Developing career resilience andadaptability§

Scott E. Seibert, Maria L. Kraimer, Peter A. Heslin

Organizational Dynamics (2016) 45, 245—257

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

ScienceDirect

jo u rn al h om ep ag e: ww w.els evier .c o m/lo c ate /o rg d yn

There is only one kind of shock worse than the totallyunexpected: the expected for which one has refused toprepare.

- Mary Renault, novelist

Developing a clear set of career goals and plans can bebeneficial at almost any stage of your career, though careersrarely unfold as intended or imagined. No matter how muchpeople analyze their aspirations and opportunities in theservice of planning their career, unexpected developmentsoften bring unforeseen changes. Such developments can bedriven by processes within you, such as changing personalaspirations and growth needs, or by external events that youdid not plan or expect, such as the fortuitous opportunitythat seems to drop from the sky or shocks that derail progressalong an intended career pathway. It’s wise to expect theunexpected to occur at some point in your career. This is whyit is important to build resilience and adaptability into yourcareer — before the unforeseen happens.

Resilience is the capacity to bounce back from disrup-tions. In terms of careers, resilience is the capacity tocontinue making progress toward your current career goalswith the resources and strategies you have already devel-oped; to Keep Calm and Carry On, as it were. But sometimesevents require you to change. Adaptability involves refor-mulating your goals and/or strategies to adapt to new workand career realities. Such changes ideally leave you lessvulnerable to the previous types of shocks and more alignedwith your new work environment. The focus of this article ison how you can build your capacity to anticipate and respondto shocks so that you are both more resilient in the face ofunexpected events and more able to make changes to your

§ We thank Lauren Keating for helpful assistance editing this paper.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2016.07.0090090-2616/# 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

career goals and strategies to adapt to new environments,when necessary.

An important place to start is to better understand thetype of shocks and obstacles that can affect progress towardyour career goals. We have been collecting information onthe positive and negative events that shape people’s careersfrom interviews, open ended responses, and questionnairesfrom a large number of professional and managerial employ-ees at all stages of their careers. We share that informationwith you here so that you can be better prepared for theunexpected. We then discuss a range of strategies and tacticsfor building the resources and capacities that enable peopleto constructively deal with the often unexpected events thatare likely to shape their careers. We outline both psycholo-gical and behavioral career strategies for dealing with, over-coming, and even thriving in the face of these events. Bytaking these steps, you can bolster your career resilience andadaptability to respond to the almost inevitable careershocks you encounter.

CAREER SHOCKS

Significant events can throw us in unexpected directions.Some events may be completely unanticipated, such as aninjury, illness, or job loss. Others, such as a relocation,marriage, or pregnancy, may be planned, though the impactand consequences of the event can be more profoundlydisruptive than expected. Either way, such events may causepeople to pause and re-think their career and even lifedirection. We refer to these events as career shocks. Speci-fically, a career shock is a distinct and impactful event thattriggers deliberation about potential career transitions suchas acquiring new skills, searching for a new job, changingoccupations, or retiring. The triggering event may beexpected or unexpected, and may or may not induce strongemotions, but it is something that occurs at a specific time

246 S.E. Seibert et al.

and place and impacts thoughts and feelings about yourcareer status and future career direction. But not all externalevents have undesired consequences. Career shocks mayhave a positive or negative impact on your career. The keyis that they cause you to rethink previously taken-for-grantedassumptions about your career.

Positive Career Shocks

In our research, we have found that common positive careershocks include receiving an earlier than expected promotionand/or pay raise, receiving a prestigious award in the profes-sion or organization, and succeeding in a highly visible pro-ject. Positive career shocks generally provide people withconfirmation that they are doing well in their current courseof action and possibly offer greater opportunities if they stayon the same career track. They solidify your identity andreputation as a valued member of the organization andprofession. Because positive shocks often further embedyou in your current organization or occupation, it is lesslikely that you will pursue career goals that entail leavingthe organization or occupation. This can be a kind of goldenhandcuff. For example, in a study of early-career employees(defined as having graduated with a Bachelors degree withinthe prior 3—5 years), we found that those who had receivedan earlier than expected pay raise or promotion at theircompany were less likely to apply to graduate school, despitetheir desire to pursue a graduate degree. As such, you shouldbe careful to not let positive career shocks become a ‘‘trap’’to stay in a current course of action that may later lead tocareer stagnation due to not pursuing your broader andperhaps more ambitious career goals.

Another common positive career shock is receiving anunexpected job offer. While this type of career shock maylead to changing organizations, industries, or geographiclocations, it is generally an affirming shock that helps youfulfill a career goal. As one employee in our study noted, ‘‘Ajob opportunity came out of the blue. I did not even realizethat it was coming, and it was the perfect job for me.’’ Hewent on to describe that the new job allowed him to pursueone of his career goals of establishing a joint venture ofan executive education institute with a private industrysupporter, but that required he move from New Zealand toAustralia. Although such positive career shocks may notchange your career goal (indeed it may help you achieveyour current career goal) or require you to be resilient, newjob opportunities often require career adaptability in orderto successfully identify, secure, and smoothly navigate one-self into them. Later in this paper, we will discuss variousstrategies to achieve adaptability.

Negative Career Shocks

On the other hand, negative career shocks often require youto draw on your career resilience and adaptability. In ourresearch, the most common negative career shocks includedifficulty finding a job, having an important mentor leave theorganization, failure to receive an expected job assignmentor promotion, receiving a poor performance review, experi-encing a negative political incident within one’s work unit,and being in an organization that announces a significant

organizational change such as a reduction in workforce,merger, or ethical scandal. As an example, one MBA studentdescribed how the merger of his real estate company with adevelopment company resulted in him leading a commercialproject for which he had no managerial skills. As a result, hedecided to apply to MBA programs, a degree which he had notpreviously planned to pursue. The career shock of a companymerger provided him with new opportunities that requiredskill sets he did not have and thus led him to consider newcareer strategies (pursuing an MBA). A university professordescribed how the shock of not getting promoted to a tenuredposition impacted her career and life: ‘‘A shock for me wasbeing told by my department chair that the departmentwanted me to resign before coming up for tenure. I felt likeI had failed my family and ended up taking a job 300 milesfrom home and commuting from home to my job for 4 yearsand only seeing my children on weekends.’’ This type ofdisruption to your career path would certainly require resi-lience and adaptability.

Negative career shocks may also involve personal lifeevents, such as having your spouse offered a job that requiresa re-location, getting married or divorced, having a baby,having a family member diagnosed with a serious or debilitat-ing illness, or experiencing the death of a family member.While some of these shocks are usually positive life events(e.g., getting married; having a baby), they may negativelyimpact your current career trajectory by forcing you tochange jobs (due to spousal re-location) or re-evaluatewhether your current career trajectory is still feasible ordesirable (‘‘can I continue to work 12-hour days with a spouseor baby in my life?’’). An employee in our study of professorsnoted how getting divorced early in her adult life ‘‘forced meto establish independence and an income stream.’’ Sheadapted to the need to secure her own financial security byquitting her contract-based consulting work and applying toPhD programs so that she could pursue a career as an academicprofessor; she is now in a tenure-track position at a researchuniversity. In Table 1, we outline a range of career shocks tohelp you anticipate the kinds of shocks you may encounter, aswell as to help you consider how you might strive to avoidthem and/or respond adaptively when they occur.

