Episode 266: Building Resilient Leaders and Teams with Russell Harvey

Darrin Peppard (00:00.75)

All right, my friends, welcome back into the Leaning Into Leadership podcast. This is episode 266. You know, one of the things that fascinates me most about leadership is how often the real work of leadership happens inside of us before it ever shows up in our teams. When things are feeling uncertain, when change just feels like it's constant, when the pressure just keeps building,

the question becomes, how do we lead well in the middle of all of that? And that's exactly where today's conversation is going to go. My guest on the show today is Russell Harvey, who is also known as the resilience coach. Now Russell and I are going to dig into what it really means to build resilience as a leader. We talk about the world of constant change, what the VUCA framework means for leaders today. You do not wanna miss that.

And why resilience isn't about doing more, it's really about doing the right things. We even take a deeper dive into one simple question that we ask people all the time. How are you? Now, before we get to Russell, I want to take a moment and just thank the amazing sponsors we have who make this episode possible. You know, if you're a school leader trying to support instructional growth in your building,

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Darrin Peppard (02:27.458)

That's digicoach.com. Now our episode is also brought to you today by HeyTutor. Now across the country, schools are working hard to close the learning gaps and provide students with additional support that they need in order to be successful. But finding high quality tutoring partners who truly understand schools can be a real challenge. That's where HeyTutor steps in.

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To learn more about how HeyTutor can help you and your students, visit heytutor.com by hitting the link down in the show notes. All right, let's jump into this conversation. Again, my guest on the show is Russell Harvey, the resilience coach, and we're gonna talk about resilience, leadership, and how leaders can show up stronger in a world that sometimes feels overwhelming. I'll see you on the other side.

Darrin Peppard (00:01.006)

All right, everybody, welcome back into the show. My guest today is Russell Hardy. And you know, when I think about Russell, I'm often taken back to something that we hear from people all the time. When we run into each other, we just say something like, hey, how are you? And since the last time that I met Russell, anytime somebody's asked me that question, I have thought about it just a little bit differently. And so...

Russell (00:26.21)

Okay.

Darrin Peppard (00:26.85)

I'm sure we're gonna get to that today on the show. We're gonna talk about resilience. We'll talk about all kinds of great stuff and find ways and help leaders find ways to be a little more resilient, be a little bit more optimistic in, let's be honest, a bit of a challenging time right now. But before we do any of that, Russell, welcome into the show.

Russell (00:47.608)

Thank you Darren, really looking forward to it. And yeah, I have been really leaning into this, how are you question as well. So I'm wondering if our conversation has preempted some thinking in me as well, essentially.

Darrin Peppard (01:01.806)

Excellent, good, I'm glad to hear that. So let's start with this just for my listeners and viewers on YouTube who don't necessarily know who you are. Maybe just give them a little bit of background, know, jump in the way back machine, go as far as you wanna go, well, within reason. We're only gonna be on here like 20 or 30 minutes, but yeah, just give everybody a little synopsis of who Russell Harvey is.

Russell (01:17.144)

Yes. Yes.

Russell (01:26.19)

Thank you. Appreciate that. So at this very moment in time in 2026, I am the resilience coach, essentially. That is the present day and have been for 10 and a bit years. However, the historical journey to that that moment is always been interested in human behavior since I can remember since a child. Just why do we do the things we do? Why don't we do the things we do? And that did, you know, flip into

the career choices around, you know, learning development and leadership development. But real light bulb moment was teaching general day to day conversational English to local Hong Kong Chinese off the street as part of around the world trip. And then when people in the room had their light bulb moments, their realization moments, their aha moments, that gave me a zap inside myself and thought, right, I want to do that for a living, but I don't want to be a teacher.

So it was like, oh, I think I want to be a business trainer. So when I came back to the UK, whole career was like, oh, how can I do learning development, leadership development, essentially? So mixed career overall corporate sectors made redundant six times essentially over the course of a career. And so it was on the sixth was the birthplace of what became my own business as the resilience coach.

Darrin Peppard (02:48.427)

I think that's outstanding. know, it's an interesting way of saying that, right? You know, made redundant six different times. But, you know, sometimes in life, you know, there are those moments where we have an opportunity, right? I mean, you could look at it as a setback, you can look at it as an opportunity. And certainly the, you know, the sixth one, you have made the most of that opportunity. Talk just a little bit about what that work looks like. And then I want to come back to...

