Overview: Career Resilience
Resilience is a combination of toughness and elasticity – and it is a combination that creates sustainability over time. In this module you will explore how you can bring toughness and elasticity to your work, to create an environment that will bring you both success and satisfaction.
In this module, you will:
Explore the factors that create long-term resilience at work
Assess and reflect on how these factors ring true for you right now
Begin to assemble information for your career coach and team conversations
Meet your teammates for the program
Where are you now?
Don’t even think about it – just answer quickly, on a scale of 1-10, how fulfilled are you at work?
In other words, at work, is your glass half full, or half empty?
Ahhh … we very rarely think of the word “fulfilled” … seems a bit old-fashioned, and yet, it has good meaning. In dictionary terms, to be fulfilled is to be able
(1) to perform – as in, to do the work you want,
(2) to realize – as in, to make things happen and have an impact,
(3) to satisfy – as in, the organization’s goals, and your personal goals, and
(4) to develop the full potential of – as in, feeling like work is bringing out our best.
So an old-fashioned word, with a multifaceted, relevant meaning – which aligns almost perfectly with the research on why people leave or stay at work, especially women.
This program is about keeping you fulfilled or satisfied at work. It’s about helping you achieve success, in a way that is great for your organization and meaningful to you. It’s about creating a sense of resilience that will both sustain and accelerate your career. It’s about working with others, to support each other, and to find challenge, satisfaction and fulfillment. It’s about PoweringUP – to achieve results for your organization and yourself.
We’ve all heard it, or sensed it … that notion that you’re split between work and personal. There seems to be an underlying perspective that we each have a work self and a personal self; that there is a “work you” and a “bigger you” – and your life goal is somehow to balance these two selves. The notion seems to imply a multiple personality type of relationship, and frankly it makes me a bit crazy just thinking about it.
You are just you. And this is an online experience to build you up, and energize you to be your strongest and best self. Our examples will focus on the work environment, to make things concrete and actionable. But the learning from this program will carry well beyond work.
Your Long Term Career – Solving the Puzzle
Extensive review and aggregation of the research indicates that personal fulfillment is directly related to long term careers. When you think about your long term career, what will make it a success for you? Is it being with the right organization, or having a role with impact and power, or is it driven by the financial gain to support your family and lifestyle?
What does success mean to you?
Give it some real thought. Identify at least 5 words or phrases that identify what success means to you. Are you thinking short-term success, or much longer term? Would the descriptors change based on the time horizon?
Continue that train of thought, but switch the word “success” to the word “satisfaction.” Do your original descriptors still hold? What will make your work feel satisfying to you?
Think About it Again, What does satisfaction mean to you?
Turns out, success and satisfaction are the bookends for both happiness and performance at work. You need them both to develop and deliver your best self, and to stay long term.
Research has led me to understand that four factors intertwine to drive success and satisfaction at work, and clarity on these factors will help to sustain and accelerate you in your career. And for many, unlocking these factors is key in your personal leadership journey.
Think of it like a Rubik’s Cube
… the two ends are success and satisfaction. The four sides are: Competency, Alignment, Dynamics and Confidence.
Competency reflects the expertise your bring and how you deliver it.
Alignment is the feeling of commitment and support to the goals of the organization
Dynamics reflect the interactions that surround your everyday work realities. Expertise is maximized or diminished based on dynamics. This is the place where bias surfaces most frequently, and dealing proactively and positively with bias is key in career resilience.
Confidence is the feeling of strength and conviction that you hold about yourself and your work. It is the personal feeling that you can take action and be successful. It is the energy that lets you venture into unchartered territory believing that you can make good things happen.
This is not a simple puzzle, or a nicely balanced equation, like
“Competency + Alignment + Dynamics + Confidence = Success & Satisfaction.”
Rather, it’s a mix of colors like the Cube; it’s a collage of interdependencies, some of which are more important at certain times, but all of which blend to create the feelings which support your execution at work, and ultimately your satisfaction at work. And like a Rubik’s Cube, there are millions of combinations of things that either get in our way, or ease our path.
Over the next weeks, we hope you will reflect and deeply explore this puzzle of interdependencies, to learn how to optimize your performance and satisfaction at work.
Let’s get started …
Explore These Resources for More Ideas and Tools
Extra Insight for Self Discovery
Great Quick Video for Solving a Rubiks Cube
Special Resources for Leading Others
“How Leaders Kill Meaning at Work”; McKinsey Quarterly; January 2012
If you have any related resources, please post them to our blog here!