Which 2—3 of these career shocks are most likely to beon your short- to medium-term career horizon? How well-prepared are you to respond effectively to them? How couldyou be even better prepared?

While career shocks may lead to you questioning yourabilities, past choices, and future opportunities, being resi-lient and adaptable can help you to turn a negative careershock into a positive event. We now turn to discussing somestrategies that can enable you to be more resilient andadaptable to career shocks.

STRATEGIES FOR FOSTERING CAREERRESILIENCE AND ADAPTABILITY

Based on our own and others’ research, we have identifieda range of strategies for maintaining and developing careerresilience and adaptability. When confronted with a careershock, it is first important to psychologically manage dis-tracting emotions and nurture a growth mindset. You mayfurther have to adapt to new realities by rebalancing the

Table 1 Common Types of Career Shocks

Type of career shock Illustrative examples

Difficulty finding a job ‘‘The difficulty I experienced when searching for a new job a couple of yearsago in a new field made me realize that I needed to acquire additional skillsand knowledge. Thus, I decided to apply to graduate school.’’

Having an important mentor leave the organization ‘‘When my long-time mentor left the company, it reinforced that the timewas right for me to go too.’’

Failure to receive an expected assignment orpromotion

‘‘Being dismissed as a Dean candidate (i.e., head of a business school) mademe realize I did not want to be a Dean and instead I re-focused my time andeffort on research and teaching.’’

Receiving a poor performance review ‘‘I was surprised when my boss gave me low ratings in my performancereview — I thought I had a relatively good year in terms of meeting mygoals. Once he started talking about putting me on a performanceimprovement plan, I knew my time was up at this company. I had to find anew job.’’

Experiencing a negative political incident ‘‘My boss tried to sell me out on a project that failed. This led to me lookingfor a new job.’’

Being in an organization that announces asignificant organizational change

‘‘When the company where I worked was sold to another corporate parentwho did not really care about what we did, made me think of leaving theoccupation’’ (which the person eventually did).

Spouse gets a new job that requires a re-location ‘‘I am married and my husband was posted to D.C. so I had to quit my job ata large accounting firm. I took this opportunity to return to graduateschool, which will bridge me to a job in a new field.’’

Getting married ‘‘Finding a partner for life has changed my work life balance, relative moreto life than work.’’

Having a baby ‘‘Birth of my first kid made me get my priorities straight. I was on the roadto becoming a workaholic in the bad sense (we all work hard and love ourjobs, but if you are above 70—80 hours of work each week, that’s notnormal). I have learned to prioritize, satisfice, and say no.’’

Having a family member diagnosed with a seriousillness or disability

‘‘(My) special needs son caused me to make employment decisions that didnot fit my original plans.’’

Getting divorced ‘‘Losing touch with my wife (which led to divorce) after ten years of beingon the road for work 5—6 days a week was a major factor in the decision toleave the consulting setting and move into a university.’’

Death of a family member ‘‘Death of my partner in an accident lowered my work productivity and Ihad to find a new job. It is hard to explain lack of productivity on a CV.’’

Developing career resilience and adaptability 247

relative importance of your various career goals. Often,psychological resilience is a necessary condition for effec-tively applying other more behavioral strategies for respond-ing to career shocks. For example, dealing effectively withyour emotions can allow you more time and mental energy toengage in the behavioral strategies of seeking training anddevelopment, seeking job challenges and fit, and developingeffective relationships and career networks.

PSYCHOLOGICAL STRATEGIES

Three psychological strategies to support your resilience andthus adaptability when career shocks are encountered per-tain to managing distracting emotions, nurturing your growthmindset, and rebalancing your career goals.

Manage Distracting Emotions

Negative career shocks can sometimes trigger unhelpful,negative emotions such as anger, anxiety, resentment, self-doubt, sadness, or frustration. Acceptance and commitment

therapy frames such emotions as a common, natural, andinevitable part of being human that are exacerbated andprolonged by sitting on or sitting in them. People suppressor sit on their emotions when they attempt to deny, dodge, orotherwise avoid their unwanted emotions. Hallmarks ofrelated escape activities include excessive alcohol or illicitdrug consumption, overeating, and mindless TV or internetbrowsing. Such approaches to managing unhelpful emotionsare like putting water on a squeaky wheel — the squeak willstop for a while, though soon afterwards, it often resumeseven louder than before.

Sitting in emotions is tantamount to rumination. Thisoccurs when people get caught up in cycles of dwelling onand analyzing their uncomfortable emotions. After ruminat-ing on fear of failure at an important career task, such as ajob interview or presentation, the anticipated failure canseem so real that people come to believe, feel, and act as if ithas actually occurred! Rumination is unconstructive in that itundermines effective problem solving and acting to addressthe source of distress. As such, sitting on or sitting in emo-tions is generally not helpful for maintaining resilience oradaptability.

Table 2 Strategies for Going to and Going Through Emo-tions

Strategies for going to emotions are to:1. Label your thoughts and feelings. Instead of saying toyourself, ‘‘I am panicking,’’ say, ‘‘I have a sensation thatmy heart is racing.’’ Instead of saying, ‘‘I am so depressed,’’say, ‘‘I am having the feeling that I am depressed.’’ Doingso helps to avoid fusion, which occurs when people viewthemselves as not just experiencing emotions (e.g., ‘‘I feeldepressed’’), but in fact being ‘‘fused’’ (or synonymous)with their emotions (e.g., ‘‘I am depressed’’). The de-fusionenabled by labeling thoughts and feelings places them in abroader context of being merely a part of ourselves that canco-exist with us making progress toward attaining our goals.

2. Engage in expressive writing. Because bottling upnegative emotions makes them grow, simply writing aboutthem can be a cathartic means of self-discovery andmeaning-making. Stress relief and fresh insights foraddressing your career shocks can stem from brainstormingabout topics such as how you feel and alternative ways ofmaking sense of what happened. Try doing so for 5—10 mineach day until the negative emotions subside.

3. Play musical thoughts. Think of an upsetting or distractingthought (e.g., ‘‘I am such an idiot,’’ ‘‘She is so unkind,’’ or‘‘How could they have made such a moronic decision?’’) andbelieve it as intently as you can for about 10 s. Now sing thatthought to yourself to the tune of Happy Birthday, JingleBells, or any other song of your choosing, and then try toagain hold it in mind in its original form. Playing musicalthoughts can help to defuse unhelpful thoughts of theiremotional sting and any powerful urges to act on them.

4. Urge surf. Whenever experiencing an uncomfortableemotion (i.e., anxiety, anger, betrayal, resentment, orsadness), try to just notice the urge as it rises, peaks, andthen eventually falls, just as waves in the surf graduallydissipate after breaking. No matter how apparentlyoverwhelming a disruptive emotion and related urge seemsto be, it will inevitably pass — even if not acted upon.