How are you? But I'll ask you that in a minute.

Russell (03:19.17)

Yes. Do you mean the work of the resilience coach or dealing with the... Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So, so it was my last role where I getting an inkling that Reduncey was going to happen. So there was a company called the Co-op Group in Manchester. And not long after I joined, it was in a serious sort of financial and, you know, cultural challenge. My internal clients were like...

Darrin Peppard (03:23.701)

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Russell (03:46.948)

top 300 leaders across the organization with a team of others. But literally everybody was coming to me with their head in their hands going, what do we do? Essentially, the world has fallen on our heads. And at the time I had this word resilience and been coming up and this an acronym of VUCA, V-U-C-A, which some people may or may not be familiar with, which is about constant change. And I just went to the clients are supporting, look, our solutions are in this resiliency word.

what it truly means to be a resilient leader and this whole constant change, VUCA environment, know, unpicking what that means and the skills and capabilities that you need to face into it. And that's the work day to day with individual leaders, teams and in our organizations to go, what does it truly mean to be a resilient leader? Truly mean to be a resilient team, truly mean to be a resilient organization. And the work is let's bring that.

to life with a few different tools and models and approaches. ultimately, the work right now, one of the dimensions of being resilient is having a purpose. So until August 2025, about six or seven years prior to that, my purpose was to positively affect 100,000 people by the year 2025. And in August 2025, achieved that essentially, which is all light bulb moments learning.

So the new updated purpose for 2026 is to champion businesses to be a force for good. And the detail behind that is to try and make every single line management relationship. So anybody that's got somebody that reports into them. you know, chairperson to CEO and everywhere else across the organization, making that relationship as good as it can be under this lens of resilience.

that enables people to give a particular answer to the question, how are you? Which we'll come back to. And so that's the glue that holds that all together in terms of my intention each day is everywhere I go is to support leaders that have people that are reporting into them to go, right, how can you make sure they're making as good as it can be? So when I ask you or I ask your team members, how are you? They can give it a certain answer, essentially.

Darrin Peppard (05:44.939)

Yeah.

Darrin Peppard (06:07.339)

Yeah. So let's talk about that. what are we looking for in that answer? you know, this to me, you know, but before I let you answer, when we first talked about this, you know, I recall there's a really, really strong speaker here in the United States, a gentleman named Keith Hawkins. He loves to really his whole message around how you answer that question. And instead of I'm fine, I'm good. It's

Russell (06:19.277)

Mmm.

Darrin Peppard (06:37.441)

better than good. That's his thing, right? Is I'm better than good. So that you have to stop and think rather than just say, I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine. But your take on this is a little bit different, which I love. So how are you?

Russell (06:53.796)

Yeah. So right now, my answer is there's an awful lot going on and I am good. And there are some things that I am finding challenging that I'm still working through and some things that I'm extremely excited about, essentially. So that's how I am personally today. But ultimately, what the resilient human and leader does, their answer to question, how are you, is a variation of, do you know what? There's a lot going on.

I'm in a good place. So it's everybody that's listening and watching now, it's to go what is it that you need to do to enable yourself to give that answer to a question? Because a lot of the time people when asked who are you, they more often not give the answer of like well I'm all right if it wasn't for or I'd be better if so and so or I'd be I want to hear a lot would be well I'll be all right if my boss wasn't.

you know, that's, that's, you know, what a lot of answers people give. So it's a case of in there, which I know that we'll talk about the ability to go, do you know what, there's a lot going on, you know, crazy world, VUCA world, but I'm in, and I'm in a good place. That is also an optimistic answer. It's a, it's an answer that includes hope, essentially.

Darrin Peppard (08:18.061)

Yeah, absolutely. Well, and I think too, that in hearing that, and this is something I've processed over the last few weeks since our previous conversation, I think there's a lot of inherent trust that is communicated by being able to answer in that way. I think when that trust doesn't exist between employee and supervisor, whatever the hierarchy might look like, then...

Russell (08:35.289)

Yes.

