1. Resilience
Resilience is not only needed in the business world but in all
areas of life. In “Developing Resilience—The
Most Important Soft Skills for Hard Times, Maree Harris, Phd.
(n.d.) states, “Resilience is usually
associated with the ability to bounce back up after being
knocked down, with responding positively and
proactively to any adversity”. In order to cultivate resilience,
individuals must also possess or develop a
variety of other soft skills. Resilient people are able to see the
worst tragedies and failures as challenges
to overcome and are able to use a growth mindset to overcome
them. They are able to keep a positive
attitude about the situation and are able to see failure as
lessons.
We often see those that we most admire as having resilience.
For example, according to The
Academy of Achievement (n.d.), Oprah Winfrey overcame a
childhood of poverty, abuse and racism, as
well as numerous career setbacks. Many individuals experience
any one of Winfrey’s challenges but
because she possessed and continued to develop her resilience,
she became the most successful black
woman in modern history. Those in the business world can learn
from Winfrey and others like her that
they must find ways to come back from even the cruelest
setback. Resilience is key in all areas of career
success, for job seekers as well as those looking to advance in
their organization.
A resilient job seeker gains strength from receiving a rejection

2. letter. They will use the information given
by the potential employer as a learning tool for the next
application process and interview. They are able
to “bounce back” by seeing the experience as informative and
strengthening, rather than defeating. In
“Resilience--Fall Seven Times, Stand up Eight,” Lei Han (n.d.)
writes, “More than half of the battle in a job
search is actually the emotional aspect--thinking positive,
staying in action, and ‘standing up’ when you
feel ‘knocked down’ by the lack of results”. Not getting hired
by employers whom one wishes to work for
may cause one to question one’s own abilities and qualifications
an/or perhaps how one is presenting
these abilities and qualifications, but a resilient individual will
use that questioning process to return to the
job market as a stronger, more aware candidate A resilient job
seeker will use each rejection as an
opportunity to build his or her “brand”.
When an individual finally does get hired by an organization, he
or she must demonstrate resilience in
order to be successful in their career in that organization and
beyond. In an advertising agency , for
example, an employee may be given a new client and may spend
days developing an ad campaign only
to have the client reject the campaign or only to find that the
campaign failed miserably. In this case, the
employee must be highly resilient must immediately begin
redesigning the campaign so as to keep this
client’s business and to show their supervisor that they can
triumph over failure, using it as a lesson to
then create a winning campaign. An employee may not receive
the promotion they believe they deserve,
but, in such a case, if an employee demonstrates resilience, they
will be much more likely to receive a
promotion in the future.

3. As noted above, many of us are not simply born resilient and
must consciously and steadfastly develop
the skill. In “Resilience at Work,” Bartly Winbolt (n.d.) lists
ways to improve your resilience, including
setting realistic goals and staying optimistic in all areas of life.
Resilience requires a coming together of
many other soft skills and as individuals develop their
resilience, they will inevitably find they will become
stronger in other soft skills as well If one truly returns stronger
from his or her setbacks, a resilient job
seeker and employee will inevitably become a resilient leader in
his or her field.
1
Recommendations for Hiring Employees with Good
Soft Skills
Step 1: Job Description
A short list of soft skills will be included in the online job
description postings. This will
display to job seekers that the listed soft skills are necessary for
the job. Although this
will not test job seekers on their soft skill effectiveness, it will
give them a description of
the company’s desired employee.
List of Several Soft Skills Desired by the Company:
• Communication

4. • Effective listening
• Leadership
• Planning
• Giving feedback
• Adaptability
• Resilience
• Emotional
intelligence
• Problem solving
• Organization
• Decision making
• Conflict resolution
• Collaboration
• Motivation
Step 2: Interview
A series of behavioral questions will be asked during interviews
in order to pinpoint a
candidate’s soft skills. Interviews will be conducted by
managers, who will evaluate the
responses from candidates.
Three to four behavioral questions should be asked during each
interview. These
questions should reflect the soft skills needed for the position.
Questions can be spread
out or asked consecutively.
Questions:
• Tell me about a time when you had a conflict with another
employee at work.

