# Common mistakes leaders make when implementing resilience strategies

- **Episode:** [171](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/171.md) (2025-02-13)
- **Type:** interview
- **Tags:** leadership, mistakes, resilience
- **Time:** 34:00–38:04 (start 2040s)
- **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/171?t=2040](https://truthliesandwork.com/171?t=2040)

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[34:00] Leanne Elliott: Are there any mistakes leaders can make when implementing this type of strategy or implementing the resilience plan? Are there some fundamental things that they might Unintentionally get wrong?
[34:11] Marie-Helene Pelletier: The most frequent one is thinking, it's probably because we're hoping that it's going to happen fast. It doesn't work like that. It just doesn't. And, you know, I wish if anyone finds a way to make this happen immediately, talk to me because there's money to be made. But no, seriously, it's just not how it works. And so, and we don't want to think, well, because it didn't work immediately, then I will let go. Mm-mm. You need to stay with it. It's similar to so many other changes we do in our human lives, whether it's implementing exercise or starting to practice meditation. These things don't feel better immediately. Often they will take a bit of time. So same thing here. You have to commit for a longer period of time to see the changes in yourselves, in your team, in the organization. At the organization level, to give you an idea, when you create a mental health strategy for many organizations, this is at least 2 to 3 years for the next round to be reviewed. So just to give you an idea, right? It's not, oh, in 3, in 3 months we'll see how our numbers are going. Sure, we'll keep an eye, of course, because that continues to inform, do we need to shift any element of our mental health strategy? But This is long-term view. And so many of our activities on the operations level often are shorter-term than this. And it's normal that most leaders would not know because they're experts in other things. So that's perhaps the mindset you want to adopt on that particular angle, that this is a longer runway here
[35:53] Leanne Elliott: And I think that really helps, doesn't it, with taking mental health and supporting employees' mental health from a tick box to a fundamental part of culture and ongoing activity within, within the organization. And basically, you've given us so many practical tips, but I am going to push you for one more. If somebody wants to get started today, apart from going to buy your book immediately, what else can they do?
[36:15] Marie-Helene Pelletier: Well, they can look at the show notes because I'm going to send you a link to worksheets that people can use without the book or with the book, and they're very self-explanatory. So that's One thing. And in these worksheets, if you need less than 3, you only want one, take the second one. It's called Supply and Demand. And what it— you'll see, of course, in the book I explain more here, but what I'd like to recommend you do is list all the demands you're facing right now and make sure you list at work and in personal life. And make sure you list the demands that you don't want, which is usually where people go first. But also the demands you're very happy to have that still represent demands. And then list all your sources of supply. So the ways in which your energy and resilience is replenished. This exercise is the one I've received the most feedback about that in and of itself makes people suddenly see it literally, 'cause it's on paper, the disconnect. And will often push people to realize one next action they can take. And just like in business, most of the time we don't start with a fully drawn strategy. We start with some actions, which is not the, I guess, the perfect theoretical way to get there. But the reality of leadership is that we start with some actions and then we say, all right, we need a strategy here, right? But this will be, you're starting with an action and that's a start. And I'm all for any start anywhere because we want action
[37:52] Leanne Elliott: And if there's one key message, you've shared so much wisdom and so many actionable strategies and steps people can take. But if there's one message you want leaders to take away from this conversation, what is it?