Darrin Peppard (08:47.585)

probably not going to get the, there's a lot going on, but I'm in a good place. Because that's the type of thing I think you're only gonna say to somebody that you trust. maybe have you take that and run just a little bit.

Russell (09:03.396)

Yeah, it will. So, resilient leader has worked on their personal resilience so that they are more open and willing to, you know, do their hard yards with the soft skills with the people that report into them so that they go, do you know what, I have put myself in a better place so that I've got the energy, the curiosity, the willingness to put the effort in to actually line manage my people.

differently, better, so that they come in a different place. So when an individual leader may potentially themselves be feeling a little overwhelmed or a bit full on or not got clarity on what they should be doing day to day, it is less likely that they're going to metaphorically walk outside of their office and go to their people and go, so how are you really? You know, what's going on for you? What are some challenges that you're facing and what can I do to support you?

because they are less likely to have the internal energy, strength at that moment in time to want to do that because their energy is going to be taken up with. I just need to sort myself out first. You know, there's some things I need to think about. So if there's a knock on the door and one of the team comes in and says, can I have a word boss? There's a possibility they're going to inside their head, they're going to go, heck, what is this? I haven't got the space for this.

But if you must come in if you must rather than of course you can. You know, what is it? What would you like to talk about essentially? So yeah, the resilient leader is going to work with worked on themselves in order that they can support others.

Darrin Peppard (10:30.774)

Yeah.

Darrin Peppard (10:47.756)

And so I think, you've mentioned it a couple of times, you've talked about VUCA and I want to make sure we go there. And I want to give you the space to really talk about this because I think when someone is stuck in that VUCA world, they're probably not working on themselves. They probably aren't in a place where they feel this way. So let's maybe start with, explain a little bit when you say VUCA, what do you mean?

Russell (11:08.835)

Yes.

Russell (11:15.202)

Yeah. Yeah.

Darrin Peppard (11:17.054)

and then let's kind of go from there.

Russell (11:20.312)

Yeah, it's trying, it's, it's point people that are listening now to understand that there is a difference between crisis and chaos and the VUCA world. So there's, there's a distinction between the two. So what I, why I like VUCA and it's been around for decades. So we are walking to lots of rooms everywhere and I say change is constant and the room nods, you know, people in the room just nod and they go, okay, we now need to really explore what that means. And I think the VUCA framework does that well.

So to start with Darren, I'm just going to throw eight buzzwords out there, essentially. And so they're buzzwords. well, the world we live in is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. And to face into it, we need vision, understanding, clarity and agility. OK, so they're buzzwords, essentially. But it's Fuqua and it's Fuqua Prime, essentially, and they counteract each other.

And when you unpick the definitions of all eight words, you start to understand much, much better how carbon change is constant. And then there's a raft of leadership capabilities and peak performance skills that enable you to face into a VUCA world. And those capabilities and performance skills, they link to what does it mean to be resilient? So how to lead yourself and others well in a full on volatile, crazy world has been my specialism.

the last 15 years, essentially. So it's like we are accepting with good grace that change is constant and as a leader I now absolutely know the things that I need to do day to day, week by week, month by month, to be okay with it and not feeling this sense of, my god, overwhelmed, essentially.

Darrin Peppard (13:10.336)

Yeah, absolutely. Well, and I think a big part of what you're talking about, I just that flip from VUCA to VUCA Prime. In VUCA Prime, it's more, at least to me, this is what I'm hearing, this is a world that I have a little more control of versus over here, this is outside of my scope of control. And I think a lot of leaders, certainly a lot of leaders that I work with probably would identify with

that VUCA world of volatility and uncertainty and they sometimes feel stuck there. They feel like there's not a way out and certainly finding a way to be that resilient leader is how you make your way through that. So navigate us through that. Let's, you know, again, a lot of the folks that I work with who are stuck over on one side of the street who want to come over to this other side of the street want to know.

Russell (14:08.461)

Yeah.

Darrin Peppard (14:09.216)

How do I build that resilience?

Russell (14:11.544)

Yeah, so just before doing that, they're one of the slightly reframed of words. So quite rightly, we talk about we want to have feeling control and absolutely, you know, Stephen Covey's sphere of influence and control is absolutely relevant. But in the VUCA world and the resilient leadership space, this is slightly different question. It's a case of tell me what's going on. And then my next question is, and how in command of your environment do you feel rather than in control of it?