5. How did you resolve the conflict? What was the result?
• Describe an example where you were given multiple
assignments at once. How
did you stay organized?
• Tell me about a time when you were in charge of a group.
How did you manage
your assignments and team members?
• Give an example when you were given a task you have never
done before. How
did you react to this change? Did you learn from this
experience?
• Describe a time where you were assigned a team project. How
did you work with
your group members?
• In your past job experience, did you build friendships with
other employees?
• Describe a time a customer or client was satisfied with your
service. What was
the result?
• Tell me about a time you were under pressure. How did you
handle the situation?
What was the result?
• Give me an example of when you were not able to meet a
deadline or finish all
your work. What did you do? Did you learn anything?

6. 2
• Describe a time when you used written communication to
interact with someone.
How did you ensure your recipient understood you?
• Give an example of when you made a mistake. What did you
do to correct it?
What was the result?
• Tell me about a goal you achieved in the workplace. What
steps did you take to
reach this goal?
• Describe a time when you had to motivate others. How did you
inspire them?
What was the result?
Step 3: Evaluation
Using the template below, managers will take short notes of the
responses for each
question and evaluate them after the interview. According to
Workable (2017) managers
must pay attention to typical answers, off-topic answers,
unrealistic answers,
unanswered questions, and a lack of core soft skills.
Question # Notes Rating (High to Low)
5 4 3 2 1
Rating:

7. 5- Exceptional: Candidate exceptionally displays soft skill by
providing detailed
description of the situation and how it helped them succeed in
the workplace. Candidate
used the experience as a learning opportunity.
4- Above Average: Candidate displays soft skill by explaining
the situation and the
results. Candidate meets the position requirements.
3- Average: Candidate only describes the situation and the lists
results. Candidate
meets job standards and may have basic understanding of the
soft skill.
2- Satisfactory: Candidate describes of the situation, but does
not explain the results or
what they learned. Improvement in soft skill is needed.
1- Unsatisfactory: Candidate does not provide an answer, or
provides unrelated or off
topic answer. Candidate does not clearly possess the related soft
skill.
Managers will consider the candidates who offered the strongest
responses displaying
effective soft skills. They will offer positions to candidates who
have relevant experience
and whose responses received a rating of 5 and 4. This will
ensure that the candidate
already has several soft skills when entering the position and
has the ability to develop
and train their soft skills.
3
Recommendations for Training Employees to

8. Improve Their Soft Skills
A monthly team workshop will ensure that all employees are
continuously developing
their soft skills. The workshop will be conducted by managers,
who will evaluate the
performance and responses from employees.
Activity 1: Ice Breakers
Each meeting will begin with discussion topic in order to create
a comfortable
environment. Managers will pick 3 topics and each employee
will get to discuss.
Possible topics:
• Weekend plans
• Favorite
restaurant
• Travel desires
• Greatest
achievements
• Fears/Phobias
• Hidden talents
• iPhone or
Android
• Favorite holiday
4

9. Activity 2: Build a Tower
The group will be divided into teams that will compete to build
the tallest free-standing
tower in a given amount of time with the resources available to
them. Teams may trade
resources which will encourage them to generate win-win
scenarios for their
negotiations.
1. Group will be divided into small teams. Each team will be
randomly assigned a
box with different building materials.
2. Teams will be given a little time for planning (5 minutes).
During this time groups
will have to communicate, plan, and brainstorm ideas to come
up with a feasible
project.
3. Teams are allowed to engage each other to trade materials (5
minutes). Since
all starter-kits will contain different materials teams will focus
on negotiating to
gain valuable resources to carry out their plan.
4. Timer is set and construction begins (10 minutes). Each team
will have the same
time to complete construction of the tower. In this stage they
will implement their
plan and work as a team to complete the activity by the
deadline.
5. Facilitators will judge which tower is the highest and award

