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Season 9 Episode 36: Transforming Failure with Anne Harbison

In a world that often celebrates only success, how do leaders and teams navigate the inevitable realities of failure, crisis, and loss? This conversation explores the powerful opportunities for growth that are hidden within our most challenging moments. In this episode of The Thermostat Podcast, Jason Barger sits down with Dr. Anne Harbison, a leadership development expert and author of Never Waste a Crisis, to discuss how to transform hardship into resilience, wisdom, and a stronger corporate culture.

Dr. Harbison shares insights from over 30 years of coaching leaders, grounded in her research at Harvard and her own inspirational personal story. The discussion examines the nature of crisis, the practical steps for building resilience, and the critical role of emotionally intelligent leadership in today’s complex world. It’s a guide for any leader who understands that the real work begins when things don’t go as planned.

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The Two Faces of Failure: Eruption and Erosion

A crisis rarely appears out of nowhere. Dr. Harbison presents a compelling framework for understanding how challenges manifest in our personal and professional lives. She explains that failures typically occur in one of two ways:

• Eruption: This is the sudden, dramatic event that shatters the status quo. Think of a major project failure, a sudden market shift, or a public relations disaster. It’s an explosive moment that demands an immediate response.
• Erosion: This is the slow, quiet crumbling of foundations over time. It’s the team culture that degrades due to unresolved conflict, the marriage that drifts apart from neglect, or the gradual loss of market share. Erosion is often more dangerous because it can go unnoticed until the entire structure collapses.

For leaders and teams, the first step in transforming a failure is correctly diagnosing its source. Was this a sudden eruption, or has a slow erosion finally reached its breaking point? As Jason notes, this distinction is crucial because the “issue is not the issue.” Understanding the root cause allows a team to move beyond surface-level fixes and address the fundamental weaknesses in its structure or culture.

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How to Navigate the Storm and Build Resilience

So, you’re in the middle of a crisis. What now? Dr. Harbison rejects clichés like “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” noting that hardship can often leave people more broken if not handled with intention. Instead, she offers a practical roadmap for moving forward.

Growth requires active cultivation, not passive waiting. When you feel like you’ve hit rock bottom, she suggests it’s not the time to look for grand inspiration but to ground yourself in what remains. Ask yourself one powerful question: What is still true? Even in the darkest moments, your core values, key relationships, and innate talents are still there. This is your foundation for rebuilding.

Crucially, this work cannot be done alone. Connection is non-negotiable. Sharing the burden clarifies distorted thinking and provides the support needed to move forward. Sometimes, when you can’t generate hope for yourself, the most powerful thing you can do is borrow hope from others who have walked a similar path. Resilience isn’t about avoiding the fall; it’s about drawing on the right resources—both internal and external—to get back up.

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Leadership in Teams: Be a Human, Not a Hero

In a corporate culture facing turmoil, the team doesn’t need a hero on a white horse; it needs a human being. Dr. Harbison stresses that leaders must resist the urge to jump to solutions or blanket the situation with toxic positivity. True leadership involves creating space for the genuine human experience of loss and struggle.

This requires a high level of emotional intelligence. It starts with expanding your team’s emotional lexicon beyond just “mad, sad, or glad.” When people have the words to describe their experience accurately, you can have more meaningful conversations.

When a team member is struggling, a leader should consider a simple but profound framework before acting:

• Do they need to be heard? (To have their experience validated)
• Do they need to be helped? (To receive advice or resources)
• Do they need to be hugged? (To feel compassion and human connection)

By showing up with authenticity and compassion, leaders can set a temperature that allows for both sorrow and joy, loss and gain. This is the foundation of a truly resilient corporate culture—one that doesn’t just survive crisis but is transformed by it.

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Notable Quotes

“Whatever served you well before a crisis will save your life during and after a crisis. So those good things, I think, are the source of resilience.”

“When you’re in crisis, you do not need heroes… You have to get off the horse, you have to put down the white hat, you have to, like, lay in the ground… show up as a human, not as a hero.”

“I don’t feel hope, but I’m going to borrow hope… You can hold that as a truth without feeling it.”

“You don’t rise to the level of our goals. We fall to the levels of our habits.”

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Questions to Ponder

1. Think about a recent failure or challenge your team has faced. Was it an eruption or the result of a slow erosion? What does that diagnosis tell you about what needs to change?

2. As a leader, is your default response to a struggling team member to hear, help, or hug? How can you become more intentional in choosing the right response?

3. What are the foundational truths—the core values, talents, and relationships—that you can anchor yourself and your team to when the next crisis inevitably hits?

Links and References

Follow @JasonVBarger on social media for even more insights and new video content.

Learn more about Dr. Anne Harbison’s book Never Waste A Crisis available on Amazon.

For more insights and practical tips, be sure to check out Jason V Barger’s book Breathing Oxygen. This book dives deeper into the concepts discussed in this episode and provides additional strategies for fostering a positive mindset and effective leadership.

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By incorporating these practices into your summer routine, you can breathe new life into your personal and professional endeavors. Remember, as Jason says, “The best leaders, teams, and cultures on the planet stimulate progress by recalibrating their thermostat together.”