This article was inspired by the famous quote “I never lose. I either win or learn.” Nelson Mandela.
Have you ever faced a situation in which you wanted something so much and it didn’t materialize? How did you deal with it?
A couple of years ago, I peered up with HR on a hiring process where we interviewed more or less 20 candidates. We aligned on a number of questions in order to take the best out of the interviews and one of them was for the candidate to describe the time when he/she has had to deal with a setback or disappointment in work life.
There was a wide range of response and examples on what they identified as ‘seatback’. How they dealt with that and the outcome. I will obviously not disclose any specific story but revisiting my notes to produce this article, I found many examples that what was seen as setback was probably an opportunity disguised as temporary failure.
It was a simple but purposeful question with the hidden objective to identify candidates’ ability to cope with seatback and show drive and resilience. Whatever is the source of the seatback, important is how we handle it. When facing a difficult situation, you can choose how to respond to it.