Why Having Emotional Resilience Is Vital For A Recruiter

In the high-pressure world of recruitment, we need to be emotionally resilient- able to bounce back from placements that fall through, client relationships gone suddenly sour, or candidates that haven’t lived up to expectations. As recruiters, we get knocked back a lot, and it is easy to allow that stress of hearing rejection to build- damaging our careers and, even worse, our self-perception.

We hear ‘no’ all the time, and failure is an occasional part of working life. Yet how we cope with these seemingly ‘negative’ events is what separates the truly successful recruiters from the mediocre.

What defines our long term success is our emotional resilience.

Emotional resilience is the new buzzword- not only in the workplace, but in life. The term’s been around since the 1970’s, when social scientists noticed that some people bounce back from adversity much easier than others. At first it was thought to be genetic, just another roll of the DNA dice, but it’s since been shown that emotional resilience can be taught.

It’s now being taught around the world to tremendous effect- initially to survivors of natural disasters and victims of catastrophe, but now also in schools, in high pressure government departments and in big business. Even President Clinton is a recent convert- and he’s had a fair bit of stress to deal with over the years (and not always well.)

So, are we just talking about that other buzzword, emotional intelligence?

No, this is different, although the two certainly go hand in hand.

What’s the difference?

Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognise emotions in yourself and others, and use this awareness to get along well with others, manage our stress, and make good decisions.

Emotional resilience is a vital extension of this: it’s the ability to bounce back when these great strategies fail for some reason- when we have a personality clash with someone, our stress levels skyrocket over a particular client or candidate, or a decision we thought was sound is proven not to be . This is where our emotional resilience kicks in and finds triumph in adversity- or at least can see the pathway out of the slump.

So, how can we learn emotional resilience?

There are many courses being taught, and perhaps your company will offer training if requested. Yet a course isn’t strictly necessary, as there are many ways to bolster your emotional resilience on your own.

Tips to boosting your emotional resilience

1.  Notice how you react to rejection/failure/criticism. If you notice your heart racing, you feel defensive or feel low, make a promise to yourself to improve your reaction.

2.  Retrain yourself to view stress as ‘challenge’ or ‘opportunity’. See mistakes as something to learn from rather than beat yourself up about.

3.  Don’t engage in negative self-talk. Once you notice how much you do it, you will almost certainly be amazed- would you speak about your friends the way you speak about yourself? Be kind to yourself.

4.  Make a note of things you do when you feel stressed or unhappy to make yourself feel better. Write a list of things that cheer you up, and return to that list when you feel rattled.

5.  Write a list of your past achievements, and look at it regularly to bolster your confidence.

6.  Surround yourself with a network of kind and positive people.

7.  Talk problems through with someone- but the RIGHT person, someone who can give you perspective on your situation.

8.  Celebrate each time you deal with a ‘challenging’ episode well. You are growing your emotional resilience- well done!

9.  When you do feel beaten down, don’t just put up a veneer that everything is fine. Part of emotional resilience is accepting the emotions that you are feeling, and working through them calmly.

10.  Exercise, mindfulness and meditation are effective ways of building your emotional resilience.

You can see from the above list that the core of emotional resilience is self-belief, so anything that boosts your sense of confidence and achievement is powerful. Set goals and get going!

Until next time,

Cheryl