So actually getting a leader to understand the difference between actually just a general sense of like I'm in command of everything that's going on rather than I've got a grip on it of control. There's a difference because when you and if anybody on here now enjoys being in control, they struggle with this more, this idea of being in command. But it's a bit of a trust. So if there's any control freaks that are listening now, then I get it that you'll be...

you'll be wobbling a bit, but it's a bit of a trust me moment. So a feeling in command of your environment actually gives you a greater sense of control. So I know it's a play on words, but people sort of need to be aware of that. So that's part of the starting point, essentially. And before I did you want to come in on it that before I sort of talk about the next bit about how you, you know, build your resilience or do you me to just keep going?

Darrin Peppard (15:36.076)

I think I do. Yeah. Because what you're taking me back to to a story that and this way back at the beginning of the podcast, maybe an episode somewhere in the teens, I had a county sheriff from from here in the states who told a story about when he first had moved from being a deputy to the sheriff position.

Russell (15:38.308)

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Russell (15:55.78)

Mmm.

Darrin Peppard (16:05.093)

and how there was some wildfire that was taking place in his area, unincorporated land. As the sheriff, he becomes the fire chief as well. And he's digging a fire line and he's right out there trying to fight the fire. And someone pulled him back, it was his undersheriff, and said, and his name is Brett, he said, Brett.

Russell (16:20.484)

Hmm

Darrin Peppard (16:35.391)

you need to go be in command. You don't need to be down here fighting the fire right on the line. And he's somebody I've known for a long time and I've watched him grow and blossom as a leader. And that was a struggle he had was thinking as a leader, I need to be in there doing everything with everyone as opposed to.

I need to step back and see the whole picture. And so when I hear you talk about command versus control, that's what I'm hearing. So I'll push it back to you now.

Russell (17:06.742)

Absolutely, yes. No, no, that, that is exactly it. So one of the four leadership capabilities is called Commander's Calm. And the definition around that is you are aware of what's going on with you emotionally and physiologically as a human being, and actually have got the awareness of what you need to do in that moment in time. So even if there is an awful lot going on in front of you, such as, yes, a fire and you want to jump in and help.

it's actually having the awareness that moment in time that in that moment, that's the worst thing that you could do. Because you need to be stepping back and actually, know what, I just need to hang around so that if people come and ask me questions, you know, I'm in the best place to be able to give some, you know, strategic answers with situational awareness with everything else that's going on. And yes, there's a number of different examples around that. And then to build upon that, one of the main

intentions when I talk about developing resilient leadership. So quite often clients come to me and people listening now, they may be in this place of like, there's a lot going on and I'm not quite in a good place or I am feeling some version of overwhelm or I am just ignoring as many things as I can because they haven't got the energy to face into them. You know, it's like, don't ask me. I just can't. Yeah, go there. So my intention when I engage with clients is not to add to their mental to-do list.

Darrin Peppard (18:25.033)

Yeah.

Russell (18:36.238)

Okay, so if somebody is already feeling quite full up and they go, right, so Russell, you know, what do I need to do? There are a raft of things that each individual could do, you know, but I'm not coming along to say, right, with all of this going on, you now on top of those, you now need to do this and this and this because they'll fall over. So it's enabling people to understand that, you know, have a...

conversation and we talk about what's going on and it's going right, let's discuss the useful things that can be to do around building resilience leadership around the resilience wheel that I've mentioned. Then it's gonna case of like, so which one of these behaviors are going to choose to do and what are they going to be instead of? So, you know, as a bare minimum, if somebody comes to me and they're up here in terms of like, you know, they're filling full up, it's like, you know, I'm going to drop something away.

And then actually, ultimately, you want to feel as though that this is coming down. Your overwhelm on your pressure is coming down. So there are a suite and a raft of things that individuals can do to build their personal resilience, which is the seven aspects of the resilience wheel I keep talking about. But it's like they're not to be added to your current list of things that are on your plate. It's to go, right, you've understood that these behaviors, these activities, these approaches are actually the more useful. So it's going to be what are going to stop?

doing and what are you going to do instead of that essentially. So that's definitely my intention if I do not want to add to anybody's overwhelm when we talk about engaging with their resilience it's got to be instead of something.

