Think of the last time you made dinner. It’s getting a little later than you would have liked and you don’t have every exact ingredient you need. Your chicken is kind of dry and your side dish didn’t work out. So, you make an impromptu sauce to cover the chicken. You look in the back of the pantry for that box of noodle sides to replace whatever happened in that other pan. Then you round out the meal with a cheesy garlic biscuit. They’re quick and easy and who can say no to cheese, garlic, and carbs. Or maybe you’re the person who does a total one eighty and leaves that mess on the stove and goes for take-out instead. The point is you fixed it. You have resourcefulness in your personal life. You can just come up with a plan B like nothing and implement quickly to get things done.
Maybe it’s outside the kitchen. Maybe you’re the person who can flip a day’s plans into something even better when the original plan fell through. Finding fun community activities or creating your own is your jam. Or you might be the person who can fix anything around the house. From actually unclogging the bathroom sink to balancing out that wobbly table (even if it’s with a stack of Uno cards) your resourcefulness has seen you through. This is a skill friend. Don’t just brush it off. Resourcefulness is a skill developed with practice and time, and you’ve been honing it in on the personal side of the coin for years.
But is shifting plans really a skill?
I see people every day that I know have skills to adapt and take on challenging change in their lives. I’ve heard the stories time and again of all the resourcefulness and resilience they’ve exhibited. Then, they walk into the office and it’s like the critical thinking part of their brain got left in the car. They think to be resourceful at work you need a bigger title or advanced degree. You don’t. The same skills that has you making chicken gravy and planning a museum trip after your picnic gets rained out can be applied during the workday too.
I can see your brow furrowing a little. You’re thinking, doing a craft with the kids when the park is too cold is not a skill. But it is, it’s a small pile of them actually, let me show you.
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Open-mindedness
You are open minded to new options when blockers are thrown in your way. If your date night plan won’t work, you can brainstorm new things to do together, or other options that have worked in the past. That’s because you know the point was to spend time together, not to see that specific movie. You’re open to all sorts of options so long as you get more time together.
Creativity
How quickly can you come up with another option when something falls through? Think of it this way, it’s 5 on Tuesday night and you realize you never defrosted the meat for dinner. What do you do? You probably just had 3 ideas or more just from reading that and it’s not even a problem you have to solve right now. You aren’t locked into the first plan and I would bet, particularly if kids or pets are involved, you have a plan B already in your head ready to swap out at a moment’s notice. Your ability come up with multiple activities when your kids are ‘so bored!’ means your creativity runs deep.
Implementation
Whatever it was, you got it done. You executed on the new plan, sometimes halfway through plan A which is a really great skill. All of the preparation, timing, communication, and organization required to get your brood to change course successfully, that is implementation and change management at its finest. You probably never gave yourself credit for that did you? Round of applause friend. That, is hard work.
Feedback
Before, during, and after the creative plan B that you’ve implemented, I’m sure you got all kinds of feedback. Sometimes it’s useful. Sometimes, less useful. You will have no guesses though whether your spouse, friends, or kids think your idea was a good one, or if you implemented it well. You might here we haven’t had this meal in forever! I forgot how good it was. With all the excitement that can have you making your old meal plan for years to come. Or you could hear I hate crafts. Why do we have to craft?! And probably a whole host of things in between. Now, your response may or may not be what you’d want it to be but there’s no doubt, you’re used to hearing all the feedback.
Analysis
I won’t kid myself to think that you’re running around after a plan gone wrong at home, clip board in hand, collecting data to better prepare for the next time your resourceful hat needs to come out. You are still doing an analysis though. Every time you reflect back to say, that worked out well. Or you think well, I will never do that again. You’re analyzing resourcefulness and creating a better plan for next time.
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Taking that same resourcefulness to work
Now, you might be thinking, OK, cute. I am resourceful at home. That doesn’t help me at work. Coming up with a new activity at home hardly qualifies me to take on complex issues at work. First of all, if you truly still believe this, you need to spend more time reading the blogs. Because that, in a nutshell, is kind of the point. But, let me outline it for you.
All of those people with the cool sounding degrees and titles are using these same skills on different problems. They are starting out open-minded, relying on their creativity, implementing, collecting feedback, and analyzing. It’s the same concepts you’re already doing. You know what, I’d bet you’re already doing this to some extent at work too.
Every time a customer calls in that requires you to go off script or derails the plan for your day, you’re using these skills. When your boss says that they need help with a new project that is similar to work you’ve done but not the same, you’re using these skills. Every time the workload gets overwhelming, and you manage to get it all done, you are using these skills. See, you’re so good your resourcefulness comes out without you even realizing it.
Double down on your resourcefulness
Now that you have a stronger awareness of your skills, the development comes in using them on a larger scale. You know how to lean on all of them in your personal life and in smaller realms of the work world. Apply them to bigger asks. Seek out something more that will help you exercise those newfound muscles to get them even stronger. Push yourself outside your comfort zone and take a risk to get better, more efficient, and more valuable as an employee. You won’t get there without taking some risks.
There is one area that I see people get nervous about in applying their resourcefulness at work. That is the fear of doing something wrong. It’s one thing to have your kids, spouse, or friends not love your plan B. It’s a whole other thing to go with plan B at work and have it flop. That is where you soliciting and accepting feedback every step of the way! If you want to learn more about accepting and applying feedback, grab this totally free and simple guide to help you feel more confident getting feedback today.