people and organizations can develop by engaging in resilience building behaviors and activities. Resilient leaders have high energy and motivate staff; when they foster resilience in their workplaces, their teams are more innovative, collaborative and productive. As director of the Office of Children’s Issues from 2011 to 2014, I saw this firsthand. We became more proactive and effec- tive as the resilience of the team improved. With high resilience, we were better able to work with colleagues in other agencies and across the State Department to achieve ambitious goals,