Darrin Peppard (20:18.325)

think that's a really important way to phrase that because so often people will think, you I got to take on more, I got to take on more, I got to take on more. And if we can take that intentional pause, one of my favorite protocols that I take leaders through is just a simple start, stop, continue and consider. And, you know, sometimes being okay with saying, I'm going to stop doing this.

Russell (20:39.598)

Totally. Yeah.

Darrin Peppard (20:47.119)

And my rule of thumb has always been you can't put something on your start list if you don't have something on your stop list because just like you said, it just ends up, you know, taking you from, you know, the water line is above your eyebrows to now the water line is over your head and you're just not able to, you can only do so much, right? And part of building that resilience, I think, is being mindful of what am I gonna let go of in order to start doing this so that.

maybe that water line comes down.

Russell (21:17.508)

And yeah, and so to start with, you know, when I've got a person comes to chatting with us to try and make their life simpler, as they sort of say, look, OK, for now, I'm going to say a resilient leader is only responsible for three things. You know, to sort of go, if you wake up each day and go, what am I here to do? Or I'm getting pulled from political posts. I've got hundreds of emails or lots things I've been asked to do. And I go, look, let's just stay for now.

your own responsible for three things. they are to delegate brilliantly to your people based upon their strengths and remove the blockages to your people performing. That's what you're there to do. Delegate brilliantly to the individual strengths and remove the blockages to them performing. So that's what you're there to do essentially. The next thing that you're there to do

is to build and grow and nurture a resilient team. You're responsible for that. And then potentially this next, the third one should come first, but I need to say third, essentially, so it lands better. So the third one is that you need to make the decision and the choice to build and grow and nurture your personal resilience for the rest of your life.

So I'll say that and people will nod and people will go, that's brilliant. Or they go, good God, that sounds terrible. You know, they will give, they will give whatever answer they give at that moment in time. And I go, right, shall we have a look at the things that are in your diary and sensor check? How many of those things that you are doing are against these three buckets, these three areas of responsibility? And then we can start to...

Darrin Peppard (22:47.69)

Yeah.

Russell (23:09.812)

simplify and then you know that third one of like build and grow and nurture your your actual personal resilience is where we now need you to find some energy for because as a consequence of that the benefits are you'll have greater clarity and purpose you'll have a very different mindset you'll increase your confidence you'll have more energy you'll have a better understanding about what you're you know there to do you will

tap into your network in a far smarter way and hundreds of other benefits essentially as a byproduct of working on your personal resilience. So, you know, that's the how essentially.

Darrin Peppard (23:51.627)

Yeah, and I really like that too. I like that you've boiled it down to just those three things. think, in fact, I like the order that you have them in because a lot of leaders who get stuck in overwhelm, who I call it the cycle of chaos, they get stuck there in many ways because they won't delegate. They're just either back to the command versus control, right? It could be that.

Russell (24:01.788)

Hmm.

Russell (24:12.43)

Yeah. Yeah.

Darrin Peppard (24:20.732)

It could be lack of trust. Could be that they just don't know how to delegate or they're afraid to put things on other people's plates. But I like that you begin with that because if people aren't able to delegate brilliantly, as you put it, then that's a big part of why they're just so full up because there's just so much that they're doing that should be done by others. And again, the command versus control.

I love that command versus control piece that is just absolutely spot on. And then of course now, okay, I've been able to delegate, I can focus on my team, and now I'm gonna focus on myself. What are a couple of things that, let's say I've followed those three, let's say I'm believing that, what might be a couple things you either teach or coach or support other leaders to do?

to focus on building their own resilience? What are a couple of activities or different types of things that can be done?

Russell (25:25.282)

Yeah, absolutely. So I'll just very briefly mention. the resilience wheel is built upon a load of research. The resilience wheel is the answer to the question of how do I build my resilience, Russell? It's like there's seven aspects on the wheel and it can relate them to personal, team, leadership and organisation essentially. So very quickly, know, heart resilience is our attitude and then the other dimension of being resilient are having a purpose.

