Resilience

“Resilience” – the most prolific competency on person specifications for leadership roles and on search briefs that we have seen since 2023…. By some margin!

This is no surprise when you consider what the business sector has been through in the past five years – Covid-19, war in Europe, energy crisis, war in the Middle East, supply chain challenges, interest rates and geopolitical turbulence. “Permacrisis” – “an extended period of instability and insecurity” was the Collins Word of the year for 2022. We have hardly been walking a steady and consistent path since then.

For a word that is so regularly used, “resilience” is so often misunderstood.

“Resilience is more than simply standing after a crisis” is a phrase often thrown around. Some people are still standing up because they have to. This does not always mean that they are resilient.

Below are the top 5 factors of resilient people (credit to Brené Brown in “The Gifts of Imperfection”):

Resilience is not about being a hero or “toughing it out”, it is about managing emotions (whether that is setting some to one side or channelling them effectively), not being controlled by them and following the values and the goal of your board. It is closely linked to “momentum” – taking regular, small steps forward rather than planning gigantic leaps and then falling backwards.

30% of our client base across Yorkshire and the East Midlands is in the manufacturing and engineering sector. Resilience has been consistently challenged since we left the European Union in January 2020 with all of the issues listed before. Yet, 30% of our business has consistently been within the manufacturing and engineering sectors and a large proportion of this work is for new positions and growing companies. The potential emotions of change are heavy but many companies have the resilience to see through the cloud and to create new opportunities.

How can businesses evaluate candidate RESILIENCE in their recruitment processes?

Resilience is rarely evident in CVs. Candidates can create a mask of resilience to wear in interviews as well. Evaluation and assessment of resilience needs to go deeper:

For more information on anything discussed in this article, please contact:

Nik Pratap

07936 364 477

nik@pratappartnership.com

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To read the full series of articles, please follow the links below:

The Six Competencies that Power Growth Boards

Six Competencies that Power Growth Boards – Resilience

Six Competencies that Power Growth Boards – Curiosity

Six Competencies that Power Growth Boards – Empathy

Six Competencies that Power Growth Boards – Authenticity

Six Competencies that Power Growth Boards - Courage

Six Competencies that Power Growth Boards - Purpose‍