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YOUnique4Europe - Mapping and presenting your unique personal and social competences for better employability in a digital world
ERASMUS+ : 2019-1-DE02-KA202-006119
   

The soft skill adaptability describes your ability to adapt to given situations, circumstances as they arise in your working, social and private environment and rapid changes in the world .

This requires not only a certain degree of flexibility and agility in own thinking and acting, but also an openness to changes and new things. Critical reflection and lifelong learning become standard requirements in the course of the far-reaching change processes.

 

Synonyms: Adjustability, adaptive capacity

Sub-Skills: Open-mindedness, critical reflection, self-learning, resilience, flexibility, agility

To demonstrate adaptability,
Almeira suggests you:

  1. Be open to new experiences
  2. Acquire own learning strategies and learning tools
  3. Put extra effort in tasks that need to be prioritized
  4. Become more flexible and cooperate with colleagues who may have problems meeting deadlines
  5. Accept all types of change positively and handling changing workloads in response to changing circumstances
  6. Show willingness to change and to learn

Examples - Adaptability


Lisa has worked for the Fire and Rescue Service for 10 years. In the past she had been commended on her ability to adapt to new demands, however, when she learned that her role was due to change from traditional firefighting to a more community engagement based position, she began to feel uneasy and concerned about her ability to succeed.

However, Lisa still felt very committed to the Fire Service and decided to take an adaptable approach to make contribution to her community, gain new skills, enjoy her role and experience more positive growth and self-development.


Paul, on his first day of work by a communication agency, was asked to deliver a blog post by nothing later than 5 pm. This was a challenge as it required him a great deal of mental and physical effort to successfully submit the output before its deadline.

Also, sharing with the outside world was not something he was used to but as soon as he realized that sharing would have fostered his growth, he began to see writing as a way of expressing his passions to readers. In less than a week time he also adapted his sleeping habits to accommodate longer working hours. Thus, his approach to his day to day challenges became better and his job became much more exciting.

The European Commission's support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

  

 

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