Strategies for going through emotions are to:1. Ask: ‘‘How do you help?’’ The thoughts that spurndisruptive emotions are often debated in our heads in termsof whether they are true vs. false, or reasonable vs.unreasonable (i.e., ‘‘I deserve to be upset about this!’’).Instead, ask yourself whether the topic is workable, that is,helpful or unhelpful for attaining your objectives. Askyourself: ‘‘Does thinking about this topic help me to . . . bethe person I want to be? . . .build the sort of relationships I’dlike?. . . achieve my career objectives? If not, try to divertyour thoughts and actions to something more productive.

2. Choose to ‘‘pass’’ rather than ‘‘play.’’ When tabloidstarget celebrities with misleading stories, some chose to‘‘pass’’ by taking such stories in their stride, paying littleattention, and shrugging them off as just part of beingfamous. Other celebrities choose to ‘‘play’’ by reading,analyzing, dwelling on, and complaining about such stories,thereby becoming highly upset! Next time you begin toruminate on a career shock, try to choose to pass ratherthan play, thereby avoiding becoming distracted andexhausted by fighting needless battles with unworkableideas.

3. Treat unhelpful thoughts like a monster on the bus.

Experiment with construing uncomfortable feelings likemonsters in the back of a bus that you are driving. Remindyourself that they can be there without you needing to beunduly distracted or guided by them, or trying to get themto leave the bus. Just as day follows night, they willeventually leave of their own accord — often more smoothlyand permanently than if you engage in a battle to ignorethem or kick them off.

248 S.E. Seibert et al.

Two more effective ways to manage unwanted, disruptiveemotions are:

� Going to emotions — by being willing to have and fullyexperience negative emotions without struggling, judg-ing, or trying to banish them; and� Going through emotions — by taking action guided by yourplans and priorities, regardless of what you are feeling.People go through emotions when, for instance, theystrongly feel like staying in bed but instead adhere totheir plan to head out for early morning exercise.

Both these approaches involve being willing to truly ex-perience unwanted emotions, rather than striving to sup-press, squash, or analyze them. Doing so can yield a host ofbenefits including decreased anxiety, as well as enhancedinnovation, learning, mental health, and robust motivationto progress in your career. A range of strategies for going toand going through emotions is outlined in Table 2. Given thatpeople vary in terms of the strategies they find most effec-tive, we encourage you to experiment with this range ofemotional self-management options in order to discoverwhich work best for you!

The more we struggle with our difficult thoughts andfeelings by suppressing, ruminating, or fusing with them,the more they are likely to linger, upset us and our relation-ships, as well as derail our learning and career goal attain-ment. The objective of going to and going through unhelpfulemotions is not to prevent or eradicate unpleasant thoughtsand feelings; that just won’t happen because they are part ofbeing human. Instead the goal is to disentangle ourselvesfrom distracting, unhelpful thoughts and feelings, in order torefocus on more important and useful matters — such asmaintaining positive relationships and acting in ways thatenable progress in achieving our career objectives, includingthe enactment of the behavioral strategies discussed below.A welcome bi-product of doing so is that unwanted emotionsoften evaporate more swiftly than they would have other-wise.

Nurture Your Growth Mindset

Encountering career shocks can create doubts about whetherpeople possess the requisite abilities to attain their careerobjectives. In such instances, the fundamental assumptionsor mindset people hold about the plasticity of their capabil-ities in question can significantly influence what they do next.When people hold a fixed mindset about particular abilities —whether in the technical, operational, marketing, adminis-trative, leadership, or some other domain — they construethem as largely immutable and thus presume that the scope

Developing career resilience and adaptability 249

to develop them substantially is innately limited. Statementsto yourself or others such as ‘‘I’m too old for this’’ or ‘‘This isjust not one of my strengths and that’s never going tochange’’ are hallmarks of a fixed mindset about the abilityin question. After a setback has been encountered, researchhas shown that what flows from a fixed mindset includesreluctance to seek feedback about how you could get better,systematically experiment with new strategies, or generallyengage proactively in the kinds of development initiativesthat enable ability improvement. Fixed mindsets are thenoften validated by acting as a self-fulfilling prophecy.

When people hold a growth mindset, on the other hand,they tend to assume that if an ability is presently inadequate,it means it has not yet been sufficiently developed. A growthmindset assumes that abilities can be cultivated and cuespeople to respond to setbacks by engaging in a search forstrategies to enable ability acquisition and refinement. These

Table 3 Strategies to Cultivate and Sustain a Growth Mindset

Strategy

1. Focus on development Beyond playing to your stthat are needed to accomsetbacks.

2. Get real Try to surround yourself

‘‘fans’’ focused on valida3. Realize that growth is possible Neuroplasticity research

within our brains as new

abilities, knowledge, or s4. Set learning goals Create specific, challeng5. Engage in deliberative practice This involves many hours

foundation for effective

6. Exert sustained effort Rigorous research has revtalent are actually the reEspecially when frustrateeffort in your deliberativeany task.

7. Run your own race Constantly comparing youwhat you may learn fromthe most useful next step

8. Remember that errors canenable learning

Develop and post up ‘‘er! Errors are a natural! Errors reveal what

! The more errors you9. Focus on what you can change When you encounter setb

better strategies, rather

10. Explore what can be learnedfrom setbacks

Ask yourself:! What factors likely

! What different app! What strategies mig

Relish playing with optio11. Reflect on the potential costs Think deeply about a spec

care about from realizingor others back can providmindset.

12. Convince someone else Think of someone you carholds a fixed mindset aboperson a letter to convincselection of the 11 insightabout when you have doupowerful way to persuad

can include seeking feedback about how performance couldbe improved, setting learning goals regarding precisely whatthey hope to learn to do, questioning their assumptions,asking others for guidance, observing others who are moreproficient, experimenting with different strategies, as wellas methodically and persistently working away to cultivatethe targeted abilities. Table 3 outlines a range of research-based self-development initiatives that you can apply tofoster your growth mindset, both generally as well as inspecific areas where a fixed mindset is hampering you fromresponding constructively to a career shock.

As with the emotional self-management strategies, weencourage you to trial each of the growth mindset cultivationtactics to determine which most potently remind you thatyour learning and performance improvement largely reflectthe quality of your strategies and your sustained, focusedeffort at applying them. Working through these strategies

Explanation/Insights

rengths, also try to continually improve under-developed skillsplish your objectives — even though doing so often entails initial

with people who challenge and inspire you to grow, not justting and celebrating your talent.reveals that throughout our lives new connections are formedskills are developed. Thus, it’s never too late to acquire newkills.ing learning goals in the form: ‘‘I want to learn how to. . .’’

of highly focused study, training, and practice that provide aperformance in virtually any domain.ealed that many characteristics once believed to reflect innatesult of intense practice conducted for at least 10 years.d with your progress, remember that sustaining considerable

practice is essential for realizing your potential at practically

rself to others can be demoralizing! Instead, reflect briefly on them, though focus mostly on discerning and mindfully takings along your personal skill development path.ror management’’ mantras that you find compelling, such as:

part of the learning process!you are still able to learn!

make, the more you can learn!acks, see them as reflecting a need for more effort and/orthan as indicating a lack of natural talent.

caused these results?roaches might have led to better results?ht I apply next time?ns to develop your effectiveness.ific time when a fixed mindset constrained you or someone you

a valued aspiration. Realizing how a fixed mindset has held youe a powerful impetus for adopting a more growth-oriented

e about (e.g., a parent, child, friend, relative, or protege) whout his/her capacity to develop a particular skill. Write thise him or her that he or she can learn to develop it, drawing on as above that resonate most with you, as well as personal storiesbted your ability to develop. Trying to persuade others is ae ourselves!

