Training Industry: How to Help Leaders Sustain High Performance Through Uncertainty
By Jonathan Kirschner | June 5, 2025
This article was originally published in Training Industry.
Leaders today are navigating an extraordinary period of change and uncertainty — an unpredictable economy, an unstable geopolitical environment and unprecedented advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and technology. And, under the pressure of this change and uncertainty, many leaders are struggling.
As a learning leader, the natural inclination might be to double down on building resilience within your organization’s ranks — bolstering leaders’ ability to endure challenges and bounce back from adverse events. After all, numerous studies show that resilient leaders tend to be more successful and lead more successful teams than their less resilient counterparts.
However, while resilience is a critical skill, it’s not enough to meet the demands of today’s dynamic environment. In fact, in our years of coaching leaders in organizations around the world, we have seen many leaders’ so-called resilience work against them in times of crisis.
To truly succeed, talent and development leaders must cultivate a broader set of self-management skills. These skills enable leaders not just to weather storms but to harness change as a catalyst for growth and innovation, benefiting both their teams and organizations. Here, we’ll consider what those skills are, and how to help your leaders develop them.
Driven to Burnout
Most people, especially leaders, think of resilience in heroic terms. Faced with moments of uncertainty, many leaders double down on their time spent working, pushing themselves — and their employees — to their limits.
Yet, we know that humans aren’t designed to function at maximum capacity 24/7. When leaders push themselves past the point of exhaustion, it reduces creativity, working memory, and capacity for problem-solving and leads to worse business outcomes.
The most damaging effect of overwork is its effect on a company’s culture. Leaders play a pivotal role in shaping an organization’s culture. Employees watch leaders and take cues from their behavior. When leaders prioritize productivity over their own well-being, they encourage a work environment where long hours, excessive workloads, and the erasing of personal and professional boundaries become the norm. In fact, 63% of employees say their job doesn’t allow them to disconnect.
Leaders and their employees are clearly being pushed past their breaking points. SHRM released research at the beginning of last summer showing that 44% of U.S. employees feel burned out at work. More worrying is that 45% feel emotionally drained and 51% feel used up by the end of the day. Those percentages undoubtedly grow as you go up the organizational ranks.
The workplace looks to its leaders in moments of uncertainty. It is their responsibility to rise above the challenges of our current context, cut through the chaos, and chart a path forward. But leaders can’t do that if they’re in a crisis themselves.
What is a Sustainable Approach to Building Resilience?
Our research on leadership skills shows that resilience is just one part of a larger skill set we call self-management. Self-management encompasses a range of critical skills, including self-awareness, the ability to practice self-care, confidence, resilience and the capacity to manage emotions effectively. Together, these skills enable leaders to sustain performance and make thoughtful decisions, even under pressure. The good news is that these skills are trainable. With intentional effort and practice, leaders can develop greater self-awareness, build their capacity for resilience, and learn strategies to regulate their emotions and maintain balance, even in the most challenging circumstances.
1. Help Leaders Build Self-Awareness and Self-Control
Have you ever reacted to a stressful situation by snapping at someone? You were probably experiencing what neuroscientists call an “amygdala hijack.” The amygdala is one of the oldest parts of the brain. It is responsible for regulating our emotional response to threats. While we should be grateful to this part of our brain for keeping millions of years of our ancestors alive, when this part of the brain takes over, which it tends to do when we are tired or stressed, it can cause an emotional response that is disproportionate to the actual situation and can make it difficult to make rational decisions.
Leaders have to build both the self-awareness to know when their emotions are running away from them, and the skills to regain control when they do. Unfortunately, that’s easier said than done. Studies show most people lack self-awareness, even around their level of self-awareness (while around 95% of people think they’re self-aware, only 15% actually are).
The best way to help leaders develop self-awareness is by providing them with reliable sources of data about themselves. Assessments can uncover key insights about personality, emotional triggers, and behavioral tendencies. 360-degree feedback tools allow leaders to gain a well-rounded understanding of how their behaviors are perceived by colleagues, direct reports and supervisors. Finally, establishing open lines of feedback within teams can create a culture of trust where leaders receive ongoing, real-time input about their actions and impact. These tools not only enhance self-awareness but also provide the foundation for developing better self-regulation skills.
2. Embrace Self-Care
Once leaders have the self-awareness to recognize when their capacity is depleted, they have to do something about it. Unfortunately, “self-care” has become so overused as a buzzword that it has become largely meaningless. But self-care isn’t self-indulgent; it’s an essential tool for high-performing leaders.
Fortunately, practicing self-care doesn’t require huge changes. Small investments can have an outsized effect. One of the easiest ways to start is by encouraging leaders to set boundaries on their time to ensure that there are recovery periods built into their days. Encourage them to set a time each night to shut their laptop and turn off their phone. If their calendar tends to be a wall of back-to-back meetings, encourage them to schedule intentional half-hour buffers a few times a day.
It’s also important to encourage leaders to take extended breaks. Research indicates that taking time off from work can enhance health and well-being, with individuals reporting reduced exhaustion, fewer health complaints, and increased life satisfaction following vacations. Additionally, studies have found that vacations can improve health and well-being, though these benefits may diminish within a few weeks after returning to work. Encouraging employees to take regular vacations can lead to improved focus, creativity and overall job performance.
3. Practice Self-Compassion — to an Extent
In the current environment, leaders and their teams will no doubt experience setbacks. To ensure these setbacks don’t knock them off course, leaders need to develop the capacity for self-compassion, a psychological construct centered on three behaviors: being kind rather than judgmental about their own failures and mistakes, recognizing failure as a human experience, and taking a balanced approach to experiencing negative emotions without becoming overwhelmed.
The key word here is “balanced.” Self-compassion should not become an excuse for complacency. While we shouldn’t let them overwhelm us, it is important to let ourselves experience the negative emotions that come with failure and then use them as a catalyst for growth.
You can help leaders cultivate a collective mindset that combines self-compassion with responsibility and growth by creating and adopting a methodical approach to responding to mistakes. This involves acknowledging the impact of the mistake, apologizing when it’s warranted and committing to a clear path forward.
By integrating these steps, leaders will not only foster self-compassion but also ensure that their teams remain accountable, learn from setbacks and are prepared to face future challenges with greater resilience.
The Bottom Line
As the pace of change continues to accelerate, leaders will certainly need resilience. But resilience is only one tool within the broader self-management toolkit. Skills like self-awareness, emotion management and self-compassion must complement resilience in order for leaders to go beyond just coping.
The great news is that all of these leadership skills can be learned and developed. Historically, leadership development curriculums have focused on strategy, executive presence, business acumen, and change management. These are essential skills for leading. However, as leaders face an unprecedented amount of change in such a short period of time, their organizations will also benefit from developing their self-management skills.
Organizations that strategically invest in these skills will have leaders who do not get bogged down by change but rather embrace it and use it as a catalyst for positive growth.
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