How Resilience Plays a Key Role in One's Career Growth

"Don't react instantly because chances of your life getting ruined are high" is the sage advice of philosophers. How you react or respond to situations depends upon the emotional state you are in. This is all the more true in career-related situations. In other words, career growth or career development has an emotional side as well. 

You may have come across many career counsellors who may advise you that if you want to have the career growth you are aiming at, you must acquire new skills, volunteer to take up challenges in your workplace, refine your communication skills, have a good mentor to guide you, and so on. But only a few career experts recognize the fact that career development has an emotional side also. 

In fact, this emotional side is as important, if not more, as successfully climbing the career ladder because it may help you overcome the setbacks that unexpectedly confront you. Remember that your long-term success depends upon how you persevere even when you face such setbacks and obstacles. It is in this context you are advised to cultivate resilience so you will find it easy to surmount these road-blocks.

What is resilience?

Before knowing the value of resilience in helping you in your long-term growth, you must first know what the word means. It is nothing but the inner strength that is needed for responding suitably to stress-causing situations and obstacles. In other words, it is a healthy behavior and attitude that will help you in adapting even when tough circumstances and challenges stare in your face.

How resilience can help you in your career development

1. Resilience helps you persevere even when you face tough circumstances. Remember that everything may not happen according to your wish. You may be expecting a promotion but the management may promote another employee or may recruit a new employee for the post. You may certainly be upset over this but you must be resilient enough to accept the reality. 

Of course, you have the option of quitting the company and looking for a better opportunity elsewhere. But the job market is still tough because the global economy is yet to fully recover from the economic down-turn that struck it not long ago. You may face rejections and may have to pass through a prolonged period of uncertainty. But if you stick with your company with perseverance and prove your worth with increased vigor and enthusiasm, you will soon be recognized and rewarded.

2. Nowadays, employers expect that job aspirants should possess 'softskills.' Resilience is one of the main ingredients of these so-called soft skills. Employers firmly believe that resilient employees will be more flexible, optimistic, curious, and engaged. Not only that, these employees will have a macro-view of things and hence, they will bring about a positive change to the workplace environment. This will boost productivity and help in solving issues that may crop up at the workplace.

3. Resilience will help you remain confident even when you face tough situations. Only if you are confident, you can plan your work in an organized manner and work your plan with discipline. In short, you can show better performance if you are resilient. 

On the contrary, if you are not resilient despite being highly talented, you may start questioning or challenging the decisions of the management. You may purposely change the way you work and this may cause friction in the workplace. As they say, "talent and trouble always go hand in hand." In short, you will earn the reputation of being a maverick individual. Remember that not all managements will be flexible and be prepared to put up with the pain of handling such employees.

4. Resilience can empower you to overcome even challenging situations and adversities. Since you will have confidence and an optimistic outlook, you will be able to manage your team easily, can negotiate business deals skilfully, be ready to shoulder new risks and come out with solutions for the issues the company faces and so on. 

5. Very importantly, you will be able to handle criticism in the right manner. Instead of viewing criticisms with a negative perspective, you will view them as a constructive feedback. This will help you in improving yourself and advancing more quickly. Remember that when you go up the career ladder, you will be subject to increased scrutiny.

6. Resilience will help you put forth your efforts with a growth mindset. This means when obstacles or unexpected setbacks confront you, you may not consider them as 'dead ends' but as opportunities that indirectly suggest to you that you should learn and grow. Therefore, you must begin learning from the mistakes you commit and from those others commit also. 

Remember that a number of factors may work against you and many of them may not be under your control. So, you must stop worrying about the outcomes and work with confidence. Also remember that resilience is not a trait that is passed on genetically. You should strengthen your character in such a manner that you acquire this trait so you can smoothly handle any situation in your career path.