250 S.E. Seibert et al.

with a (peer) coach, mentor, counselor, or support group maybe particularly helpful for eliciting and sustaining yourgrowth mindset.

Balance and Rebalance Your Career Goals

Managing unhelpful emotions and fostering a growth mindsetcan help you deal with and overcome a career shock orsetback and continue to make progress toward your careergoals. Other events are disruptive enough to cause you torethink your career goals and priorities.

We suggest that having a fuller understanding of the rangeof possible, desirable career outcomes, as well as having abalanced and flexible approach to pursuing different careergoals and outcomes, will make you more able to adapt tochanging career circumstances over time. It is thereforeimportant to think deeply about what you want and needfrom your career. Three fundamental, classic questions to askyourself when pondering this topic are:

� What am I good at?

� What gives me joy?

� What does the world need?

Then (re)consider: What does it mean to have a successfulcareer? How will I measure my career success? Of coursepeople answer these fundamental questions in differentways, though some yardsticks people commonly use to assesstheir own career success include their levels of material well-being, status and influence, learning and growth, impact andlegacy, life balance, as well as their balance among all ofthese career aspirations.

Material well-beingFor many years, career success was considered to be virtuallysynonymous with one’s salary and position. This makes intui-tive sense, given the material comforts, opportunities, andsecurity that money can provide for oneself and others.Religious or cultural concerns with seeming ‘‘too materialis-tic’’ can lead people to downplay their concern with theirincome and financial status, but as Zig Ziglar observed:

Folks who say they don’t care about money will lie aboutother things too!

While a person’s level of salary and wealth are routinelydeemed as tantamount to career success, especially by thoseevaluating others’ careers, people often consider a range ofadditional factors when evaluating their own career success.Depending upon a person’s values, having plenty of moneymay or may not be necessary to experience career success,but it is rarely sufficient. For many people, at least somestatus and influence over other people, processes, or out-comes they care about is an inherent aspect of feelingsuccessful in their career. In fact, above some thresholdlevel, money may be more important as an indicator of statusand influence than as a satisfier of material needs.

Status and influenceCareer status was traditionally a function of the prestige ofone’s employing organization and/or profession, as well asposition attained within an organizational hierarchy. Overthe last few decades however, reductions in the layers of

organizational hierarchies, increased rates of movementbetween roles, and growth in the speed with which newoccupational roles, organizations, and even industriesemerge has decreased the importance of traditional statusmarkers of career status. Instead, career status and influenceare progressively denoted more by income and indices of aperson’s attainments in the projects on which they work, aswell as the influence they attain in the marketplace of ideas.

Employers routinely rate job candidates’ status based ontheir contributions to leading or enabling noteworthy pro-jects to be successfully completed. Social media has recentlyenabled the status and influence of aspiring thought leadersand entertainers to be readily gauged by the number ofsubscribers, downloads, followers, and retweets theyattract. Since 2010, the Kahn Academy, an online, non-profiteducational organization, has provided badges to test andrepresent user’s online learning achievements. Mozilla, anopen-source software community, launched Mozilla OpenBadges in 2011 to allow people to document and displayreal-world skills and achievements earned from a broadrange of different credible sources. These examples illus-trate the ways status has become de-linked from traditionalgranters of prestige. Emerging markers of status may be moreakin to how academic status has long being attained, as afunction of the publication location and citation of an indi-vidual’s scholarly work.

While elite status is often cherished, the price paid toattain it can be substantial. Indeed, the notion that success ismerely a function of high salary and role status has beenundermined by countless examples of them being insufficientto enable the experience of career success. The billionairecreator of Minecraft, Markus Persson, revealed in an August2015 tweet that: ‘‘the problem with getting everything is yourun out of reasons to keep trying, and human interactionbecomes impossible due to imbalance.’’ Beyond achievement,people often have other goals in their careers such as learningand growth, as well as mutually satisfying relationships.

Learning and growthPeople vary in their learning goal orientation; that is, theextent to which they yearn for personal accomplishment,learning, and development in the workplace. Many peoplemay not have the luxury to pursue personal or professionalgrowth at work, either because of their limited access todevelopmental opportunities or because burdens such as lowincome, discrimination, and/or job insecurity create dis-tracting levels of stress that undermine their resilienceand well-being. However, roles in many areas — such as inthe information technology, education, and healthcare sec-tors — typically have rates of change that may reward andeven require role occupants to embrace the challenge oflifelong learning and growth. People may seek out thesechallenging roles as a career goal in itself and derive greatsatisfaction from the learning journeys they undertake, evenif the learning process can be frustrating. However, evenlearning and growth goals can have downsides. For example,if your focus on learning and growth becomes so fervent thatit undermines attention to the concerns and preferences ofyour employer, customers, clients, or audience, it can jeo-pardize the supply of funding and other resources (i.e.,discretionary time) to pursue your learning aspirations, aswell as other career and life goals.

Developing career resilience and adaptability 251

Career impact and legacyA person’s career impact is the positive difference they haveupon the lives of other people in the course of performingtheir work. These ‘‘others’’ could be peers, team members,employees, bosses, and internal service providers, as well asexternal stakeholders such as customers, clients, patients, orstudents. People’s careers may also be motivated by a desireto have a positive impact on broader social problems, such asthe creation of greater social equity, the honoring of basichuman rights, the eradication of poverty, the reversal ofglobal warming, and/or the reduction of seemingly intract-able conflicts such as those in the Middle East.

People can be highly motivated by even brief, direct (e.g.,face-to-face) expressions of appreciation by the benefici-aries of the work they have performed in roles as diverse asbiomedical technology, fundraising, teaching, radiology, andbanking, as well as working as a lifeguard or a soldier. Forexample, employees at Medtronic report being deeply invi-gorated by annual events in which they meet face-to-facewith patients whose lives have been saved or improved bymedical devices that they helped create.

Career legacy pertains to providing mentoring and otherresources that help to build the capacity of others. Peopleconcerned with a career legacy may want to leave not justother individuals, but also their team, department, organi-zation, country, society, or our biosphere at least a littlebetter than they found it. When people complete the classicexercise of methodically writing the obituary they would liketo have read about their life at their funeral, they are oftensurprised at the relative unimportance of the wealth, posi-tion, or other status they attained in their career, relative tothe extent to which they want to be remembered for having,for instance, steadfastly cared about, supported, and devel-oped other people.

