Breaking Into Business Resilience: 11 Experts Share Their Best Career Advice
The latest BCI Podcast series[1] took the opportunity to ask resilience thought leaders what key skills and personal qualities they thought would make for a good resilience pro.
An increasing number of organizations have a dedicated person for managing resilience efforts[2]. And in the area of communications, recent research noted: ‘the report places the human factor firmly at centre stage. Plans, tools, and technologies are essential, but it is people who bring them to life under pressure.’[3]
These ideas, alongside the increasing instability in the world in general, imply exciting opportunities in resilience and continuity as a career.
So, how can you get into it? Eleven experts gave us their views.
Rochelle Clark set the scene: ‘I would say be open. If I were not open, I would have not gotten the chance to be offered this role.’
Here are the key themes that came from our interviewees.
Be a People-Person
The first item on the question of personal qualities is revealed by Amitty Peace. She said: ‘You need to be a people-person, operational resilience isn't like you're just reading regulations and making sure that they're compliant. Your job is to be able to speak everybody's language in the business, whether it's on an operational side, whether it's to the board, whether it's to engineers.’
She noted that the conversation that you have with an engineer about service delivery is different to the conversation you have with a customer service representative or a head of ops. And the idea of translation – here defined as communicating ideas between disciplines so that they are understandable to different audiences - came up several times in different contexts.
Kelly Blakely spoke about the value of connecting with people: ‘People like to talk about the work that they've done. If you are interested and you're passionate, people will probably be interested to speak with you. Also, connect with organizations like credible organisations like the BCI.’
Be Curious
An inquisitive nature was another consistent theme in personal qualities. Chris Oliver commented, ‘If you've got an inquisitive mind, you can train yourself to be analytical. If you're coming out of university with a briefcase full of skills, what you've got is a carrier bag empty of knowledge, so you want to build that up. If you're a thinker around solutions, if you've got a keen analytical mind, if you're nosy about how things work, you will find this job very stimulating.’
For a real-world angle, Jason Hoss linked natural curiosity and being analytical to understanding data. ‘It's about the data. How can you use data to tell a story in the way a business will accept it? For me, when I tell the story to a C-suite leader in a business, it's about money. It's about resources. It's about headcount. So, you're a translator, an interpreter.’
Chris Butler concurred and added that success is about ‘the ability to talk to people with an element of confidence. Things like qualifications and experience, you will build up over time. Curiosity, that confidence, is really what you fundamentally need. One thing I would recommend that people should think about doing is getting more into understanding what coaching is about.’
Be Calm
Personal demeanour plays a role in any job. In business continuity, Jason Hoss talked about finding a way to maintain calm under pressure. ‘When adversity happens, and it happens at the worst of times, we could panic. But that serves nobody. We're the calm in the storm. We are that beacon of light that guides our organization through these dire times. And it's not that business continuity or business resilience solves the adversity. It just helps us navigate it.’
For Jason that includes empathy and truth. ‘How do we get to the truth to help our organization and its people thrive during adversity?’
Be a Problem Solver
Another core skill discussed by several guests was problem-solving ability. ‘I think you need to be a fast thinker and very analytical’, said Amitty Peace. And Otibho Edeke said that ‘you need the innate ability to think on your feet, as a lot of the time, there isn't a manual for this.’
‘Be able to negotiate and make good concrete decisions based on the information you have in that moment and be able to problem solve how you're going to help the people that have been directly affected.’
To bring several threads in this article together, Otibho also highlighted the ‘ability to work well under pressure, to be able to articulate yourself in a manner that allows other people to get on board with what you are trying to do, then you can problem solve. If you're someone that enjoys a challenge, enjoys kind of unpacking things, enjoys looking at things and assessing the risk of things.’
Be Humble
A few comments highlighted the role of humility. Natalie Fairchild talked about self-awareness, saying: ‘know what you're strong at and what you're weak at. I know I'm not great at admin, but I know that I am the person that will help build those relationships because I enjoy talking to people and I'm very passionate about what I do and trying to build something with people, make those connections, you can't expect to know everything yourself.’
That makes it important, she said to ‘expose yourself to different expertise, subject matter experts and really being open-minded with who is providing you advice. You cannot respond to an incident alone; it's a team effort.’
That humility can extend to pay. ‘I know it's a bit annoying,’ said Natalie, ‘but I would not have got into the industry if I hadn't have offered myself up for free, even if it was only for a month. But that builds credibility within the team that helps you understand what you want to do and identifies where those strengths and weaknesses are, especially in something you're interested in.’
Otibho concurred: ‘I think volunteering has been sort of the stepping stone into doing what I'm currently doing.’
Be a Translator
Expanding on the recurring theme of translating, Tamara Nolan told us: ‘In this industry, we see a major gap all the time between IT and the business… there's usually misalignment in terms of recovery time expectations that the business has for critical technology versus what IT can actually provide in terms of recovery time objectives. So being able to navigate that gap and having the conversations at both levels, is going to be extremely important.’
The Education Piece
With skills in mind, there’s more to the education than qualifications. David Window said, ‘I think you've got to be a good tutor and a trainer for people you talk to. And most important, I think, is you've got to be a bit of a chameleon. You've got to be able to upscale and downscale, depending on who you're talking to. You've got to be one of the guys on the ground floor and one of the boys in the top office. You've got to find that hook that gets them.’
Kelly Blakeley talked about the importance of mentors: ‘I would say mentors, plural, because throughout my career there've been different people that I’ve gravitated towards for different things. Some of that might be on a more personal level, someone whose story resonates with yours, or the sector they've worked on aligns with yours. Some may be more professional, in terms of a skill that you're missing that you'd like to learn more about.’
Get stuck in
In the end to know whether a career is right for you, you need to experience it. Tamara Nolan said, ‘there are a lot of, of course, certifying bodies so understanding the fundamentals is always good, but it's really practice.
‘Don't be afraid to start in a junior role, it's something that's going to come naturally if you do it for a while. You're not going to be able to learn all this in a textbook, so I would say, the practice is what's going to make it.’
As these interviews indicate, there are a wide range of skills and personal attributes that can help in a new career in resilience. The BCI already provides qualifications[4], resources and tools to support career changers and those who want to progress their career. Hearing from those who are already in the field adds meat to those bones.
What emerges from these conversations is that resilience as a profession mirrors resilience as a concept: it is dynamic, human, and never truly finished. The skills that make a great resilience professional — curiosity, calm, empathy, humility, and the ability to communicate across boundaries — are not unique to this field, but they are vital. As the world grows more complex and even the unexpected becomes more routine, those who can think clearly under pressure, bring people together, and navigate uncertainty with confidence will be indispensable. Whether you are just starting out or considering a career change, the message from those already in the field is clear: the future belongs to those who are open, adaptable, and willing to keep learning.
These quotes are taken from the BCI World podcast series Masters of Resilience – available in audio and video formats wherever you get your content. There are many more tips and pieces of insight there. Happy listening!
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About the author
Brian Runciman
Content Manager, The BCI
