Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Recommended Reading re: Resiliency in the Workplace


I recently had the opportunity to visit my law school as a guest faculty member, along with five other young lawyers, to speak about managing the early years of practice. Over three days of workshops, panels, and breakout sessions, we provided second and third-year law students with the “inside scoop” of what it is really like to practice as a young lawyer. Despite the various types of legal practice we represented (private practice at large and small firms, in-house corporate, government, and higher education), the overarching skill requirement was the same – resilience. 

Merriam-Webster defines resilience as “an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.” Though often considered in a personal context, resiliency is a critical skill for individuals who work in a fast-paced, high-stress environment.

In Rich Fernandez’s Harvard Business Review article, “5 Ways to Boost Your Resilience at Work,” he explains that “[m]any of us now work in constantly connected, always-on, highly demanding work cultures where stress and the risk of burnout are widespread. Since the pace and intensity of contemporary work culture are not likely to change, it’s more important than ever to build resilience skills to effectively navigate your worklife.”

Fernandez's article is a quick read that offers five tips based on neuroscience, behavioral, and organizational research to help individuals develop and strengthen the resiliency skills necessary to stay motivated in the face of stress, failure, and missteps. Like any skill, resilience can be learned (and lost), making Fernandez’s article a great read for younger and more experienced workers alike.


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