Life balanceGenuine and sustainable career success is multi-faceted. Itinvolves attending to each of the career outcomes you value,such as those noted above, as well as other life issues such asyour physical health, cherished relationships, real-timehappiness, and potentially spirituality. While maintaininglife balance is often a high priority among those who firstentered the workforce over the last decade, it can be anabsolute imperative by those with child- or elder-careresponsibilities: their resilience can be severely strainedby insufficient access to high quality, accessible child- orelder-care, inflexible organizational policies, and expecta-tions that they will be on-call and willing to work any hour ofvirtually every day. For further information about these lifebalance dynamics and how they can be addressed, see thepapers in this special issue by Ellen Kossek on ManagingWork-Life Boundaries in the Digital Age, and by DeniseRousseau and colleagues on Negotiating Flexible and FairIdiosyncratic Deals (I-Deals).

While making it through some episodes of life oftenentails at least temporarily downplaying some of theseelements of success, doing so for an extended period oftime can strain resilience to the point of burnout. Theresultant sense of meaninglessness in work can exact a heavytoll in other life arenas such as health, relationships, andwell-being. As Ralph Waldo Emerson observed, ‘‘Moneyoften costs too much!’’

Discerning and Balancing the Outcomes ThatMatter Most

The relative importance of different facets of career successtends to change across the course of careers. Research hasrevealed that among management students, income, andstatus tend to be paramount, while during the middle tolater stages, the extent to which you are leaving a legacy bysocializing and mentoring others to attain their career objec-tive often comes to the fore. That said, people vary con-siderably in what they consider when evaluating their careersuccess. Being engaged in leaving a legacy by mentoringothers, for instance, is increasingly a concerted focus andpoint of pride even for people engaged at the initial stages oftheir careers.

Changes in the priority accorded to different career out-comes can be in response to circumstances and experiencesalong the way. For instance, realizing that wealth and statuscan be isolating may spur Minecraft founder Markus Perssonon a quest to nurture relationships that he finds stimulatingand fulfilling. People who find that managing others can bemore stressful than they imagined may decrease the impor-tance they place on having management responsibility andformal influence over others. Similarly, a sole focus on leav-ing a legacy may result in you being relatively short ofmaterial possessions and financial resources that may ormay not stimulate an increased concern with how you cansecure a higher and more stable source of income.

We suggest that a robust path to experiencing careersuccess, as well as resilience to shocks that could divertyou from that path, is likely to stem from discerning andattending to multiple career outcomes at any given point intime. For example, actively pursuing goals related to bothfinancial success and life balance would likely mean that youhave at least a few quality relationships and some financialsecurity to be resilient and adaptable to the shock of beingdownsized. People who only pursue financial success may nothave the relationships to help them cope well with beingcaught up in an unexpected downsizing and progresssmoothly through their subsequent career transition intoanother, ideally even more suitable job. Likewise, an indi-vidual only pursuing life balance may not have the financialreserves to cover rent or mortgage payments long enoughuntil they find a new, desirable job. Research by HowardStevenson and Laura Nash shows that simultaneously pursu-ing a diverse range of career goals can enable a moresustainable and satisfying experience of career success.

In the next section we discuss behavioral strategies youcan pursue to increase the social resources you have availableto enhance your career resilience and adaptability.

BEHAVIORAL STRATEGIES

A number of behavioral strategies can help you become moreresilient in your pursuit of your current career path, as well asmore able to define and pursue a new path. Four of these areto (i) develop an effective relationship with your boss, (ii)undertake suitable training and development opportunities,(iii) seek job challenges and fit, and (iv) develop an effectivecareer network. Guidance for applying each of these strate-gies is discussed next. Because these strategies take time to

252 S.E. Seibert et al.

implement, you would be well-served by routinely deployingthem so that their benefits may be utilized when you encoun-ter career shocks.

Develop an Effective Relationship with Your Boss

It will come as no surprise that your work life will be better— and shocks may be either less shocking or easier to dealwith — if you have a good relationship with your boss. Highquality leader-follower relationships are made up of mutualliking, loyalty, professional respect, and perceived contri-bution to the attainment of mutual goals. Such relation-ships need time and focus to develop, as they are builtthrough positive cycles of reciprocal exchange and trustbuilding. What may be less obvious is how important a goodrelationship with your immediate supervisor is to gainingaccess to the other resources and developmental opportu-nities that can help you maintain resilience and adaptabil-ity in your career. Well-regarded followers are offered moreautonomy in their jobs and more opportunities to take onadditional responsibility (i.e., job challenges, such as spe-cial projects). They are given more access to training anddevelopment activities, and are more likely to be suggestedfor promotions. Research by Raymond Sparrowe and RobertLiden has shown that leaders who have a high qualityrelationship with their subordinate are more likely to incor-porate that subordinate into their own network of trustedrelationships in the workplace, increasing their influenceand effectiveness as future leaders. In the next section weexplore in more detail the benefits of your network for yourcareer, though given the importance of a good relationshipwith your boss, we first consider how you might go aboutbuilding it.

Although perceived similarity in goals and valuesbetween the leader and the subordinate is often a basisfor a high quality relationship, the best way to start apositive relationship cycle is often through establishing highexpectations for performance and compatibility even beforeyou begin the job. Research supports the truism that firstimpressions matter. A classic article by John Gabarro andJohn Kotter offers a set of strategies to build and maintainsuch an effective working relationship with your boss afterthe first impression is made. Like any professional relation-ship, this one can be managed by being sensitive to theenvironment in which your boss works and his or herstrengths, weaknesses, and personal work style. Settingmutual goals that help fulfill your boss’ objectives, whilemaking the most effective use of his or her time, can alsohelp to avoid problems of miscommunication and goal mis-alignment or conflict.

Understanding your boss’ work style, including her or hispreferred level of formality, expected frequency and basis ofprogress reporting (e.g., on a mostly need to know or nice toknow basis), as well as least and most preferred modes ofcommunication (e.g., text, email, voicemail, phone, drop-in, or scheduled appointment), can smooth interactions andstimulate liking and trust. Learning your boss’s strengthswhile understanding how your own strengths can tactfullycomplement your boss’s weaknesses can help ensure thatyour contributions will be valued and your work experiencewill engender your own growth, well-being, and progress inyour career. Developing an effective relationship with your

boss can also facilitate your access to and effective applica-tion of the next three behavioral strategies.

Undertake Suitable Training and DevelopmentOpportunities

Many organizations provide training and development oppor-tunities. In the past, such opportunities were often viewed aslargely a substitute for a raise, a consolation for a missedpromotion opportunity, or as part of being ‘‘performancemanaged’’ or ‘‘counseled out.’’ Resources allocated to train-ing and development are increasingly carefully stewarded.

