At this year’s CIPD Festival of Work, Jamie Laing (yes, that Jamie Laing) was asked a deceptively chewy question:
“How do you balance resilience with vulnerability?”
Now, we’re not saying the room went silent and philosophical like a TED Talk in slow motion, but the question struck a nerve.
Jamie’s answer made a solid point; resilience and vulnerability aren’t opposites. They’re dance partners. Resilience isn’t about bulldozing through hard times with a clipboard and clenched jaw. It’s about adapting, reflecting, and recovering. And that kind of resilience? It requires a little bit of emotional honesty. Gulp.
So the real question for L&D and HR folks is: how do we support leadership and management skills development? How do we help leaders stay strong and show softness?
Resilience: Less Grit, More Give
The term resilience gets thrown around like office jargon confetti. “We need more resilient teams.” “Let’s build leadership and management skills, development and resilience.” “Try being 20% more resilient by Friday.”
But here’s the thing, resilience isn’t about having a stiff upper lip and a calendar full of 1-to-1s. It’s about being bendy. Not physically, though yoga helps. Emotionally bendy.
According to the APA, resilience is “the process of adapting well in the face of adversity.” Being able to say, “Well, that went badly,” without having a full existential crisis.
It’s better to see resilience as bubble wrap rather than bulletproof. It’s strong, flexible, and occasionally makes a funny noise when squeezed.
Vulnerability: The Bit Everyone’s Still Slightly Awkward About
When it comes to vulnerability, it seems to have a bit of a PR problem. It conjures up images of weeping into HR’s biscuit tin or oversharing in meetings. But vulnerability in leadership and management skills development isn’t about dumping your diary on your team, like resilience, it’s about being real.
It’s saying, “I don’t know, but I’ll find out.” Asking for input instead of pretending you already had the idea. Admitting that you’re human, not a motivational quote with legs.
And guess what? Teams love that. Vulnerability builds psychological safety, encourages better decisions, and helps leaders bounce back faster. Why? Because they’re not wasting energy holding up the ‘I’m totally fine’ façade.
Why eLearning is the Perfect (Safe) Space for Wobbles
Now here’s where things get interesting. You might be wondering how anyone learns to be vulnerable and resilient without first making an absolute pig’s ear of it in real life.
Enter eLearning — the emotionally safe crash mat of leadership and management skills development.
Ironically, we don’t think anyone has the resilience to stomach 47 slides of low-res stock photos and block paragraphs, and they shouldn’t have to. We’re talking engaging, scenario-based learning that shows, not tells. Content where leaders can see how a conversation plays out, rewind, cringe appropriately, and try again.
At Video Arts, we’ve taken it even further. Our AI-powered chatbot tool lets leaders practise difficult conversations, from delivering feedback to asking, “Are you OK?” without sounding like a malfunctioning robot.
It’s the emotional gym: practice the reps, build the muscles, and only slightly sweat in front of your screen. Vulnerability, revaluated and resilience, developed.
Five Ways to Nurture Resilience in Leaders
- Start with stories, not sermons
Ditch the “Top Traits of a Resilient Leader” lists and show people what those traits look like in action. Our favourite way? Content where fictional managers get it hilariously wrong, so learners don’t have to. - Normalise the human stuff
Talking about mental health and emotional well-being shouldn’t feel like sneaking out for a secret meeting. Build it into your learning. Not as a side module, but as a core leadership capability. (And yes, there’s a very clickable collection for that.) - Listen more than you lecture
Pulse surveys, feedback tools and anonymous confessions from Slack channels can tell you a lot. But leaders need to be trained to hear what’s not being said, too. Spoiler: it starts with not interrupting. - Give people words
No one likes talking about feelings. But having a shared vocabulary (think: “I felt unsafe in that meeting” rather than “Derek made me want to cry”) makes it way easier. eLearning can introduce these ideas without anyone having to bring tissues. - Make it funny. No really.
Vulnerability and resilience are serious topics. However, learning about them doesn’t have to feel like a therapy session in a grey box. People learn better when they laugh. Our content makes people say “Oof, that’s too real” and “Ha, I’ve seen that happen” in the same breath.
Want to see what that looks like? Reach out for a chat. We’ll show you content that gets people talking, thinking and growing.
Final Thoughts: Teach People to Bounce and Be Honest About the Fall
Here’s the deal. You can’t fake resilience. And you definitely can’t fake vulnerability. Though you can create learning environments where both are nurtured. A space where leaders feel safe enough to fail, reflect, adjust and try again is a space where leadership and management skills development thrive.
That’s the magic of well-crafted eLearning. Ultimately, it gives people space to practise the awkward bits, face the emotional curveballs, and get it a bit wrong before they need to get it right.
To sum up, if you want to build a leadership culture that’s less “keep calm and carry on” and more “pause, process and carry forward,” start with eLearning that reflects real life: wobbles and all.
👉 Talk to us about how our tools can help your leaders lead like humans and bounce back like pros.