10. prizes to the group
with the highest, free-standing tower.
Activity 3: Scenarios
Employees will be given different scenarios that require several
soft skills in order to
effectively solve the problem. Employees will list the soft skills
needed for each scenario
and then explain ways to solve the problem.
• Scenario A: Two team members do not get along and refuse to
communicate
during a group project. How do you handle this situation?
• Scenario B: Your group proposal deadline has been changed
from 3 weeks to 1
week, giving you less time to compile everything together.
What do you do?
• Scenario C: You arrive late to work several times a week and
always struggle to
submit projects on time. You learn that this is affecting your
job, and your
manager has given you a final warning before termination. What
do you do?
• Scenario D: You are assigned a group project that requires you
to meet with
your members often. You learn that each member has busy
schedules and is not
able to meet in person. What do you do?
• Scenario E: You learn that your office software will be
changed. Employees will
temporarily be required to learn a new computer system. How

11. do you handle this
situation?
•
Activity 4: Scenarios
Employees will be given different scenarios that require several
soft skills in order to
effectively solve the problem. Employees will list the soft skills
needed for each scenario
and then explain ways to solve the problem.
• Scenario A: Two team members do not get along and refuse to
communicate
during a group project. How do you handle this situation?
5
• Scenario B: Your group proposal deadline has been changed
from 3 weeks to 1
week, giving you less time to compile everything together.
What do you do?
• Scenario C: You arrive late to work several times a week and
always struggle to
submit projects on time. You learn that this is affecting your
job, and your
manager has given you a final warning before termination. What
do you do?
• Scenario D: You are assigned a group project that requires you
to meet with

12. your members often. You learn that each member has busy
schedules and is not
able to meet in person. What do you do?
• Scenario E: You learn that your office software will be
changed. Employees will
temporarily be required to learn a new computer system. How
do you handle this
situation?
Activity 5: Interview Practice
• First, a member of the group who is facilitating will interview
another group
member, choosing two questions randomly from a large list of
prepared interview
questions (from the “Hiring Employees” section and other
sources).
• The group member, who will not know what questions they
will be asked, will
answer them. They will have a minute for each (a timer will be
used).
• The larger group gives feedback on what the interviewee did
well and what they
can work on.
• The interviewee picks a random person from the larger group,
choosing two
questions randomly from the list above.
• The interviewee, who will not know what questions they will
be asked, will answer
them. They will have a minute for each (a timer will be used).

13. • The larger group gives feedback on what the interviewee did
well and what they
can work on.
• The interviewee picks a random person from the larger group,
choosing two
questions randomly from the list above.
• The new interviewee, who will not know what questions they
will be asked, will
answer them. They will have a minute for each (a timer will be
used).
• The larger group gives feedback on what the new interviewee
did well and what
they can work on.
• The group will repeat this process as many times as time
allows.
Activity 6: Reflection/Wrap-Up
Each smaller group discusses what they learned from the
activity and how they can
apply it to their daily practices.
Stress Inventory Assignment Instructions
This assignment asks you to evaluate the stress level in your
life and how that stress relates to your health. Follow the
directions below.
1. Fill out one of the two following stress inventories: the
College Life Stress Inventory or the Social Readjustment Rating
Scale. The College Life Stress Inventory was designed for
standard college students. If you are a working adult with a

