[Updated: 28/06/2021]
Today, when the health pandemic affects all areas of human life, and the job market is going through unprecedented turbulence, you need strong resilience skills to cope with challenges. These skills are crucial in the post COVID world. How fast you recover, renew your energy, and open up to spot new opportunities, show how resilient you are. Your resilience skills represent your competitive advantage, your number one skill, the essential capability in the post COVID world.
How you respond to these challenges makes a huge difference. Resilience skills in times of uncertainty help you regain confidence fast. These skills are crucial because they help you to rebound quickly and continue with your life.
But, what does resilience even mean?
This ability to bounce back fast after you’ve experienced setbacks and regain your strength is important for your success. This is what is called resilience. Psychologist and author Adam Grant defines resilience as “the speed and strength of your response to adversity.” He believes that the way you recover after hardship is not limited only to your personal life. Grant puts resilience at the top of professional skills today.
But, why is resilience so important in the workplace? What do resilient people do differently that enables their professional lives to thrive despite setbacks?
Firstly, many people stumble over difficulties of not knowing how to bounce back. They lose confidence and vision for their professional direction. They lose purpose. Secondly, let’s consider the fact that time and energy are the greatest personal resources. The inability to regain control over them and put them into use inevitably leads to dissipation. Lack of energy, not being able to see the bigger picture, and poor sense of direction are just some of the consequences that stem from this situation.
Let’s now see what resilient people do differently.
Resilient people build grounded confidence
The most appealing trait that recruiters look for in their candidates is confidence. In times of crisis, it is especially hard to find people that possess this rare skill. Resilient people know that everybody likes to see confidence, so to stand out from the crowd, they make it their strength. Confidence makes people feel safe around you and at ease to trust you, which in turn helps you build great relationships.
Before we move on further, let’s see—what does grounded confidence look like? When you are true to yourself and live up to your core values—you radiate strength. You show optimism, self-assurance, and grit. All these qualities create confidence. That is exactly what you want to demonstrate during your job interview.
For example, if you want to build this valuable characteristic, you need to reassess your confidence and go through the process of vulnerability. This can be challenging since you can’t know how the process of transformation looks.
Sometimes, it may question your values and even affect your sense of self-worth. It is often the case when you apply for a job and get too many rejections. What you can learn from this situation might be to change your approach, your résumé, or a type of job. However, many people tend to believe that they lack in something and might feel bad. To avoid this common pitfall, don’t take rejections personally. The bulk of research has shown that resilient people don’t identify with ambiguous situations. They don’t think it is their fault.
Resilient people accept the challenge
In every crisis, resilient people understand that the challenges affect their beliefs and bring change. Instead of resisting the process of change, they begin to reexamine their goals and reassess their sense of purpose. What they want to do is to keep in touch with their core values and anchor themselves to grounded confidence, while remaining flexible.
Moreover, managers often favor candidates who demonstrate adaptability and people who could accept change as an inevitable part of today’s complex business environment. They like people with the growth mindset. Their affection goes to ones who continuously develop, have a proactive attitude, and are willing to take risks.
If you want to act proactively and show flexibility in the workplace, you may ask yourself the following questions:
- What are my core values in these challenging times?
- What values seem superficial and unimportant in today’s world?
- How can I contribute and become a part of the solution?
- What kind of change am I willing to go through?
Resilient people rediscover their true purpose
As already mentioned, your resilience is based on your confidence and how authentic you are. Who you truly are and can you walk your talk come from your sense of purpose. As long as you present yourself as a person with a strong drive to make an impact, your authenticity will be contagious for recruiters.
Your true purpose is not what you are most inspired to do. You can discover it when you think about your life journey. When you reflect on it, you may notice that there is one single theme that your life story circles around. It usually reveals your “WHY” beyond your desire to bounce back fast and strong. Your purpose keeps you progressing in the face of challenges. It represents your ability to put things into perspective and find new opportunities. Recruiters want to see people with strong vision and powerful drive to make a change during difficult times, especially in the social sector.
Resilient people are not afraid to acknowledge their weaknesses
They own both their weaknesses and their strengths. They are aware that until they were able to tackle their weaknesses, the weaknesses would control them. So, by overcoming weaknesses they become stronger.
There is also one more element to it—humility. Your grounded confidence leans on your ability to wrestle with your weaknesses. It is what makes you human. It adds value to your story and helps you connect with others in the most meaningful way.
Leaders want to see real people, people who won’t shy away from their weaknesses. While demonstrating confidence is usually a good strategy in an interview, sometimes too much of a good thing can be bad. There is a fine line between self-confidence and arrogance. And you most definitely don’t want to be perceived as an arrogant and self-righteous person. Leaders like people with a humble attitude, who recognize the value of common humanity and don’t resist learning the precious lessons from their past mistakes.
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Takeaways
In conclusion, grounded confidence and resilience are interwoven. And these elements help you see the reality of the hardship. You need to recognize the problems, the ways they affect people, and the risks that may arise in the future. But, you can count on your resources and your grounded confidence in order to cope with those challenges, especially in the post covid world.
Resilience is a rare and unique ability, essential for a career change or finding a new job during global challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic. It is how you connect, what stories you tell yourself, how you see the world around you. It encompasses your attitude to challenges, your ability to own your strengths and weaknesses, and your ability to put things into perspective. That’s what creates strong resilience skills.
Having that in mind, always question the ways in which adversity affects your life and your beliefs. Take your time to understand a specific challenge that you are going through in the post COVID world and find out what particular ability you need to develop to respond better to change. Trust in your capacity to rebuild confidence and let your true self be seen in order to make an impact in the world around you. Your strong attitude could eventually inspire other people to learn from you and overcome their adversities. And this is how your resilience skills become contagious to others and your number one weapon in the post COVID world.
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