Building Resilience in the Workplace

Long ago, at the beginning of my career I got some good advice about how to be successful in the professional workspace. Basically 3 things were required: a round back, a thick skin and short toes. It was said half as a joke but I have found this to be good advice for life in general. Not because you should accept abuse or becuase you should ignore the world and people around you but because these 3 ‘characteristics’ help you to deal with dissent and criticism. To hear it to begin with and then to decide which criticism to ignore and which criticism to do something useful with. It allows for some restraint not to react immediately, not to turn a mouse into an elephant and to try not to project your own malice in someone else’s message. Personally I found for this motto to work well an environment of trust is required together with enough self confidence. And years of practice in my case. Not taking yourself too seriously also helps.