An Evolving Man Podcast

Real Resilience: Why Pushing Through Isn’t Enough | Russell Harvey | AEM #172

Russell Harvey · October 3, 2026

Executive Coach · Leadershipin

Interview with Russell Harvey

Real Resilience: Why Pushing Through Isn’t Enough | Russell Harvey | AEM #172

Podcast: An Evolving Man Podcast

October 3, 2026 · 55 min

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Real Resilience: Why Pushing Through Isn’t Enough | Russell Harvey | AEM #172

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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

What if resilience isn’t about becoming tougher?

In Episode 172 of An Evolving Man Podcast, Piers Cross speaks withRussell Harvey, The Resilience Coach, about what genuine resilience looks like for leaders, teams and organisations.

Russell defines resilience as “springing forward with learning” rather than endlessly pushing through adversity. He describes the difference between surviving, coping and thriving, and explains why self-awareness, purpose, adaptability, support networks, energy and emotional intelligence all contribute to sustainable resilience. Pasted text

The conversation also explores a distinction particularly relevant to Piers’s boarding-school work: resilience versus dissociation. If someone learns to suppress emotion, disconnect and simply endure, that may look strong externally while being very different from genuine resilience internally. Pasted text

Piers and Russell also discuss toxic positivity, psychological safety, strengths-based leadership, purpose, team culture and why wellbeing initiatives cannot compensate for an unhealthy organisational system.

Russell closes with a compelling idea: optimism does not mean denying reality. It means acknowledging the scale of the challenge while also recognising our strengths, capabilities, relationships and capacity to respond. Pasted text

A rich conversation for anyone interested in resilient leadership, emotional intelligence, psychological safety and sustainable high performance.

Find Piers:

https://piers-cross.com

Find Russell:

The Resilience Coach

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Piers is an author and a men's transformational coach and therapist who works mainly with trauma, boarding school issues, addictions and relationship problems.

He also runs online men's groups for ex-boarders, retreats and a podcast called An Evolving Man.

He is also the author of How to Survive and Thrive in Challenging Times. To purchase Piers first book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Survive-Thrive-Challenging-Times/dp/B088T5L251/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=piers+cross&qid=1609869608&sr=8-1

For more videos please visit: http://youtube.com/pierscross

For FB: https://www.facebook.com/pierscrosspublic

For Piers' website and a free training How To Find Peace In Everyday Life: https://www.piers-cross.com/community

Many blessings,

Piers Cross

http://piers-cross.com/

Guest: Russell Harvey