The ThriveWell Journey | Entrepreneurship, Leadership & Life After Disruption

How to Build Real Resilience Under Pressure | Russell Harvey

Russell Harvey · July 6, 2026

Executive Coach · Leadershipin

Interview with Russell Harvey

How to Build Real Resilience Under Pressure | Russell Harvey

Podcast: The ThriveWell Journey | Entrepreneurship, Leadership & Life After Disruption

July 6, 2026 · 58 min

You can look strong on the outside and still be running on survival underneath. Russell Harvey joins The ThriveWell Journey for a grounded conversation about real resilience, leadership under pressure, and what it means to keep moving through change without losing yourself in…

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How to Build Real Resilience Under Pressure | Russell Harvey

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The ThriveWell Journey | Entrepreneurship, Leadership & Life After Disruption

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Key topicsProfessional Development & CoachingWith 10,000+ hours of experience, Russell champions coaching as a powerful tool for leadership growth. He demystifies the process, showing how coaching boosts confidence, clarity, and results, and how leaders can embed coaching into everyday team development. Off the Record — What Leaders Admit in Coaching and Never Say in the BoardroomRussell Harvey has coached leaders to board level for over 6,000 hours, and the same admissions come up in private: they are guessing, they are tired, and they can say neither out loud. Most organisations treat that silence as strength and reward the executive who never wavers, which is how confident-looking teams commit to decisions nobody in the room believes in. Drawing on 18 years with organisations from the NHS to Novartis and Kerry Group, he describes what changes when a leader finally gets one place to think honestly: how they pressure-test a decision before announcing it, and how they pass that same permission down to their own team. Listeners leave able to hear what their leadership group is not saying, and knowing what to do once they hear it.One Conversation a Week — The Coaching a Manager Can Run in Twenty MinutesRussell Harvey has coached leaders to board level for more than 6,000 hours, and he can usually tell within a month whether a manager is holding one honest conversation a week with their team or none at all. Managers get promoted for having answers, so when a problem arrives they solve it, the person leaves relieved, and nothing in the team gets any stronger. Drawing on over 10,000 hours of facilitation across organisations including the NHS, Novartis and Kerry Group, he sets out what that twenty-minute conversation contains, what order to ask it in, and the point at which most managers quietly drop it. He is blunt about the limit: it does nothing if the manager has already decided the answer and is only asking to be polite. Listeners leave with a conversation they can run before their next team meeting, and a way to tell whether it changed anything.View all topics →

About Russell Harvey

Leadership, Resilience, and Growth Coach

100,000+ People positively affected6,000+ Executive coaching hours£12M+ ROI delivered by RWE npower leadership programme20+ years Learning, leadership and organisational development

Russell Harvey is The Resilience Coach - an executive coach, leadership facilitator and keynote speaker with over 20 years in Learning, Leadership and Organisational Development, and 18 years specialising in resilience and leading in a persistently changing (VUCA) world.

Until August 2025 his Purpose was "to positively affect 100 000 people by the year 2025." This has now been achieved!

His updated purpose is to "Champion organisations to be a force for good" - achieved by equipping every leader and team he works with to spring forward with learning, not just survive disruption, but navigate it well. The measure of that? When someone asks "how are you?" the answer - honestly - is "there's a lot going on, and I'm good."

With over 6,000 hours of executive coaching to board level, he has worked with organisations including AB World Foods, Kerry Group, Novartis AG, the NHS and Cooplands Bakery.

Russell's style is direct, empathetic and practical - he challenges leaders to think differently about what's possible, and equips them with the clarity, confidence and tools to lead themselves and others well, however uncertain the terrain.

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About this episode

You can look strong on the outside and still be running on survival underneath.

Russell Harveyjoins The ThriveWell Journey for a grounded conversation about real resilience, leadership under pressure, and what it means to keep moving through change without losing yourself in the process.

L. Michael Burt and Russell talk through the difference between surviving, coping, and thriving, and why resilience is not just about bouncing back after a hard season. Real resilience is about learning from what happened, getting back up differently, and building the awareness, support, purpose, and energy to move forward with more clarity.

This conversation also gets into the pressure leaders and entrepreneurs are carrying right now, especially with uncertainty, AI, constant change, business demands, and the private weight of trying to stay strong for everyone else.

Russell shares how the Resilience Wheel helps people look at purpose, confidence, adaptability, support, meaning, and energy in a practical way. He also explains why thriving does not mean everything is perfect. Sometimes thriving means there is a lot going on, and you can still honestly say, “I’m good.”

This episode is for leaders, entrepreneurs, builders, and high performers who are tired of calling survival resilience and are ready to build something deeper, steadier, and more honest.

Key Topics

Understanding VUCA and its impact on individuals and organizationsThe difference between surviving, coping, and thrivingBuilding internal resilience through reflection and purposeThe role of vulnerability and emotional intelligence in leadershipUsing strengths-based approaches to foster team resilienceThe importance of purpose and healthy emotional driversStrategies for leaders to support their teams' resilienceThe impact of interconnectedness and AI on resilience

Chapters

00:00 The Landscape of Resilience

02:58 Understanding VUCA and Its Impact

06:14 Situational Awareness and Resilience

09:04 Springing Forward: The True Meaning of Resilience

11:49 The Role of Reflection in Building Resilience

14:54 Personal Experiences and the Journey of Resilience

17:57 The Resilience Wheel: A Framework for Growth

20:59 Redundancy and Identity: Navigating Job Loss

27:28 Emotional Intelligence and Resilience

29:39 Building Resilient Teams

32:56 Leadership and Vulnerability