"More than education, more than experience, more than training — resilience determines who succeeds and who fails." Diane Coutu's 25-year-old definition opens this conversation, and Lindsey Rai Kortan lives it.

Lindsey leads Ronald McDonald House Charities of Omaha, an organization built for families fighting for their children's lives. While leading it, she privately navigated domestic violence, her husband's addiction and overdose, her mother's death, and single parenting two sons — during COVID. This is an honest look at leading through the unimaginable, and the architecture of survival: community.

Content / sensitivity note: This episode discusses domestic violence, addiction, and overdose. If you are someone you know is strugging, contact SMHSA National Hotline, or Al-Anon.

In this episode, Lindsey and Janyne explore:

• Resilience as a built capacity, never achieved alone

• Why shame — not a lack of helpers — keeps leaders isolated

• Psychological safety that starts when the leader goes first

• Policies that make care reliable: compassion leave, unlimited PTO, meeting check-ins

• The brain under threat, and why empathy reopens clear thinking[1]

Diane Coutu's research names what Lindsey embodies: the most resilient people accept hard reality clearly, hold a deep belief that life is meaningful, and improvise a way through.[2]

Take the FREE 5R Edge™ Diagnostic and discover your resilience edge.

https://tinyurl.com/5R-Podcast

🎯 Action4Traction™ — Take one this week:

1. Name one private weight to one person you trust this week.

2. Open one meeting by saying how you're actually doing first.

3. Remove one fear your team carries — make it a real policy.

💬 Talk4Traction™ — Bring one to your next team meeting to elevate the dialogue:

1. What are we each carrying that we haven't said out loud?

2. Where does shame keep us from asking each other for help?

3. What would make it safe here to not be okay?

About our Guest:

Lindsey Rai Kortan is the CEO of Ronald McDonald House Charities of Omaha, where she leads an organization that stands with families fighting for their children's lives — in the cancer ward, the ICU, and the hardest moments they will ever face. What makes Lindsey rare is that she has lived the territory she leads through: while running her organization, she privately navigated domestic violence, her husband's addiction and overdose, her mother's death, and single parenting two young sons — all at once, during COVID. She is, in every sense of the word, a study in resilience.

Connect with Lindsey on LinkedIn

Together, we've got this!

Janyne

Connect with Janyne on LinkedIn

Subscribe: Your Authentic Executive Podcast · The Executive Edge™ — Resilience in Action

#YourAuthenticExecutive #5REdge #ExecutiveLeadership #Resilience #PsychologicalSafety

[1] Matthew D. Lieberman et al., "Putting Feelings into Words: Affect Labeling Disrupts Amygdala Activity in Response to Affective Stimuli," Psychological Science 18, no. 5 (2007): 421–28, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01916.x.

[2] Diane Coutu, "How Resilience Works," Harvard Business Review, May 2002.

Your Authentic Executive Podcast

Authentic Leadership | Profound Stories | Proven Lessons

Hosted by Janyne Peek Emsick, Ph.D.

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