Resilience as an essential skill for career development and management

Skills Analysis

Resilience -- define what it is:

What I have always thought of when the word resilience is used is this: if you are resilient, you won't stay down long but you'll get back up. That is not in a physical sense necessarily; it can be emotional as well. Let say, something very sad happens to you; perhaps your dog was hit by a car and is dead. If you've had that dog for a long time you are going to suffer right away, but shortly the hurt is a little less intense and your resilience kicks in, so you go to the animal rescue shelter and find another dog you can love and have as a companion.

Actually the definition of resilience is different from what I generalized above. Technically, essentially, resilience means recovering quickly from a difficulty or problem. It means being tough enough to get up off the ground after falling from a bicycle. It means being tough enough to quickly bounce back from a sudden blow. Another definition is that resilience is the ability of a substance or an object to spring back into shape with elasticity (like a garment made of nylon which returns to its original shape after stretching).

Resilience -- Explain why it is relevant to career development and management

When, for example, you are passed over for a raise that you should be eligible for, that you were promised at one time, your emotions are going to be running high. You may be angry, and even sulk, but at the end of the day you have to get over it. You can't show your displeasure through your body language and you can't rage at your supervisor right after you find out you didn't get the promotion.

But if you have resilience, you'll get over your disappointment in a hurry -- or at least you will give the impression that you are able to bounce back and be the same inspired employee you always were. You may want to arrange a meeting with your supervisor to find out what you need to do in the future to actually get that promotion / raise. But that shouldn't be done immediately, because you're still upset and you might say something that will hurt your cause. Resilience is also very relevant for management: when a manufacturing team fails to reach its quarterly goals, there's no time for second-guessing or Monday morning quarterbacking -- the team has to get right back to work and show resilience.

Resilience -- an example of when you have exhibited resilience

"Resilience is the act of rebounding or springing back after being stretched or pressed, or recovering strength, spirit, and good humor" (Webster's New Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English Language). I was a singer in a rock music band, and we were riding on a float (wagon) in a parade at the 4th of July. For some reason, right in the middle of a song, the generator quit and the public address system also stopped. For an instant, we all looked at each other and wondered what happened. But I immediately said to the rest of the band, "Let's keep going." I continued singing the song without amplification; the guitar players and drummer played along with me acoustically. Even though our music didn't reach as many ears, we finished the song and were resilient.

Self-Motivation -- define it in your own words.

When you're a small child, you need others to push you, teach you and motivate you. But when you get into college, you have to have been motivated to even get there. Perhaps your parents or friends pushed you to go to college. But once there, if you are not self-motivated, you'll fail. You have to believe in yourself, create a schedule for yourself, and live up to your promise to yourself. Self-motivation means you have the ability to be self-disciplined and dive into your responsibilities and deadlines, because you know you have enough personal pride to finish what you started. You are self-motivated when you don't need an outside issue, or a friend or classmate to push you into finishing what needs to be done to get you where you said you wanted to be.

Self-motivation -- an example when you used self-motivation

My grandmother was a member of a senior citizen's group that was struggling to meet its goal of fundraising; they had always given scholarships to local high school students but their budget was depleted and they were not going to be able to give scholarships. On my own, with no direction or help from anyone else, I came up with a "Senior Citizens Fall Festival." The group immediately went along with the idea. We advertised it extensively through free public service announcements, posters, and flyers handed out at shopping centers. The festival featured music by seniors, hand-made crafts made by seniors, fresh baked breads, cookies, and brownies and pies. They raised $3,400, and were able to give some scholarships to students based on my self-motivated ideas being put into action.