“Discover how to build resilience that truly supports you and your growth, not just survival.”
Victoria and I reflect on what we celebrate in leadership. The drive, the composure, the ability to read a room—these are often seen as peak leadership skills. But for many, these aren’t just skills. They’re survival strategies, honed long before any boardroom.
We delve into the definition and application of healthy resilience: it involves processing, self-reflection, and intentional strategy, not just “plowing past” adversity. Many leaders, unknowingly practice an “unhealthy” version, equating resilience with stoicism. Yet, this often leads to burnout and a lack of genuine connection within teams.
Healthy resilience to remain as human and authentic as possible in the way we show up as leaders has this been more relevant and important than today in the age of AI and a potential to become more and more transactional and isolated. We need to build more resilience at both human and systems level as people drive everything; given that perception is reality, changes must be made to show up differently and display emotion.
While organizations are starting to talk about different leadership styles, they often miss the deeper “why” behind people’s behaviours. We discuss authentic leadership, but not the underlying fears or insecurities that prevent it. It’s not about therapy at work, but about designing environments where people don’t need survival strategies. This means shifting from simply promoting good performers to also supporting & training them to be good leaders, truly focusing on people and creating a sense of belonging to allow for innovation, better decision making and ultimately improved performance.
How can we better integrate people strategies with business strategies to underscore the ROI of human-centered leadership?
The main insights you’ll get from this episode are :
- ‘Iron maiden’: the armour necessary for a young female executive that does not reflect the ability to express or feel emotion – a toxic culture can be a response at organisational level due to the trauma of the people leading it.
- Need to build more resilience at both human and systems level as people drive everything; given that perception is reality, changes must be made to show up differently and display emotion.
- Unhealthy resilience: resilience as a badge of honour, never processing, never self-reflecting, never sitting in awareness, never integrating trauma, etc. vs. healthy: having clarity around goals, creating strategy/intentions, asking for help.
- Dialogue around mask-wearing in organisations requires leaders who start with themselves first and design environments in which people don’t need survival strategies, i.e. trauma-informed organisations that foster trust and belonging.
- ‘Whole human leadership’ is an innovation practice as leaders often perceive two separate halves – business/financial performance vs. people; the human-centred design used in tech/processes should also apply to employees.
- For leaders to leverage communities, intentionality is critical: innovation through diversity, recruitment based on bridging gaps in the workforce, moving away from facts and figures, modelling the behaviour of being a whole human leader.
- The metaphor of the turtle that moves deliberately, carries its home, and protects its wisdom and softness is very helpful to model behaviour, speak out, tell your own story with learnings and outcomes – less need to wear a mask.
- Permission to fail – following initial disappointment, leaders can demonstrate moving on, rectifying mistakes, supporting people, creating safety: thoughts, language, actions, and behaviour must be intentional.
- Resilience is about growing through, not pushing through – support systems/ structures are often not ideal but we still have agency within the system and can step into the zone of discomfort to go beyond the fear.
Find out more about Victoria and her work here
