Resilience Under Military Operational Stress: Can Leaders Influence Hardiness?

Abstract

National Defense University Although many people suffer physical and mental health decrements following expo-sure to stress, many others show remarkable resilience, remaining healthy despite high stress levels. If the factors that account for resilience can be clearly identified and understood, perhaps resilience can be enhanced even for those most vulnerable to stress. One potential pathway to resilience is personality hardiness, a characteristic sense that life is meaningful, we choose our own futures, and change is interesting and valuable. This article applies this hardiness concept to the context of military op-erational stress, and argues that highly effective leaders can increase hardy, resilient responses to stressful circumstances within their units. I discuss the nature of stress in modern military operations, and briefly review relevant hardiness theory and re-search. Three sets of considerations lead to the proposition that hardy leaders can in-deed increase hardy cognitions and behaviors in groups. These considerations con-cern (a) the likely underlying mechanisms of hardiness, which have to do with how experiences get interpreted and made sense of; (b) relevant theoretical positions on