They are this word confidence. There's this word adaptability. It's our support network. It's the word meaning, which is our internal storytelling, the meaning we attach to events. And this is word energy around a strengths based approach. And I think the US you're familiar with strength finder and in the UK it's strength scope, essentially. So what the individual does is collectively, they look at this, we just self assess their resilience wheel and we just start to nurture each aspect of it. Specifically,

Only because it's worked really well with some clients recently, for some reason the purpose one has really resonated with some individuals. So it's that question about what am I genuinely here to do? Now, you only need one purpose, but it's a question you can ask yourself in a number of different environments to gain your singular one.

So I ask my clients around, say, know, what's your purpose? What's your legacy? What do you want to be known for? You know, what's your leadership purpose? What's your team's purpose, essentially? And it going having conversations in those spaces with friends, with family, with colleagues, with your team, as a consequence of that, your singular purpose will emerge for you, essentially. And then that is like, it's like a bedrock. It's like a grounding.

it gets your head, your heart and your gut in alignment, essentially, and it gives you a real sense of self and a sense of identity. And then as a consequence of that, your confidence can build as well. So when you work on one area of the wheel, it has a positive impact upon another area, essentially. And then the other thing to do if...

Russell (27:41.54)

when people are feeling overwhelmed. So if we go into the energy space, essentially, do an activity, which is a strengths and skills grid, essentially. So people can do this that's listening and watching. Just draw two arrows, one vertical, one horizontal, that, you know, cross over each other. So you have essentially four quadrants. OK, so what you do is on a separate piece of paper or a post-it note or electronically on a pad.

write down everything that you do on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual basis in the workplace, essentially, just make an individual note of it, and then start to plot them on this grid. So in the top right of the grid are things that you love doing and are good at. The bottom right of the grid is things that you're good at, but you don't have a lot of energy for. The bottom left of the grid is things that you're neither great at nor have a lot of energy for.

top left of the grid are things that you will love doing but currently they're not to a great standard essentially. So it's not going to be the case that you'll necessarily have things in all four spaces and you don't have to try and make it fit. Yours will just be wherever yours are essentially and then in terms of the development of this grid it is not about trying to move things from the bottom half of the grid to the top half because you can't.

Things that are in the bottom half of the grid, you'd never had natural energy for them. So you can't magically create a personality change, essentially, in that moment. There are things that will definitely go from top left to top right. So if you love doing things and you do them more often, you'll get better at them. And there is a possibility that there some things that can shift from bottom left to bottom right, essentially, but not necessarily.

But then straight away it's for the individual to plot that for themselves and then we'll have a conversation about what does it look like, you know, and because the trick is to find as many ways to be doing the things that are in their top right of their grid. Because that's playing to your strengths and playing to your strengths builds natural resilience and natural confidence. So there's lots of interconnectivity amongst these different things.

Russell (30:00.642)

So in terms of two activities that people can do that listening to this, know, absolutely think about your purpose and then do that strengths and skills grid and then start to develop from there or, you know, give me a call essentially and go, I've done it and I don't know what to do now Russell. It's like, well, we'll have a conversation about it.

Darrin Peppard (30:17.97)

Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, and folks, I would tell you too, I mean, if you go to Russell's website, so thereziliancecoach.co, we'll put a link down in the show notes for you, but when you go and actually go into his resilience work, you'll see the resilience wheel, and it'll give you even more of a concept of what he's talking about, the entire cycle here of.

of how this works and how this all comes together. This is just really, really brilliant stuff, Russell. I really, really appreciate all of this. Unfortunately, our time has absolutely flown by, which is not a big surprise when I'm engaged in a great conversation with someone. So we're at the point in the show, I'm going to ask you the same question I ask everybody here on the Leaning Into Leadership podcast. Russell, how are you leaning into leadership right now?

Russell (31:16.462)

So I know I've talked about it loads, but it is this purpose thing is really working for me. know, championing business is to be a force for good. I feel like in everything that's happening in the world at this moment in time, we're sort of diverging a bit as a human race on actually either going with some of the messages that some senior leaders around the world are going with about

It's more about the self and others are turning around and going, do you know what? I think it's more about community and humanity essentially. So, and I am hopeful on the community and the humanity side of things. So I am leaning into the purpose of, do you know what? This is about, let's make every individual relationship that we can as good as it can be so that people actually grow their resilience so they can face into life's challenges.

