Podcast Summary: Redefiners – Leadership Lounge: Built to Last or Built to Learn: How Leaders Can Develop Resilience
Published: September 10, 2025
Hosts: Emma Coombe, Leadership Advisor (London); Joey Burke, Leadership Advisor (Chicago); Maja Hadji Amerovic, Leadership Advisor (London)

Episode Overview

This episode of Leadership Lounge centers on the contemporary meaning of resilience for leaders and organizations. Hosts and guests explore how resilience has shifted from mere consistency to adaptability, how leaders can cultivate resilience in themselves and their teams, and debunk the myths around what resilience looks like in high-stakes leadership. Listeners are given tangible frameworks for developing multidimensional resilience, along with actionable advice to foster resilient cultures and avoid common pitfalls.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Evolution of Resilience in Leadership

[01:10]

• Joey Burke explains that while “resilience is an age-old concept,” the expression of resilience in organizations has fundamentally changed:
  • Past: “Organizations were differentiated based on consistency... resilience, therefore, looked like discipline.”
  • Now: The external environment is evolving rapidly. “Adaptability, change, speed, these are the things that differentiate...these are the qualities needed in today's leadership.”
• Emma Coombe supports this trend with data showing that “leaders’ preparedness to face uncertain economic growth and geopolitical uncertainty is the lowest it's been since tracking began in 2021,” underlining the urgent need for new forms of resilience.

2. Defining Genuine Resilience in Leaders

[03:17]

• Maja Hadji Amerovic introduces the “three sources of intelligence” framework:

  • Mind (Cognitive): Clarity, comfort with ambiguity, orientation towards growth and learning.
  • Body (Somatic): Calm under pressure, energy management, physical awareness.
  • Heart (Emotional/Relational): Emotional authenticity, relational integrity, ability to feel a range of emotions.

  “Truly resilient leaders can draw on all three sources of intelligence... these leaders operate from a deeply integrated state where thinking, feeling, and being are harmonized.”
  — Maja Hadji Amerovic, [03:27]

• Emma reflects on how personal imbalances across these areas can become apparent and invites listeners to self-reflect:

  “Which of these sources of intelligence do you find most challenging to develop and to maintain?”
  — Emma Coombe, [05:09]

3. Developing Leader Resilience: From Time to Energy Management

[06:12]

• Maja urges leaders to shift away from “time management” to “energy management,” describing energy in four dimensions:

  • Physical (sleep, nutrition, movement)
  • Emotional (quality of relationships, support networks)
  • Mental (focus, prioritization, practices like meditation and reflection)
  • Spiritual (sense of purpose and meaning—not religion)

  “Time is finite, whereas energy... can be renewed, it can be expanded, it can be a multiplier force.”
  — Maja Hadji Amerovic, [06:12]

  • She shares a story of a CEO transformed simply by having a purpose statement “pinned to his monitor.”

4. Building Organizational Resilience

[09:21]

• Joey identifies “resilience at a systemic level” through:

  1. Stretch Assignments: Challenging leaders regularly helps “build resilience and pushes us to do what’s less comfortable.”
  2. Mentorship & Coaching: Pairing learners with those who’ve “been there before.”
  3. Psychological Safety: Environments where “leaders feel comfortable saying, ‘I don't know...’”

  “Oftentimes, resilience is depleted when we need to deploy energy figuring something out and we absolutely don't know how to do so. Having that environment... we understand that there’s a support system.”
  — Joey Burke, [09:21]

• Emma shares a memorable example of celebrating failure—a “Hall of Failures” instead of a Hall of Fame—instigated by Faiker Cbesma, CEO emeritus of Royal DSM ([10:42]).

5. Warning Signs and Recovery Strategies

[11:47]

• Maja highlights that declining resilience often shows as “shortness with people” and “snapping”; the key is “noticing the whispers before they turn into screams.”
• External feedback is critical—family, mentors, coaches:

  “She said, ‘Maja, this was my wake up call. Something needed to change, but to her it required someone pulling up the mirror for her.’”
  — Maja Hadji Amerovic, [12:14]

6. The Power of Vulnerability

[13:45]

• Joey underscores that authentic resilience requires vulnerability, not impression management:

  “Vulnerability plays a key role in creating resilience... Impression management... is the opposite side, costing leaders resilience.”
  — Joey Burke, [13:45]

  • Excessive self-monitoring drains energy and erodes a team’s capacity to solve problems.

• Emma stresses the importance of “normalizing discussions about setbacks and failures,” and reframing vulnerability as honesty and openness instead of weakness ([14:48]).

7. Resilience Misconceptions & How to Overcome Them

[15:55]

• Joey: The misconception is that resilience is purely personal—“in reality, resilience is a systemic trait that can be cultivated and grown by leaders.”
• Maja: It’s not about brute force—genuine resilience is built through regular recovery, not endless grind:

  “In sports, you can’t build strength... without rest... Performance is fueled by rest and recovery. Even my technology... said your laptop hasn’t been rebooted in seven days. Not even our technology can keep going without a reboot.”
  — Maja Hadji Amerovic, [16:09], [16:51]

Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• “Adaptability, change, speed, these are the things that differentiate the organizations of the present.”
  – Joey Burke, [01:18]

• “Truly resilient leaders can draw on all three sources of intelligence... where thinking, feeling, and being are harmonized.”
  – Maja Hadji Amerovic, [03:27]

• “Time is finite, whereas energy... can be renewed, it can be expanded, it can be a multiplier force.”
  – Maja Hadji Amerovic, [06:12]

• “Vulnerability plays a key role in creating resilience... Impression management... is the opposite side, costing leaders resilience.”
  – Joey Burke, [13:45]

• “If our devices need regular reboots to function optimally, how much more do we as human leaders need that renewal?”
  – Emma Coombe, [16:51]

Important Segment Timestamps

• [01:10] – Why resilience has changed: Consistency vs. adaptability
• [03:27] – Three sources of resilience intelligence: Mind, body, heart
• [06:12] – Energy management vs. time management: Four energy dimensions
• [09:21] – Organizational culture: Stretch, mentoring, psychological safety
• [10:42] – Hall of Failures example: Celebrating learning from setback
• [11:47] – Warning signs: Declining self-awareness, the value of feedback
• [13:45] – Vulnerability vs. impression management in leadership resilience
• [15:55] – Misconceptions: Personal trait vs. systemic trait; Brute force myth
• [16:51] – The “reboot” metaphor for rest and true resilience

Recap & Takeaways

• Resilience for leaders is no longer about stoic consistency but active adaptation, learning agility, and integrated energy management.
• Leaders should balance cognitive, somatic, and emotional capacities, intentionally manage energy across physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual lines.
• Organizations must provide stretch assignments, mentoring, and psychological safety to build resilient cultures.
• Vulnerability isn’t weakness—it’s a necessary condition for authentic resilience and collaborative problem-solving.
• Biggest myths: Resilience is not just about personal endurance; it is systemic and needs regular rest and renewal.

Listeners are encouraged to audit their own and their organizations’ approaches to resilience and implement these multidimensional strategies for stronger, more adaptive leadership.

(This summary excludes advertisement, intro, and non-content sections for clarity.)