14. family and feel that the scale does not apply to you, fill out the
original Social Readjustment Rating Scale. For either inventory,
pick out those events that apply to you and record them on a
separate piece of paper. You will be creating an inventory of
significant life events that you have experienced in the last 12
months. Write down the events along with their corresponding
Stress Rating (the number to the right of the event). Add up all
of the stress rating scores to compute your total stress rating. If
an event occurred multiple times in a year, then multiply that
value by the number of occurrences. For example, finals week
is something that students typically experience more than once a
year. Therefore, you would multiply the value ascribed to
finals week by the number of finals weeks you have had
(typically that would be 3 times a year, not including summer
quarter). For more habitual behaviors or events, such as lack of
sleep, multiplying them by the number of occurrences would be
too much, so multiply those by how many quarters you have
experienced them. Finally, compare your Total Stress Score
with the standards shown below.
STANDARDS FOR COLLEGE LIFE STRESS INVENTORY:
Score and Description
· 0-590: Very low to low. Person scoring in this range should be
suffering very little stress. Their chances of suffering illness or
crisis are small.
· 591-1030: Scores in this range indicate that you are
experiencing MILD stress with a possibility of crisis or illness
being fairly low – about 33%
· 1031-1470: Scores in this range indicate a MODERATE stress
situation. This could result in a greater possibility of accident,
illness, or some other crisis – about 50%
· 1471-2351+: Those scoring in this range are experiencing high
to extremely high levels of stress and therefore run a much
higher risk of crisis or illness. This is considered a major risk
area, about 80% chance of experiencing some problems
(especially for those scoring higher than 2000 LCUs)
STANDARDS FOR SOCIAL READJUSTMENT RATING

15. SCALE: Score and Description
· 0-150 : Scores in this range suggest a low level of stress and a
low probability of developing a stress-related disorder.
· 150-199 : Scores in this range indicate a mild amount of
stress. A person scoring in this range has a 33% chance of
having a stress related illness.
· 200-299 : Scores in this range indicate a moderate amount of
stress. This could result in a greater possibility of accident,
illness, or some other crisis – about 50%
· 300+ : Those scoring in this range are experiencing high to
extremely high levels of stress and stand an almost 80% chance
of getting sick in the near future.
2. Once you have derived your total stress rating score from
either inventory and read the description of the score above, in
a text file indicate how you feel about the significance of your
score and answer the following questions. Be sure to provide
thorough answers to each of these questions. Points will be
deducted for one sentence answers.
a. Are you surprised by your score?
b. Did you expect it to be higher or lower? Explain why you
expected a particular score.
c. Has this been a typical year for you? If so, describe how this
has been a typical year. If not, explain how this year differed
from previous years.
3. Below is a list of health problems that are common in the
population. Think back over the past year and see if you can
recall having had some of these. Check off all those you can
remember and arrive at a total (1 point for each health problem
you marked off).
Allergies
Cough
High blood pressure
Sexual problems
Appendicitis

16. Hives
Shortness of breath
Asthma
Dental problems
Indigestion
Athlete’s foot
Depression
Injury to joints
Eczema
Backache
Insomnia
Skin rash
Blisters
Earache
Kidney problems
Bloody nose
Eye problems
Major accident
Sore throat
Menstrual problems
Boils
Stomach problems
Bruises
Hay fever
Minor accident
Chest pain
Headaches
Muscle strains
Ulcers
Colds
Nausea
Urinary problems
Constipation
Hernia
Nerves (Anxiety)
Arthritis

17. Acne
Abdominal pain
Cuts
Sinus Problems
Diarrhea
Sleep problems
Flu
Tonsillitis
Hearing loss
Vomiting
Dizziness
Other
4. Finally, answer the questions below. Be sure to provide
thoughtful answers to these questions. Support your reflections
with your analyses above and any relevant experiences you have
had. One-sentence answers will not result in full credit for this
assignment.
a. In which of the stress rating categories did you find yourself?
Does this seem to fit in with your idea about your stress level
and possibility of crisis or illness?
b. How many health problems did you have in the past year?
How does your level of health problems compare with your
stress rating score? Do you see any relationship between the
two?
c. Are you taking any significant steps to reduce the stress level
in your life? Do you see any need to do so? Do you use any of
the coping strategies discussed in the Coping with Stress
lecture? Do you think your attitude toward the stressors in your
life affect your body’s ability to cope with stress.
5. When you are done answering all of the questions (2a-2c &
4a-4c), submit your document to Canvas.