Resilient Leadership: Navigating Systemic Pressure & Invisible Trauma
I have to confess I still haven’t seen the movie, but I’ve been thinking a lot about this time we’re in, where “everything everywhere all at once” feels particularly acute.
Even in our own lives, aside from the political chaos of the current moment, it can feel like everything is breaking.
Or that if it’s not one thing, it’s another.
The game of real-life whack-a-mole, which is often the norm (especially for those holding things together at work and at home - often women of color), becomes exacerbated by systemic pressure.
If this is what you’re experiencing, you’re not alone.
We’re not all impacted in the same ways, but we are all impacted by systemic pressure.
Even those who thrive on chaos are experiencing nervous system–level effects.
I’ve said before that everyone is traumatized.
People sometimes get uneasy or push back on the idea of trauma in the workplace - but we’re not asking anyone to reveal their deepest wounds.
We’re talking about designing for nervous system dysregulation - our own, and each other’s.
Individual dysregulation can quickly become collective dysregulation.
It’s easy to become dysregulated by the dysregulation of others - especially those in positions of power.
At the same time, systemic pressure can reveal where our opportunities for growth are - in ourselves, our teams, our organizations, and even in our broader communities and the world at large.
We’re noticing that the teams and organizations that have already done the deep work - values alignment, shared understanding, co-created psychological safety, and inclusive leadership skills - are holding strong.
Our data shows it’s a myth that psychological safety in the workplace is completely at the mercy of outside forces. Yes, external factors affect internal culture - but strategic resilience, practiced not just as an organizational strategy but as an inclusive leadership skill, can mitigate those effects and open up opportunities to adapt and evolve.
The only constant, after all, is change.
One of the ways we support leaders in both navigating and driving change is by helping them design for leadership under systemic pressure, with insufficient support, and invisible trauma load.
We don’t just coach individuals - we coach within organizational systems.
That means we identify patterns across individuals to catalyze change at the organizational level, and vice versa.
Over the past few years, we’ve been heads down doing the work. But as this moment of systemic pressure invites us to evolve, we’ve been looking at our body of work and experimenting with a new way to support leadership growth:
We’re defining five Leadership Archetypes, based on the emotional and systemic challenges leaders are navigating right now.
These archetypes help us - and our clients - design more customized leadership development journeys.
You might find yourself navigating one, or a blend of two, three, or even all five over time. These aren’t static archetypes - they evolve as your context and capacity shift.
Here are a few pain points that illustrate some of these archetypes:
“I’m holding it all together, but it’s costing me personally.”
“How do I stay true to my values in a hostile environment?”
“I’m trying to do the right thing, but I don’t know how.”
Curious which leadership archetypes you might be navigating right now?
