Resilience building practices from a Leadership Coach

Coach Lucille and her husband taking a salsa dance lesson recently - staying nimble by trying something new, nurturing their relationship, and laughing out loud!

Ever notice how some people bounce back from setbacks while others stay stuck? That difference is resilience. But resilience isn’t about muscling through or faking a smile. It’s about adapting, recovering, and even thriving when circumstances shift.

As leaders, we need resilience not just for our own wellbeing, but also to create an environment where others can stay strong and engaged. Building resilience is both a personal practice and a leadership responsibility.

Change and discomfort are necessary for growth yet prolonged stress can be debilitating. In this post, I share a set of six practices to strengthen resilience within ourselves and within our teams.

Stay Nimble

Think about the colleague who insists, “we’ve always done it this way” even when the world has clearly moved on. Stress and burnout often show up when we cling too tightly to an outdated definition of success. When circumstances shift but our identity or skillset doesn’t, we start to feel friction. Resilience means giving yourself permission to experiment, explore, and adapt. Learning something new, even in small ways, can reframe your perspective and spark fresh energy.

Lead yourself well: Quarterly sign up for a webinar or short class on a topic adjacent to your work to engage your brain and interests in a new way.

Serve others: Build “learning moments” into team meetings by having someone share a new insight, tool, or practice.

Nurture Relationships

I once worked with a leader who disappeared whenever the pressure spiked. She thought she was protecting her team from her stress, but in reality, the silence left us anxious and disconnected. When overwhelm hits, it’s easy to cut back on social connection or revert to status updates only, promising ourselves to reach out when things calm back down. But isolation makes stress worse. Small, honest moments with people who know and care about us when we’re short on time restore perspective and energy. For leaders, consistently showing up signals to your team that connection matters as much as output.

Lead yourself well: Weekly text a friend you haven’t talked to in a while…maybe even schedule a 20-minute coffee catch-up.

Serve others: Keep your 1:1s with team members, even 15 minutes of undivided attention can make a lasting impact.

Be Curious

When life feels heavy, numbing behaviors like scrolling, binge-watching, or booze are easy to lean on. Curiosity is the opposite of numbing out and it invites us back into alignment, and it’s a healthier path to resetting. When you notice yourself or others holding back and playing it safe, get curious. Discomfort can tell us a lot about what we value and how we’re spending our time, get curious about what’s draining you. Ask others for their input and notice the new perspectives, progress, and buy-in that curiosity creates.

Lead yourself well: Spend 30 minutes capturing your values in a "brain dump”, writing down what matters most, what drains you, and where you’re out of alignment and then honor these values.

Serve others: Ask a teammate for advice on a project you’re working on and then spotlight their contribution.

Be Quiet

Picture the last time you raced from meeting to meeting, your phone buzzing in between. By the end of the day, your brain was mush, not because you didn’t work hard, but because you didn’t pause. Constant alerts, meetings, and to-do lists create background noise that make it hard to think clearly. It can feel productive to keep moving fast, but busyness can actually cloud judgment and drain energy. Building resilience requires moments of stillness where you have time to breathe, reflect, and think strategically. Quiet isn’t wasted time; it’s the recharge that makes forward momentum possible.

Lead yourself well: Take 10–20 minutes each day for stillness: journaling, meditating, prayer or simply sitting without distractors including technology.

Serve others: Establish a “no meeting” block once a week so everyone has uninterrupted time for deep work.

Clarify Expectations

A leadership coaching client recently admitted to me that they were exhausted and didn’t even know what they were chasing anymore. Unchecked ambition or vague goals can push us toward burnout. When priorities are unclear, pressure mounts but results don’t change. Resilient leaders clarify what matters most, for themselves and for their teams, so that energy and resources are invested wisely. Aligning on success measures and deadlines not only reduces stress but also increases ownership.

Lead yourself well: Monthly compare your current effort to your one-year goals and assess if it’s time to accelerate, pivot, or pull back.

Serve others: Begin each new project by aligning on what success looks like and agreeing to deadlines everyone can live with.

Laugh More

Remember the last meeting where everything felt heavy and tense until someone cracked a joke? Within seconds, shoulders relaxed and people started talking more freely. That’s the power of laughter. Work can get intense and joyless if everything is about the next deliverable. Resilience doesn’t always have to look serious and disciplined. Play can reset things with joy, connection, and creativity. Infuse a little playfulness to lighten the mood, show your humanity, and strengthen rapport.

Lead yourself well: Keep a small stash of funny memes, jokes, or videos for a quick mental break.

Serve others: Share a light-hearted GIF, poke fun at your own quirks, or start meetings with a playful moment to remind people that work isn’t always heavy.

Resilience isn’t a one-time achievement; it’s a rhythm of practices we can return to over and over again. Notice that my starter ideas on leading yourself well and serving others are routines, not one-time activities. Resilience requires us to build practices, so we build the skill for doing hard things better. For ourselves, it means staying flexible, grounded, and aligned with what matters most. For our teams, it means building trust, curiosity, and even joy in the middle of challenge.

This week, I challenge you to choose one resilience practice for yourself and one for your team to experiment with. Integrate what’s helpful into your routines. Over time, these small shifts create leaders who not only endure stress but also cultivate environments where people thrive.

As a leadership coach, I coach growth-minded professionals to lead well, get recognized, and thrive. I publish a monthly newsletter and blog post and invite you to subscribe under my Contacts page.

Let's Chat!