Resilience is one of those concepts that gets tossed around a lot in leadership circles. Too often, it’s boiled down to toughness, grit, or the ability to “power through.” True resilience, however, is NOT about grinding ourselves into the ground. Instead, it’s about adaptability, responsiveness, and sustainability.

As both a coach and a former engineer, I can’t help but see the parallels between how we talk about resilience in leadership and how it’s defined in material science.