If there’s one thing moms learn how to do pretty quickly after becoming a parent, it’s adapt. Unexpected challenges, changes to plans, and sticky situations are part and parcel to mom life. Learning how to stay flexible and think on your feet is key to responding well to the inevitable stresses, demands, and surprises of parenting.
If you are considering returning to work after a career pause, don’t underestimate the edge this gives you as a potential hire. While vital in the home, this skill is invaluable in the workplace as well. Adaptability and agility are highly sought-after skills, especially in the current work world filled with constantly-changing job environments.
As you prepare your resume and cover letter, be sure to include adaptability and agility in your list of skills. Then, once you land an interview, consider using the following talking points to show potential employers how the ability you’ve honed as a mom to adapt and learn makes you a front-runner candidate for the job.
What’s the Difference Between Adaptability and Agility?
Though adaptability and agility are closely related, they are not the same.
Adaptability is the ability and willingness to respond to changing circumstances. It involves learning new skills and assuming new behaviors. It requires an awareness of the changes in your environment and the flexibility to respond accordingly and effectively to the new conditions successfully.
Agility, on the other hand, is the speed at which you can adapt and evolve. It is the ability to work swiftly and seamlessly in the face of changing environments, new challenges, and novel situations. It requires an open attitude, clear thinking, and an ability to change course quickly.
They work hand-in-hand, and mothers usually have both mastered. It seems like every week schedules change: naps get dropped, school is on break, or new activities are added to the routine. Acknowledging that these changes affect more than one person, and helping others to adjust to the changes, and quickly, is what keeps our family unit working like a well-oiled machine.
Positioning Adaptability and Agility As Valuable In The Workplace
Those descriptions sound familiar, right? Think of a workplace team in the same state of mind as your family unit, and you can easily see the similarities. Communicating that skill to potential employers is important for setting yourself up as the ideal candidate, but it’s not always easy to know how to do so. Especially for moms who have taken a longer career pause.
Here are a few ways you can position your adaptability and agility as a mom into a valuable asset that a hiring manager wants in the workplace:
You quickly provide solutions when unexpected challenges arise.
Daily life as a mom is full of sudden changes. Even with the best planning and most effective schedules, unexpected challenges arise. Kids get sick or hurt and need to be tended, babies have blowouts requiring hazmat-level clean-up, and toddlers veer from their nap routines on the most inopportune days. None of this fazes an experienced mom! You know how to go with the flow, recognize what needs to be done, and quickly create solutions to overcome the changes and keep moving forward.
In the same way, when things change in the workplace – a critical team member gets sick, a deadline gets moved up, or the client throws in a new request – you can quickly come up with a solution and creatively move things around to still complete the task at hand. It may not be easy, but you have the adaptability and agility skills to not freeze, but instead move forward with the end goal still in your sights.
You successfully rise to new challenges.
Motherhood is basically one new challenge after another. Regardless of how many books you read or blogs you follow, no mom really knows what she’s doing until she experiences it herself. And from the expected challenges - such as birth or potty training - to the ones you never see coming – like broken arms or behavior issues – you rise to the occasion. You do the research, learn new skills, and face each one with determination and resiliency.
In the workplace, you will rise to the occasion, facing new challenges head on with confidence that you will succeed and overcome. Just with a different strategy than what you were originally planning.
You can work cohesively with a diverse group of people.
Not only can you adapt to new situations and changes to plans, but you are also experienced in adapting to different people. If you have more than one child, you know how to address varied (and often conflicting) personalities and needs.
Through this valuable transferable skill, you will build cohesion and teamwork in your future place of work regardless of who you are working with. You are skilled at adapting to different personalities and working to find common ground that finds solutions everyone can agree upon.
You are a strong leader.
When life throws curveballs, your kids look to you to see how to field them. As a mom, your calm, positive example influences their resilience and ability to adapt. You know how to create order out of chaos and guide your family through the unexpected. You exude strength and wisdom.
In the workplace, this will make you a strong leader as you show your team members how to evolve effectively and positively to changing circumstances and new challenges. You acknowledge the hardship, but encourage everyone to think positively and keep going. This type of leadership is contagious, making your entire team stronger because of it.
Other Mom Transferable Skills
Adaptability and agility are key transferable skills, but they’re not the only things you have going for you! There are several other mom skills that translate well to the workplace, such as communication skills, organization skills, and strategic thinking. Be sure to consider those as well when preparing your cover letter, resume, and interview talking points.
Need Support Returning To Paid Work?
Parents Pivot is a great resource for anyone looking for one-on-one and group coaching to set up your transition back to the workplace for success. Contact us today to start the conversation and move one step closer to landing your dream job.