Participation in suitable training and development activ-ities can have benefits beyond the skills acquired or theknowledge content of any workshop or course. Activelyseeking out training opportunities can signal to higher levelmanagers your own ability and willingness to learn new skillsand adapt to new technologies, markets, or environments. Inshort, participation in training can show your immediatesupervisor that you are promotable.

Training and development programs vary in their designand purpose. Some programs can help further embed youwithin the organization, connecting you with importantmanagers and moving you closer to the core decision makersin the organization. If this is your purpose, look for trainingprograms that involve interaction with higher level managersand focus on issues that are currently a central concern of theorganization. You don’t have to limit yourself to formaltraining opportunities. Volunteer participation in task forcesfocused on key organizational issues, committees, or com-munities of practice can also increase a broad range of skills,your knowledge of the focal issues, your political knowledgeregarding key players and events that have shaped theculture of the organization, and your connections to impor-tant decision makers. The crucial point is that internaltraining can help you maintain career resilience in yourcurrent career path by providing you with skills and knowl-edge relevant to your current organization or occupation.

Other types of training and development activities canhelp you make a major change in your career trajectory. Ifthis is your purpose, look for developmental activities thatspan organizational, industry, or occupational boundaries.Perhaps the most obvious example is pursuit of a higherdegree at an academic institution, such as an MBA or spe-cialized Masters Program in a topic of interest such asforensics, entrepreneurship, or education. Informal devel-opmental activities can also connect you to opportunitiesoutside your current employer. Professional societies, aswell as volunteer and community organizations can buildyour awareness and visibility in a wider community, enablingyou to form inspiring new relationships and formulate newcareer plans and goals. Both formal and informal training anddevelopment activities obtained externally can help youadapt to necessary changes in your career direction andincrease your ability to weather the inevitable shocks youencounter.

Seek Job Challenges and Fit

Learning and growth is an important part of career resilienceand adaptability, but not all learning need come from outside

Developing career resilience and adaptability 253

of the job. Successful managers report that 70% of theirlearning comes from their own challenging experiences onthe job. As Professors Susan Ashford and Scott DeRue havehighlighted, however, experience is not simply time on thejob and learning is not automatic or assured. It is the range ofunique and qualitatively different types of relevant chal-lenges faced in your job that promote learning and develop-ment, as well as how systematically you work to extract thelessons that challenging experiences potentially have tooffer.

Cindy McCauley and her colleagues at the Center forCreative Leadership found that managers report the mostdevelopment when they have faced unfamiliar responsibil-ities, higher levels of responsibility, the need to createchange, managing across boundaries, the need to deal withexisting or legacy employee problems, and the opportunity toconstructively manage employee diversity. Our own researchhas found that seeking out work roles that provide challengeand responsibility is a strong way to promote your owndevelopment and future promotion potential. It is also away to explore the range of options available for pursuingcareer goals and paths that may have previously been lesssalient or viewed as less possible. In short, seeking out thetypes of challenges that can enable you to attain your specificlearning goals can build your capacity to attain ambitiouscareer goals and to adapt to changing circumstances in yourcareer.

Another way to make your career more resilient in theface of unplanned shocks is by job crafting, whereby you turnthe job you have into more of the job you want. ProfessorAmy Wrzesniewski and her colleagues conceived of job craft-ing as involving redefining the tasks and responsibilities,relationships, or reframing the way you think about thepurposes and impact of your job. You may be able to expandor reduce the range of tasks you perform so that you spendmore time on tasks you find energizing and rewarding, as wellas less on those you find draining or demoralizing. You couldalso change how tasks are performed to better fit yourpersonality and strengths, such as having more (or less)face-to-face contact with others. Crafting relationshipsmay help you respond to a negative political incident, forexample, by devoting less time to a project that involvesworking with the person involved in the incident, as well asmore on projects that involve working with people you findinvigorating. Or, if an important mentor leaves the organiza-tion, you can seek out a new mentor or become a mentor tosomeone else.

Overall, the objective is to tailor your job so that it betterreflects your own motives, strengths, and passions. An advan-tage of this approach is that it does not require changing jobsor organizations. Job crafting can also enable simultaneouslypursuing several of your career goals and thereby lead togreater career satisfaction along multiple dimensions, as wellas resilience in your career.

Develop an Effective Career Network

Developing an effective network can be one of the mostpotent sources of career resilience and adaptability. Theability to connect in meaningful ways with others buildsresilience because it helps buffer people from the adverseeffects of shocks. In our own research we have found that

possession of a large professional network can make peoplepsychologically resilient against many types of shocks;from an unexpected poor performance evaluation, tothe experience of a negative political incident, all theway to the loss of one’s job. Having a larger professionalnetwork allowed the professionals we studied to bounceback from these unexpected events and maintain a strong— sometimes stronger — sense of themselves as a profes-sional.

The term ‘networking’ often has negative connotations.Ryan Hoover, 28-year old founder of one of Silicon Valley’smost popular new product review and venture funding sites,explains: ‘‘I hate the word networking because it feels coldand transactional. I blogged because I enjoyed it and I waslearning. It happened to pay off with Product Hunt.’’ While itis important to not stretch too far beyond your comfort zone,it is also worthwhile to mindfully attend to the differentphases of social networking; namely; (i) building your net-work of contacts, (ii) maintaining those contacts you alreadyhave, and (iii) actually making effective use of those contactswhen necessary.

The first point to understand about network building isthat the phrase ‘‘it’s who you know, not what you know’’ is apoor description of effective networking. It turns out thatthe single most effective way to build your network is to lookfor ways to give value to others as they pursue their tasks,projects, and career goals. Professor Adam Grant — a well-known researcher and himself a practitioner of networking —advocates emulating people like Ryan Hoover by ‘‘givingwith a purpose’’ to build your network. Doing so involvesgiving your time, energy, and ideas to people and projectsthat you care about and that have a concrete impact.Although there are pure ‘takers’ who you must be waryof, for the most part, other-oriented giving is likely to leadto a large and strongly supportive network. Ryan Hooveragrees: ‘‘The truth is, yes you do need to be really persistentsometimes (when seeking funding), but the better way ofgoing about it is thinking super long term by building thoserelationships before you even have a product to sell. Also,thinking about helping people in some way. This can be assmall as introducing them to someone to reading their blogpost and sharing it.’’

Although many people who consider themselves effectivenetworkers focus their energy on meeting new people, wesometimes forget that it takes time and energy to maintainthe network contacts we already have. It’s hard to sayexactly how long it takes for a professional relationship todissolve or decay over time through neglect, but imaginegetting a call from a colleague or teammate you worked with5 years ago at a different organization who would now likeyou to provide him with a job recommendation. Would yourespond positively? There are many simple ways to keepcurrent with contacts you already have, from linking viasocial networking sites to occasional emails with news orarticles that you know might interest the person. Whenpossible, however, spending time face-to-face is often bestfor enabling relationships to flourish. One of the surprisingfindings from a study of social networking via technology isthat the more time people spend using technology to talk toothers virtually, the more time they subsequently spendtraveling and meeting with others in face-to-face contexts.Of course this presents a problem. We all know people who

254 S.E. Seibert et al.

spend so much time building and maintaining their networkthat they have less time to do their own work and theirperformance suffers.

