Cities, companies, C-level executives and senior leaders are often focused on building resilience into their operations. What junior professionals and individual contributors may not realize is that they too can build a level of personal resilience into their careers. Knowing how to adjust to unforeseen obstacles and stay steady and calm through periods of uncertainty is key to a sustainable and satisfying work life.
One of the best ways to learn how to build career resilience is by listening to the insights and experiences of seasoned experts. Below, 12 members of Forbes Coaches Council share their best tips for professionals who want to ensure they can navigate the ups and downs of their careers while remaining personally stable, strong and capable of evolving through any changes that come their way.
Forbes Coaches Council members share ways junior professionals can build career resilience.
Photos courtesy of the individual members.1. Define ‘Resilience’ For Yourself
A way to become more resilient is to define it for yourself. Resilience is made up of a combination of things such as self-awareness and self-management (including caring for yourself, knowing what you want and don’t want in life, setting boundaries and so on), building and managing healthy personal and professional relationships, and being intentional about finding balance. Balance is not stagnant; it is a constant journey. - Michelle Braden, MSBCoach, LLC
2. Stay Attuned To Your Environment
The most resilient people see opportunities where others cannot. Bearing this in mind, junior professionals would do well to stay attuned to the environments and systems they find themselves in with a sense of openness and curiosity. This level of attention has the potential to shift their perspective on any situation that may present itself. Possibilities to bounce forward emerge as a result. - Linda Aiyer, InfinitU Consulting
3. Build And Cultivate Your Network
One thing a junior professional can do to build resilience into their career is build and cultivate their network. Cultivating your network is more than connecting on LinkedIn; it’s something that you invest in over time. Developing a practice of nurturing your relationships is a critical component of building career resilience. - Caroline Vernon, Intoo, USA
4. Seek And Harness Personal Disruption
Seek and harness personal disruption rather than avoiding it. Whatever you put your attention toward expands. So when we obsess about avoiding something, that thing expands—and it does so without our consent or participation. When we seek disruption, we can use it to drive our path into areas where we want to grow. By disrupting ourselves, we dive into learning and growth and learn resilience. - David Taylor-Klaus, DTK Coaching, LLC
Forbes Coaches Council is an invitation-only community for leading business and career coaches. Do I qualify?
5. Understand Your Neurological Design
Understand your neurological design and natural intelligence preferences. That, along with using the correct levers to optimize your brain’s performance, helps to grow one’s neuro-agility, adaptability, problem-solving skills and creativity. This level of conscious awareness can even alter career aspirations and outcomes as one creates fulfillment based on purpose and doing what they love. - Arthi Rabikrisson, Prerna Advisory
6. Become An Active Lifelong Learner
The world of work is changing so fast, and it will continue to do so in the years ahead. To keep up with change and develop resilience, everyone must become a lifelong learner—beyond giving it just lip service! You need to actively approach it by actively learning every single day. If you’re not doing that, you’re not growing, and worse, you’re probably going backward. - Lital Marom, UNFOLD Media Group
7. Create Content That Has Lasting Impact
Treat thoughts as things. I advise my younger leaders to create content that has lasting impact and value. I also suggest growing your personal brand as you grow your career. If you don’t write articles, build out your speaking capacity and, at minimum, journalize what you learn and your insights, you will lose a lot. You never know what taking yourself seriously will produce now or in the future. - John M. O’Connor, Career Pro Inc.
8. Keep Track Of The Big Picture
Don’t be preoccupied with your job today, this month or even this year. Envision what your career will look like in ten years and plot a course with a few different paths to get there. So, when you encounter the typical career snags, setbacks and bottlenecks, you’ll maintain your resilience because you will have different paths to take toward achievement and a forward perspective. - Loren Margolis, Training & Leadership Success LLC
9. Be More Self-Aware, Self-Caring And Cognitive
Being able to bounce back, recover and adapt is rooted in self-awareness, self-care and being more cognitive. Coming from a place of purpose (mission), being intentional and strategic (vision) and aligning our personal core values allows us to create a foundation where character, talents, skills, knowledge and experience inspire us to be productive and realize more moments of enjoyment in our work. - Lori Harris, Harris Whitesell Consulting
10. Focus On Emotional Intelligence And The Seven C’s Of Resilience
I dedicate a good amount of time to working with executives and leaders on the seven C’s of resilience: competence, confidence, connection, character, contribution, coping and control. For junior professionals, I’d highly recommend working on their self-awareness and emotional intelligence first. That will help with developing a more accurate perspective, greater confidence and the ability to learn from mistakes or failures. - Asha Mankowska MA, Your Favorite Business Coach & Consultant
11. Feel The Feelings Before Making A Plan To Move Forward
Many people believe that resilience is about not letting things bother you. Not so—resilience is about being able to move forward when things are difficult or upsetting or when there is a loss. Feel the feelings. Take the time needed to acknowledge the failure. Then, make a plan to move forward. Trying to hide, diminish or sweep away difficult feelings ensures that they will eventually resurface. - Cheryl Czach, Cheryl Czach Coaching and Consulting, LLC
12. Build Transferable Business Skills
Personal resilience in business occurs when an employee has the ability to move anywhere in a company. This means they must build transferable business skills such as process improvement, problem-solving, business intelligence, change management, project management and communication. This doesn’t mean they need to become an expert in these skills, but that they must become competent. - John Knotts, Crosscutter Enterprises