That's what I am leaning into and banging the drum about, essentially.

Darrin Peppard (32:21.418)

Absolutely, and shouting from the rooftops and the whole bit, which I think is fantastic. So Russell, people will want to get in touch with you. They'll want to check out all of your work. I mentioned your website, but what are the best ways for people to get connected with you?

Russell (32:37.592)

So, yeah, so literally it's Russell, the resilience coach. I'm on LinkedIn, I'm on social media, and there is the website, which is the, you know, the resiliencecoach.co.uk. And if you go on there, you know, you can click a little link to say, get in touch. So just send me an email and go, can we have a chat? That's it. Essentially, that's all you need to do.

Darrin Peppard (32:57.29)

We'll have all that stuff down in the show notes so people can get in touch with you. Man, Russell Harvey, this was so much fun. I really appreciate this. This was a great conversation and thank you so much for joining me here on Leaning Into Leadership.

Russell (33:11.33)

My pleasure, thank you.

All right, what an awesome conversation there with Russell. I really appreciate him coming on the show. I appreciate that I had the opportunity to connect with him and honestly, I've had a couple of really good conversations with him. So make sure you connect with Russell through all the links that we have for him down in the show notes. And now it's time for a pep talk. So this week, I had the opportunity to spend some time in Orlando, Florida at the Innovative Schools Summit and I got to work with a lot

of school leaders. actually did two different sessions there. I did a three hour pre-conference session focused very heavily on building and maintaining the positive culture and climate that we want to see in our schools. But I also did a session focused on developing high quality leadership teams. And that's what I want to talk about today in the PEP talk. A lot of what we talked about in that particular session could be encompassed in one.

Darrin Peppard (04:49.805)

primary thing that leadership teams should do, but often they overlook. And that's a leadership retreat. Now, I know what you're thinking. Retreats can sometimes feel like a luxury. You know, maybe that's in your mind a retreat means, hey, we're going to go off to some spa and we're just going to have some fun. Maybe you think of it as it's a luxury in that if we have time, we'll set some time aside for that, but we need to wait until things calm down and there's just more time available.

Look, here's the truth. When it comes to leadership retreats, if you wait for the time when things calm down, you're going to be waiting a long time.

As Russell talked about today in the episode, that VUCA world, that world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, that's the world that leaders are navigating every single day. And when you're operating in that kind of an environment, the worst thing you can do is just keep pushing forward without ever stopping and making sure your team is aligned. And one of the most powerful things I ever did as a building principal was bring my leadership team together for a retreat. We stepped away from the building.

The first one we did, actually, we got in vehicles and we drove about two to two and a half hours away. That got us away from the emails, away from the daily fires and all of that kind of stuff so we could focus. And what we found as a team was clarity. We were able to talk about our vision. We were able to talk about our roles. We were able to talk about what we needed to and wanted to do to support one another. And something really interesting happened.

as a result. We didn't just leave with ideas. We left as a team that was aligned. And when your leadership team is aligned, when everyone understands the vision, they trust each other, they know how their role contributes to the bigger picture, that's when the work becomes so much clearer. Decisions become a lot easier. And honestly, the culture of your school, your organization becomes stronger. So,

Darrin Peppard (07:12.939)

As you think about the months ahead, I want to encourage you to consider this. Don't wait for the perfect time to step away and invest in your leadership team. Create the time, plan the retreat, put it on the calendar. Find someone who can facilitate that because if you're a member of the team, you can't both facilitate and be a participant in that retreat. You see, sometimes the most productive things a leader can do is pause long enough

to make sure everybody is moving in the same direction. And man, when that happens, you're no longer managing the day to day. You are truly leading. Look folks, the leadership retreat is something that not only I believe in super strongly, it's something that I facilitate throughout the course of the summer. If you're interested, reach out, shoot me an email, darren at roadtoawesome.net or go to darrenpepper.com and click on the training link.

There's a whole piece in there on what we can do to customize a leadership retreat for you and your team. That is truly leading. That is what it means to lean into leadership. Hey, that's what I've got for you this week, folks. Thank you so much for joining me here on the Leaning Into Leadership podcast. Until next time, get out there, have a road to awesome week.