Sociologists who study social networks have a differentway of thinking about this problem. They note that one of thekey drivers of social relationships is homophily: the ten-dency of people to associate with others who are similar tothemselves. This tendency is often rather subtle but potent.Most people tend to find it smoother to interact with peoplewho have similar race, gender, socio-economic, and profes-sional backgrounds, experiences, attitudes, and values to

Table 4 Analyzing and Developing a Required Social Network

1. What is an impo rtant projec t or goal you’d li ke to ac hieve in your w(e.g. developing a new product, service, program, competency, or cacquiring a grant, conducting a resea rch projec t, or publi shing a pa

2. Complete the table below regarding who you will nee d to help yougoal. This could be a spec ific person or role holder. In the column whether you curr entl y have an adequate relati onship / ti e to this pe

From whom do you nee d techni cal in formation, exper tise, or spec ialized skills to ac hieve your goal?

Y/N From whom do you nee d fin ancial, mater ial, per sonn el, or other re source sto ac hieve your goal?

Y/

3. What does this tell you abo ut the adequac y of your social network projec t or goal?

4. What types of resource s and help ca n you off er eac h of the peop le eit her to form, maintain, or enh ance the relati onship you alrea dy ha

a. Positi on-related resource s, such as → Caree r advance ment oppo rtun ities → Visibilit y and publi c praise → Chall eng e and lea rning oppo rtun ities

b. Task-related resource s, such as: → Informati on and advice → Ass istance and coop erati on → Material resource s

c. Person-related resource s, such as: → Acce ptance and confirmati on → Ownership and inv olvement → Gratit ude

themselves. This is often because they find the behavior ofthese similar others easier to predict and less threatening totheir own world views and cherished identities. The down-side of this ease of interaction is that we tend to interact andform relationships with people we already agree with onmany dimensions. Thus, while these comfortable relation-ships can provide a solid basis for social support, they canalso constrain our growth in knowledge, creativity, andadaptability because they limit the amount and types ofnew information, ideas, and social resources that are avail-able to us. Thus, when sociologists think about effective

ork or ca ree r in the next 12 months lass ; chang ing a poli cy or proce dure; per) ?

complete this projec t or att ain th is next to eac h type of contac t, indica te rson (Y) or not (N).

N From whom do you nee d poli tical supp ort (e.g. advocac y and app rovals) to achieve your goal?

Y/N

to enable you to acc ompli sh your

nee ded to complete your projec t, ve wit h them?

Developing career resilience and adaptability 255

social networks, they focus less on the total number ofpeople in your network and more on the makeup of thenetwork: the types of diversity among the people who arepart of the network. The key point is that people who are

Table 5 Strategies to Foster High-Quality Connections

Engage respectfully by:� Being present — bringing your full attention to bear on theconversation you are having, in part by setting aside andignoring your smartphone, tablet, or any other distractions� Being affirming — trying to notice, highlight, and celebrateothers’ strengths and what they are proud of. A great timeto do this is during introductions at team formation� Communicating supportively — by expressing views,opinions, feedback, and aspirations in a suggestive and kindway that minimizes defensiveness.

Be task-enabling — try to understand and help peopleachieve their objectives by, for instance:� Providing information or other resources that enable othersto do their work more effectively

Offering flexibility about how and by when work is to becompleted� Helping people appreciate the significance of their work —that is, why it matters and how it could positively affect thelives of other people� Advocating on others’ behalf, to help ease their navigationof political processes.

Foster trust by:� Sharing valuable information (without violating others’confidence, which would just show that you areuntrustworthy)� Self-disclosure regarding information that makes youvulnerable in some way, which can encourage others toreciprocate� Using inclusive language, such as the word ‘‘we’’ andotherwise expressing a shared identity and purpose. Doingso helps people sense that your fates are intermingled� Giving away control and responsibility, being reliable,keeping commitments, as well as soliciting and acting oninput to the task at hand� Avoiding, at all costs, destroying trust by deploying thefollowing classic trust torpedoes:! Accusing others of having bad intent (i.e., lacking inintegrity, dependability, or benevolence)! Demeaning others (i.e., by making comments or jokesthat call into question their competence)! Frequently checking up on whether someone isperforming as agreed! Punishing people when they do something that does notyield positive results.

Engage in play to do something together just for fun, with noparticular outcomes in mind, such as:� Taking a leisurely walk/sunshine break with someone forpure relaxation, without discussing work� Organizing or attending a social function with someone suchas a mixer, networking event, game, or trivial pursuit night� Inviting folks to a party, festival, movie, fun park, gallery,bowling, or exercise opportunity (e.g., bush-walking orplaying a sport that interests you both)� Playing charades, chess, some other board game, or cards.

different from each other in some way — in terms of theirrace or gender, their functional or professional backgroundand training, their department or level in the organization,their employer, or their occupation — tend to have new andunique sources of information and resources to share. Oftenthe people who are different from you along one or more ofthese dimensions will be different from most of the otherpeople already in your network. These are the people whoadd unique value to your whole network. Table 4 provides aguide for determining and systematically cultivating thesocial network you require to adaptively and successfullycomplete a forthcoming career challenge.

What this means for effective maintenance of your careernetwork is that often the same amount of information,resources, and support can be gleaned from a network thatis made up of far fewer people, leaving more time to attendmore fully to those relationships. Some may feel that this isan awfully instrumental way to look at the social world, but itis a fact of work life that your time is limited and you areunlikely to be able to establish close ties with everyone youmeet. To transcend the potential superficiality of ‘being anetworker’ and establish close ties among those who youkeep in your network, try to build what Professor JaneDutton and colleagues describe as high quality connections(HQCs). These occur when people interact in a mutuallyenergizing and rewarding manner. Experiencing a HQCboosts thriving, thereby increasing people’s capacity tothink and act in the moment. Research by Dutton hasrevealed the potential to create a positive spiral, wherebyhigh quality relationships progressively increase how peoplefeel about each other and their willingness to help eachother. Table 5 outlines a range of strategies you can use tobuild HQCs.

Overall, career networks can be used to increase yourresilience where you are currently working. They can alsohelp you adapt to substantially new career circumstances,such as a new job or a new employer. If your purpose is to beless vulnerable to shocks that occur in your work life, thefocus of your networking should probably be within yourown organization. Developing a set of close relationshipswith those in your immediate work group or area of spe-cialization is likely to provide the greatest degree of psy-chological and social support, allowing you to maintain yourtask focus and bounce back from unexpected andunplanned events. The fact that the people in this closenetwork also know each other should allow them morerelevant advice and support, when needed. On the otherhand, if you wish to adapt to new circumstances and newchallenges, then a social network with greater range anddiversity may be better. Networks that span departmental,organizational, or occupational boundaries are likely to bethe most useful.

