Corlinda Wooden, Founder, Wooden Consulting
Today’s credit union leaders are navigating a complex and ever-changing landscape of economic shifts, rapid technological advances, evolving workforce expectations and rising member demands. Amid all this change, one theme keeps emerging: the need for resilient leadership.
As Vivian Greene reminds us, “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass; it’s about learning how to dance in the rain.”
Today’s leaders are called to do just that.
Resilience is often misunderstood as simply bouncing back from adversity. For leaders, it’s far more nuanced. It’s the capacity to adapt quickly, lead with clarity under pressure and sustain performance, even during prolonged periods of uncertainty. Furthermore, it is also being able to ‘bounce forward.’
In coaching, we always work on forward-thinking, and the same goes for resiliency. When resilience is framed as the ability to bounce back from setbacks, this focuses on returning to a previous state. When resilience takes on the bounce-forward perspective, you not only focus on recovering but also on using difficult experiences as opportunities for growth and positive change.
Examples of bouncing forward include:
- Learning from mistakes and applying those lessons to future situations.
- Developing new skills or perspectives as a result of overcoming challenges.
- Strengthening relationships and building a stronger sense of self-efficacy.
Bouncing forward is valuable because it encourages a proactive and optimistic approach to adversity. It can lead to greater personal growth and fulfillment and help individuals and communities become more adaptable and resilient in the face of future challenges.
Resilient leadership isn’t only about personal stamina; it has a cascading impact on team culture. Resilient leaders foster psychological safety, model adaptability and reduce stress across their teams. A recent UTSA study showed that resilient leaders increase employee engagement, productivity and retention, leading to a more innovative and adaptive organizational culture.
Despite all the attention resilience gets, most leadership development programs fail to teach how to build it. Leaders are expected to be resilient, but the tools, habits and mindsets needed to practice resiliency often go unshared.
Let’s change that by making resilience teachable and actionable.
5 Ways to Build Real-World Leadership Resilience
- Build Your Emotional Literacy
- Why: Self-awareness is foundational. You can’t shift what you can’t name.
- How: Start with a daily 2-minute check-in: “What emotion am I feeling right now, and what triggered it?”
- Coaching Activity: Reflect on “How does this emotion serve or hinder my leadership today?”
- Example in Action: A department leader noticed recurring tension during team meetings. After daily emotional check-ins, they realized they were carrying stress from executive-level pressure. Naming it allowed them to manage it and show up more calmly.
- Shift from Control to Clarity
- Why: Trying to control outcomes in uncertainty often backfires. What you can always control is your response, which then influences the circumstance.
- How: Define what’s in your control and what isn’t, as well as how you can influence the outcome through mindset and behavior.
- Coaching Activity: Use a two-column list to sort what’s in your control and what’s not. Then, for those areas where you have no control, assess: “How can I influence the outcome by changing how I show up?”
- Example in Action: A branch manager couldn’t control corporate restructuring, but they influenced team morale by modeling optimism and clarity.
- Reframe Setbacks as Data
- Why: Resilient leaders don’t avoid failure; they learn from it.
- How: After each major initiative, hold a “learning review,” not just a debrief.
- Coaching Activity: Reflect on “What did this experience teach me about my leadership?”
- Example in Action: After a failed member outreach campaign, a marketing director hosted a cross-functional review focused on insights instead of blame. The re-launch exceeded expectations.
- Practice Micro-Recoveries
- Why: Resilience is about strategic recovery, not endless stamina.
- How: Integrate small reset habits such as a 10-minute walk, breathwork, journaling, and taking time to refuel your body in healthy ways.
- Coaching Activity: Block time between meetings for a mindful reset, not just replying to emails.
- Example in Action: A CEO added 15 minutes of journaling after board meetings to process tough feedback and clarify future decisions. Taking this time helped prepare for future meetings and communication with the board and the leadership team.
- Lead With Authentic Vulnerability
- Why: Teams mirror their leader’s emotional tone.
- How: Share a challenge you’re facing and how you’re working through it.
- Coaching Activity: Reflect on “Where can vulnerability create connection, not concern, and how will I model this?”
- Example in Action: A VP shared with their team how they’re navigating competing priorities and then asked the team for input. It boosted trust and engagement.
Resilience is not a personality trait. It’s a practiced set of habits. Leaders don’t need to “toughen up.” They need tools that help them lead with purpose, adaptability, and care for themselves and their teams.
“Coaching is unlocking a person’s potential to maximize their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them.” – Timothy Gallwey
Coaching is one of the most powerful tools for building resilience. According to a recent study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, coaching significantly improves employee resilience and helps leaders develop strategies to navigate high-pressure environments.
I have led through some incredibly complex moments, such as navigating the sudden changes spurred by major natural disasters and the pandemic and trying to take care of employees and members while keeping the business running. At the same time, there were long-term pressures like balancing competitive deposit rates with cost-effectiveness or making tough calls on whether to renew a branch lease, knowing it was not just about a building but about people, community access and long-term strategy. These moments are rarely cut and dry and come with a manual on how to proceed.
What I realize in these moments is that leadership does not come with a pause button, and yet that is exactly what is needed to lead well. Coaching became that pause. What helped me most was not just trying to power through but having space to pause, reflect and process with trusted support. That is what coaching provides. It helps leaders make thoughtful decisions amid chaos, stay anchored in their values and lead with clarity even when everything feels uncertain. That is why I believe so strongly in the power of coaching. It is the tool I wish I had more of in those situations and the one I now love offering to others.
Here are a few coaching prompts that can foster resilience in real-time:
- “What’s within your control right now?”
- “What personal value (trustworthiness, work-life balance, positivity, etc.) do you want to lead from in this moment?”
- “What does this challenge make possible?”
Building resilience isn’t a solo pursuit. Organizations must create cultures and systems that support it. Recommended actions to take include:
- Add resilience training to leadership development programs.
- Normalize conversations around challenge, failure, and recovery.
- Model resilience from the top through vulnerability, adaptability, and reflection.
Only 30% of employees believe their organizations are “nimbly resilient,” according to the 2024 Global Culture Report from O.C. Tanner. That leaves a huge opportunity for forward-thinking credit unions to lead the way.
Uncertainty is here to stay, but it doesn’t have to be a threat. It can be the proving ground where great leaders are shaped. When we equip leaders with the mindset, tools and coaching they need to lead with resilience, we don’t just survive change—we grow through it. And that’s the kind of leadership the future is seeking.