Nearly everyone experiences a professional setback at some point in their life. Whether it's missing out on a promotion or losing a job, career setbacks are part of the journey. By embracing these obstacles, you can develop resilience and become a better person, professionally and personally. Resilience can help you quickly overcome future setbacks and reduce their negative impact.
Learn about handling workplace challenges and building resilience with the advice below.
How to overcome career setbacks
If you've recently faced something challenging in your career, the following tips may help you get through this tough time:
1. Be kind to yourself
Your first task is to be kind to yourself. While you're swept up in the negative emotions that come with failure, you might default to thinking bad things about your character and prospects. However, this setback is temporary. You can bounce back much quicker by acknowledging your feelings and giving yourself grace.
Remind yourself of all your good qualities and past successes. Talking to a mental health professional may also benefit you.
2. Shift your perspective
When you've come to terms with your setback and allowed yourself to feel, you can work to change your perspective. Yes, a career setback often comes with negative consequences. However, failure has the power to transform your life for the better. A setback now may just set you up for success in the future.
Consider the story of Steve Jobs, the co-founder and former CEO of Apple. After internal disagreements and conflicts between Jobs and a colleague, Apple's board of directors decided to fire him. Instead of viewing this setback as a failure, Jobs saw it as an opportunity to innovate. He rejoined the company over a decade later and introduced the revolutionary technology we know today.
3. Reflect on lessons learned
Every failure and setback is a lesson—what is yours trying to teach you? Rather than focusing on what went wrong, look for things you can learn from. Consider what led to your setback, looking at both internal and external factors. Maybe you need to improve a skill, prepare more, or push yourself out of your comfort zone. Even if nothing could change the outcome, you can use what you've learned from this setback to reduce the chances of it happening again.
4. Seek feedback and guidance
One of the best ways to overcome a career setback is to gather feedback from your peers and superiors. They'll have an outside view of what happened, giving you fresh perspectives to consider. You can also encourage them to share constructive criticism about your performance. While it can be difficult to hear where you went wrong, this feedback is invaluable for professional development.
Additionally, consider asking co-workers for their guidance and advice. They've likely experienced a similar setback and can share what worked for them. Hearing their stories can also make you feel less alone in your struggles.
5. Set SMART goals
Once you understand your situation better, you can develop a plan to move forward. An effective strategy for career planning is to set SMART goals, which are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. By fleshing out your goals and writing them down, you'll be more likely to achieve them.
You can create both short-term and long-term goals for overcoming professional failures. Start with the long-term goal—imagine where you want to end up in a few months or years. Then, break that down into a few short-term goals. For example, you may want to start a new job within six months. Some of your short-term goals could be to take a development course, receive certification, and apply to 10 jobs a week.
Strategies for building resilience at work
If you feel a career setback has greatly affected you, you may need to develop your resilience. Resilience refers to one's ability to cope with and recover from challenges, and it is a skill you learn by facing adversity head-on. Resilient people approach challenges with optimism and use calmness, flexibility, and problem-solving to overcome them.
Use the following strategies to become more resilient:
- Request support: Your ability to remain calm while experiencing difficulties relies on the support you receive. You'll feel much more confident if you know others are there to help you or back you up. Build relationships with your colleagues, friends, and family to make yourself more resilient.
- Try positive thinking: A positive mindset in the workplace is crucial for improving resilience. Positive thinking is the practice of looking for the good in any given situation. You may still think negative things, but it's about focusing on the silver lining. Adopting this mindset can improve your attitude and help you respond calmly to stressful situations.
- Have a growth mindset: People often achieve their goals by adopting a growth mindset for career success. The concept of a growth mindset—developed by Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck—involves the belief that talents and abilities are learnable and can improve. To cultivate a growth mindset, practice embracing challenges, accepting criticism, and learning from mistakes.
- Improve your soft skills: To overcome challenges and setbacks, you'll need various professional resilience skills. These are soft skills that contribute toward resilience in the workplace, such as communication, adaptability, teamwork, critical thinking, and emotional intelligence. You can improve these soft skills by practicing, attending workshops, taking online courses, or working with a mentor or coach.
- Prioritize self-care: It's hard to be resilient when you don't feel your best. Take care of your mental and physical health by prioritizing self-care whenever possible. Maintain a healthy work-life balance, get sufficient sleep, eat nutritious foods, exercise regularly, and make time for the things you love. Caring for yourself can help you become more resilient and productive at work.
Explore new opportunities at Intuitive
We're looking for talented problem-solvers who want to make a difference through minimally invasive surgery. Our team is united by a common mission—to enable doctors to improve patients' lives. Life at Intuitive is exciting, challenging, and deeply rewarding.
We have open positions in various departments, including engineering, manufacturing, marketing, sales, customer service, and accounting. Our hiring process is transparent and straightforward, starting with your application and proceeding to a video and on-site interview. We value people willing to learn, work together, and innovate.
If this sounds like you, send us your application today. If you're not ready to apply just yet, consider joining our Talent Community. We'll keep you updated on new job openings, company news, and employee stories.
