Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership

Resilience Isn’t Optional: Tools Every Nonprofit Leader Needs Now (Russell Harvey)

Russell Harvey · January 29, 2026

Executive Coach · Leadershipin

Interview with Russell Harvey

Resilience Isn’t Optional: Tools Every Nonprofit Leader Needs Now (Russell Harvey)

Podcast: Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership

January 29, 2026 · 42 min

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Resilience Isn’t Optional: Tools Every Nonprofit Leader Needs Now (Russell Harvey)

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Key topicsLeading Well When the World Won’t Slow DownChange is no longer something leaders navigate occasionally - it is the environment they lead in every day. Russell explores the difference between leaders who are simply surviving relentless change and those who can genuinely say: “There’s a lot going on, and I’m good.” Drawing on nearly two decades specialising in resilience, Russell offers a practical perspective on what resilient leadership actually looks, sounds and feels like when the pressure is real and the uncertainty isn't going away.Before You Add AI to Your Team, Fix the Human OneOrganisations are racing to adopt AI, but Russell believes leaders need to ask a more fundamental question first: what makes our team work brilliantly together? Only then can they understand where AI can genuinely improve performance. With deep expertise in leadership, resilience and navigating persistent change, Russell offers a refreshingly human perspective on AI: the biggest challenge may not be the technology, but how well we lead the people using it.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.View all topics →

About Russell Harvey

The Resilience Coach | Resilient Leadership Expert

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 - a resilient leadership expert, executive coach, facilitator and keynote speaker who helps leaders and organisations perform at their best when the world refuses to stand still.

With more than 20 years in Learning, Leadership and Organisational Development, 6,000+ hours of executive coaching and over 70 published podcast appearances, Russell is an experienced and engaging voice on resilience, leadership and navigating persistent change. He has worked with leaders across organisations including Novartis, the NHS, AB World Foods, Kerry Group and The Co-operative Group.

Russell’s work goes beyond helping people simply cope with pressure. He believes true resilience isn’t about “bouncing back”, being tougher or pretending everything is fine - it’s about springing forward with learning and becoming better equipped to lead because of the challenges you’ve faced.

His approach connects the human side of leadership directly to what matters to organisations: engaged people, stronger cultures, better decisions and improved performance. His work has delivered measurable results, including a leadership programme that returned £12 million to the business and a Resilient Leader Programme that achieved more than 1,100% ROI.

In August 2025, Russell achieved his long-held purpose of positively affecting 100,000 people.

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About this episode

Episode 353: Resilience Isn’t Optional: Tools Every Nonprofit Leader Needs Now (Russell Harvey)

SUMMARY

Nonprofit leaders are operating in a world where change is constant - and the pressure to react quickly can undermine clarity, trust, and team stability. In this episode, Russell Harvey explains why resilience is a leadership capability (not a personality trait) and how leaders can strengthen it without adding more overwhelm. Russell introduces the VUCA framework (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity) alongside the leadership responses that help teams navigate it (Vision, Understanding, Clarity, Agility). He also shares his Resilience Wheel - seven connected elements leaders can develop personally and organizationally, including purpose, adaptability, support networks, meaning, and energy. Throughout, Russell emphasizes reflective practice as a practical discipline: pausing regularly to identify what’s working, what isn’t, and what to do next - so leaders and teams can “spring forward with learning” rather than simply trying to bounce back.

ABOUT RUSSELL

Russell Harvey is a leadership coach and facilitator based in Leeds, England, and the founder of The Resilience Coach. He works with senior leaders, teams, and organizations across sectors - including the nonprofit and third sector - helping them lead themselves and others well in a “full-on” world shaped by constant change. Russell’s approach blends practical frameworks (VUCA and the Resilience Wheel) with core leadership behaviors: delegating to strengths, removing blockages that prevent performance, building resilient teams, and committing to lifelong personal growth.

RESOURCES & LINKS

The Resilience CoachResilience Wheel (Russell’s framework + related posts)Russell Harvey on LinkedInBook recommendation: Humankind by Rutger BregmanFollow Your Path to Nonprofit LeadershipLearn more about the PMA & Armstrong McGuire merger

Guest: Russell Harvey