Career Resilience: How to bounce back more quickly?

Employers today are tasking employees with their own career advancements and development. In the past, an employee’s decision to change their career focus or acquire new skillets was primarily focused on employer requirements. Today, employees are expected to control their professional development by taking proactive steps and staying updated on any changes happening in their chosen fields. Career resilience is the ability to adjust to changes in your career as they happen and, in the process, adapt to market demands. The likelihood of a job loss should not be the main motivator for employees to take stock of their own careers. Below are ways to ensure you bounce back more quickly:

1. Understand your strengths
Every individual has a unique set of strengths. You must know and understand yours and use them in your professional and personal lives. Understanding your strengths will help you creatively respond to daily challenges you face in both your personal and professional lives. If most of your top strengths are underutilised in your work environment, you should look for ways and new opportunities to develop them fully. Once you understand your strengths, you can now be more intentional about solutions and the choices you make when faced with challenges. This can also help you identify the necessary resources needed to compensate for your weakness.

2. Use your personal values as a base
Significant life events and major life changes can often leave you feeling disoriented and directionless. You should not wait until something major happens to think about your life’s vision for and personal values. Take some time to think about what is important to you and ensure that you integrate your top vales into your daily choices. When sudden unexpected events cause changes in your life, your values can act as a powerful inner resource to help you gain direction and reorient yourself quickly.

3. Invest in your close relationships
Individuals who have the support they need and good close relationships are known to be more resilient. Despite the increasing technological advancements that make communication and connection easier, it is more challenging for people to sustain a supportive community due to their mobile lifestyles. If you have never critically thought about which of your friends and family members are in your support system- this is the right time to start. Evaluate what you require to develop and thrive in your professional and personal live and review any gaps in your network periodically. With advancement in your career, it’s easy to let this fall between the cracks. Don’t let a crisis open your eyes to prioritising your professional and personal connections.

4. Help others
Helping others through certain challenges can be both empowering and rewarding. When you help someone else through a hard patch in their lives, it reduces your own feelings of helplessness. It also enhances your sense of efficacy and control in the world. However, ensure that you aren’t burning yourself out in the process. Don’t fall into the trap of martyrdom and keep your own emotional battery charged. As you help others, don’t forget to stop and consider ways in which you are impacting their lives. It’s essential to validate these positive impacts and let yourself experience the rewards of helping out.

Being resilient means bouncing back after a challenge and having the strength to learn something from the obstacle faced so that you can move on to bigger and better things. We do not have control of all the events that happen around us that significantly affect our work. However, enhancing your resilience by following the above four tips will help you quickly bounce back to your feet.