Redefining resilience

Author: Amanda Smithson

We are often asked by our clients how to test for resilience in candidates. The Oxford Dictionary defines resilience as the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties. Earlier dictionaries define it as perseverance in the face of difficulty or adversity. Both these definitions contain a rather British stiff upper lip notion that one should just put one’s head down, stay the course, ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’. More recent definitions, however, would place adaptability at the heart of resilience and reject the notion that the tougher you are the more successful you will be in favour of valuing flexibility and the ability to change your approach. Perseverance without flexibility becomes a form of banging your head against a strong fence – it may give in eventually, but at what cost to the fence - and the head!

In today’s world, rapidly synthesizing new data and adapting at speed to change, disruption and adversity are seen as essential attributes of the resilient. In 2015, a survey by two British consultants ⁽¹⁾ sought to identify what might constitute adversity and stress in business life. Although volume and pace of work scored very highly, almost as high was feeling continually criticized and even higher was managing difficult relationships or politics in the workplace.

Navigating relationships and emotional equanimity would thus also seem to be critical attributes of the resilient. We would therefore see the competencies one should evaluate in seeking to calibrate resilience in a candidate as: