Resilience - We have come across this word quite often in the recent past. Resilience as we know is the ability to bounce back when faced with challenging or difficult situations. A workplace is prone to factors that cause tension among the employees, it could be workplace conflicts, sudden changes in the job, a competitive job market etc. Navigating through these challenges requires skills and this is where Resilience comes into play.
During the pandemic, when the way of working went through a drastic change, organisations and companies that could respond effectively to the disruptions, plan and prepare for the crisis could sustain and emerge stronger. In this article you will understand why resilience is important and learn how to strengthen it through Self-Acceptance and Growth Mindset.
Why is Resilience the Indispensable skill?
In a study by CV-Library (2019), it was found that Employers favoured Resilience as one of the key potential skills in a candidate by 57.7%. So, why is Resilience taking more predominance? Because it plays a significant role in an employee’s life at work, let’s take a look at what they are;
- It helps the employee sustain in a job even when faced with hardships, all jobs have their own share of hardships, but if an individual is low on motivation and starts giving up because they are not able to deal with the challenges then it’s possible that the individual needs to work on building Resilience.
- Resilience gives rise to sub-factors like stress management and flexibility, this allows the employees to quickly recover from complex situations and not get bogged down by targets or deadlines. It gives one the determination and inspiration to complete the duties and even plan better for what is ahead by taking into account the possible challenges.
- It enables productivity and efficiency at work. The individual is able to give their best and not let obstacles that come their way affect their quality outcome.
- Finally, research has time and again proven that resilience and well-being are closely linked.
Resilience is like a parent skill that gives way to some of the most wanted soft skills like Adaptability, positive outlook, stress management and problem-solving. The good news is that Resilience can be practised and learnt!
How can you strengthen resilience to have a rewarding work life?
Our Solution:
Self - Acceptance + Growth Mind-set = Strengthened Resilience
Self-Acceptance – it is defined as the ability of an individual to accept their attributes and personality whether good or bad. It acts as a protection from criticisms, challenges, and enables one to believe in one’s capacities. It enables an individual to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses and have a clear understanding of who they are and where they are at present concerning work, relationships, personal life etc. Self-acceptance is a result of being aware of oneself. Once you become aware of yourself and you can accept your positive and negative characteristics, it will lead to improved self-esteem, and a strong sense of faith in one's capabilities when faced with adversities!
Here are some ways to become aware of yourself and thereby strengthen resilience:
- Take time to be aware of yourself by taking a personality or Emotional Intelligence test, to know where you are at and who you are as a person.
- Reflect on both your strengths and challenges
- Seek help from certified psychologists
Through this process you are able to see how the sense of self affects the day to day performance and the ability to confront challenges. But Self-acceptance is not only acknowledging the imperfections, it is also seeking to improve them, if we want a rewarding life then we need to grow as well! This brings us to the next part of the equation which is the Growth mindset.
Growth Mindset – There are two mindsets, one being the ‘Growth mindset’ and the other being the ‘Fixed mindset’. Individuals with a fixed mindset believe that they are what they are and there is no room to grow and they get bogged down by failures. They avoid challenges, disregard feedback, have low self-esteem and do not believe in their capabilities. While individuals who have a growth mindset are more open to challenges, view failure as a path to success and actively excel during challenges.
With a growth mindset, it is easier to set challenging goals, and always look to strive, experiment and learn new things. This is why, when an individual is faced with changing times, he/she can quickly adapt and look forward to learning something new through the process.
Here is how you can develop a growth mindset and thereby strengthen resilience:
- Set goals to improve your imperfections, (for eg. if your strength is to be detail-oriented when doing a task but you tend to miss deadlines, then set goals that help you manage your time)
- Take on challenging tasks, actively look for them and try to do something new.
- Have a journal to write down the things you learn every time you fail so that it adds to your experience and paves the way to your path of success.
To conclude, We are all familiar with the saying that if there is one thing that is constant, it is CHANGE and through whatever changes the world will go through, accepting where we are and what is happening and wanting to grow through it will always help us sail through the change and be Resilient during the tough and trying times!
