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For years, many CEOs have told themselves the same story:

“If we can just get through this quarter, things will stabilise.”

But stability isn’t coming. Volatility is now the baseline. Markets swing faster, AI shifts business models overnight, and supply chains get hit from angles no one predicted.

In this article, I’ll share why most leaders still misunderstand resilience — and three practical ways to build the kind of resilience that doesn’t just help you survive turbulence, but actually perform better because of it.

The Myth of Stability

We still lead as if volatility is temporary.

We wait for calm before making bold moves. We delay uncomfortable decisions until “things settle.” But the world we operate in today is not a storm passing through. It’s the new climate.

The leaders who win aren’t the ones who hope for stability. They are the ones who stop expecting it — and design resilience into how they lead and how their organisations operate.

Three Big Myths About Resilience

Let’s start with what resilience is not:

1. Resilience is not endurance.

Many CEOs think resilience means powering through, working harder, sleeping less. But endurance without renewal leads straight to burnout — personally and organisationally. Resilience isn’t about how long you can grind. It’s about how fast you can recover.

2. Resilience is not just personal grit.

You might be tough, but if decision-making is centralised at the top, if your culture is rigid, and your systems can’t flex, you’ll still get outpaced. A resilient leader inside a non-resilient organisation will eventually lose.

3. Resilience is not reactive.​
It’s not about bouncing back after every crisis. It’s about anticipating shocks and building flexibility before they hit so you’re not surprised every time the environment shifts.

So, what does real resilience look like in practice?

1. Embed Adaptability into the System​
Resilient organisations don’t rely on heroics. They build adaptability into the way they operate.

That might look like:

• Cross-training teams so they can cover each other when disruption hits.
• Running pre-mortems, imagining a failure in advance and asking, “What broke?”
• Stress-testing your supply chain or operating model regularly, not just after the last crisis.

When volatility hits, these organisations don’t freeze. They’ve rehearsed multiple futures. They move faster than competitors because they’ve already thought through the “what ifs.”

2. Make Recovery a Leadership Discipline

If you glorify exhaustion, your organisation will copy you.

In my work with CEOs, I see a clear shift: the best leaders now treat recovery as a performance discipline, not a luxury. They protect their mental and physical energy with the same seriousness they bring to their P&L.

Think about:

• Building in “recharge weeks” or intentional downtime for your top teams.
• Normalising boundaries instead of rewarding 24/7 availability.
• Treating reflection, not just action, as part of the work.

When you normalise recovery, resilience spreads. People come back sharper, more creative, and better able to handle pressure.

3. Anchor Everything in Purpose

In uncertainty, people may not see the how — but they must trust the why.

Purpose is what steadies direction when the environment shakes. It keeps employees and customers engaged even when results are volatile and plans have to change.

When your team is clear on:

• Why your organisation exists
• Who you serve
• What you will and won’t compromise

…then setbacks don’t feel like the end of the story. They feel like part of the journey.

So…

Resilience is not about grinding harder, being “tough enough,” or reacting faster than everyone else.

Real resilience for today’s CEOs is built on:

• Adaptability – designing flexibility into your systems.
• Recovery – protecting energy so you can sustain performance.
• Purpose – giving people a reason to stay committed when volatility spikes.

The world won’t stabilise. But you can become the kind of leader and build the kind of organisation that performs at a higher level because of volatility, not in spite of it.

👉 Listen to the full episode here: Apple, Spotify​

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Andrea Petrone

CEO Whisperer | Top 1% Executive Coach and Speaker in the UK | Founder of WCL.

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