CONCLUSION

Our intention has been to help build your awareness of therange and types of career shocks that might affect yourcareer path, as well as your preparedness to respond to themeffectively. You may be fortunate to experience positiveshocks, such as a fast-track promotion, an extremely helpfulnew mentor, or an unexpected job offer that fits your career

256 S.E. Seibert et al.

goals. Enjoy those moments, though be careful to not let suchpositive events trap you into a career direction at theexpense of giving up other valued career and/or life goals.

Most people will experience at least one negative careershock during their working life. When this happens, manageyour emotions effectively and carefully consider whether youcan, and wish to, continue on your current career path, orwhether it is best to change direction. If new skills arerequired, ensure that a fixed mindset is not holding you backfrom developing them. We encourage you to think about androutinely balance your goals, based on the career and lifeoutcomes that are most important to you at thetime. Perhaps it is time to pursue a new role or craft yourwork role in a manner that provides more financial security,more life balance, more learning and growth, or more of alegacy. You may deem each of these career outcomes asparamount at different stages of your career. Once youdecide, then plan how you will balance and achieve yourvarious goals, while also applying the psychological strategiesthat can support your adaptability and help you to weatherthe career shocks you experience.

We also encourage you to engage in the behavioralstrategies of building a quality relationship with your boss,seeking training and development, seeking relevant jobchallenges, as well as building and maintaining an effectivecareer network. Doing so can help you accumulate skills,knowledge, information, and opportunities to achieve yourcareer goals, provide you with the psychological and socialsupport that fosters resilience, and enhance your adapt-ability in the event that you experience a negative careershock. Having updated skills and a good network internal tothe organization or occupation can enable you to beresilient within your current career, being willing and ableto learn new skills, and have contacts with people outsideyour organization or even occupation to help you be adap-table and more quickly enter new roles and occupations.But don’t wait until a career shock happens to seriouslyconsider and indeed implement the strategies we haveoutlined. Building career resilience and adaptability isvaluable no matter what career outcomes you are pursuingor how successful you have been thus far in achievingthem.

Developing career resilience and adaptability 257

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

For further details about the nature and implications ofcareer shocks, see Scott E. Seibert, Maria L. Kraimer, BrooksC. Holtom, and Abbie J. Pierotti, ‘‘The Best Laid Plans Some-times Go Askew: Career Self-Management Process, CareerShocks, and the Decision to Pursue Graduate Education,’’Journal of Applied Psychology, 2013, 98, 169—182.

A scholarly review of different types of career goals andcriteria for evaluating one’s career success is provided byPeter A. Heslin in ‘‘Conceptualizing and Evaluating CareerSuccess,’’ Journal of Organizational Behavior, 2005, 26(2),113—136. Related practical implications are outlined inHeslin’s paper on ‘‘Experiencing Career Success,’’ Organiza-tional Dynamics, 2005, 34(4), 376—390. Laura Nash andHoward Stevenson’s research on the sustainability benefitsof actively pursuing diverse career objectives is reviewed in‘‘Success that Lasts,’’ Harvard Business Review, 2004, Feb,102—109.

Further details of acceptance commitment therapy the-ory, research, and applications are outlined by Steven C.Hayes, Kirk D. Strosahl, and Kelly G. Wilson, Acceptance andcommitment therapy: The process and practice of mindfulchange (Oakland, CA, Guilford Press, 2011). Research relatedto the potential role of mindsets in how people respond toworkplace challenges, as well as how growth mindsets maybe cultivated, is outlined by Peter A. Heslin and Lauren A.Keating in ‘‘Stuck in the Muck? The Role of Mindsets in Self-Regulation When Stymied During Job Search,’’ Journal ofEmployment Counseling, in press; and also Lauren A. Keatingand Peter A. Heslin in ‘‘The Potential Role of Mindsets inUnleashing Employee Engagement,’’ Human Resource Man-agement Review, 2015, 25, 329—341.

For more on how to mindfully reflect upon and learn fromyour experiences, see Susan J. Ashford and D. Scott DeRue,‘‘Developing as a Leader: The Power of Mindful Engage-

ment,’’ Organizational Dynamics, 2012, 41(2), 146—154.Additional examples of how people can be invigorated byface-to-face expressions of appreciation for their work areoutlined by Adam M. Grant in ‘‘How Customers Can Rally YourTroops,’’ Harvard Business Review, 2011, 89(6), 96—103.Those interested in strategies for building effective relation-ships with your boss may consult John J. Gabarro & John P.Kotter, ‘‘Managing Your Boss,’’ Harvard Business Review,2005, June, 1—10.

Research on how social networks enable career success isoutlined in Scott E. Seibert, Maria L. Kraimer, & Robert C.Liden, ‘‘A Social Capital Theory of Career Success’’ Academyof Management Journal, 2001, 44, 219—237. Also see Ray-mond T. Sparrowe & Robert C. Liden, ‘‘Two Routes to Influ-ence: Integrating Leader-member Exchange and SocialNetwork Perspectives,’’ Administrative Science Quarterly,2005, 50(4), 505—535. Further details about the nature ofquality relationships and how to build them is outlined byJane E. Dutton, Emily D. Heaphy, ‘‘The power of high-qualityconnections at work,’’ in Kim Cameron, Jane E. Dutton, &Robert E. Quinn (Eds.), Positive Organizational Scholarship,pp. 263—278, San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler. See alsoAdam M. Grant, Give and Take: Why Helping Others DrivesOur Success, New York, Viking Press.

The relationship between developmental job challenges,leadership, and career outcomes has been illuminated inresearch by Scott E. Seibert, Leisa D. Sargent, Maria L.Kraimer, & Kohyar Kiazad, ‘‘Linking Developmental Experi-ences to Leader Effectiveness and Promotability: The Med-iating Role of Leadership Self-efficacy and Mentor Network,’’Personnel Psychology, in press. For more on the nature andpossibilities of job crafting, see Amy Wrzesniewski, Justin M.Berg, & Jane E. Dutton, ‘‘Turn the Job You Have into the JobYou Want.’’ Harvard Business Review, 2010, June, 114—117.

Scott E. Seibert is a Professor and Henry B. Tippie Research Fellow in the Tippie College of Business at theUniversity of Iowa. He received his Ph.D. from the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations atCornell University. His research and teaching focuses on leadership and personal development, employeeempowerment, and career success (University of Iowa, United States. email: scott-seibert@uiowa.edu)

Maria L. Kraimer is a Professor and the Leonard A. Hadley Chair in Leadership in the Tippie College of Business atthe University of Iowa. She is also the Director of the PhD program. Her research and teaching focus onunderstanding the challenges and consequences of working globally, managing career success, and the changingemployee-employer relationship (University of Iowa, United States. email: maria-kraimer@uiowa.edu).

Peter A. Heslin is an Associate Professor of Management at the UNSW Australia Business School, as well as anAcademic Fellow of PCI Media Impact and Warrane College. In 2014—15 he served as the Chair of the Academy ofManagement’s Careers Division. He lives his passion for discovering and sharing useful ideas through his research,teaching, and consulting focused on the role of mindsets and other self-regulatory dynamics in career success,employee engagement, and leadership development (UNSW, Australia. email: heslin@unsw.edu.au)