What Leaders Get Wrong About Resilience in High-Pressure Situations

This exclusive interview with Scott Walker was conducted by Tabish Ali of the Motivational Speakers Agency.

Scott Walker is a globally recognised crisis management speaker whose insights are shaped by more than two decades of frontline experience working with leaders and organisations under extreme pressure. Combining expertise in negotiation, high-stakes decision-making and resilience psychology, he helps executives navigate uncertainty with clarity and confidence.

Scott’s work spans both corporate and crisis environments, from advising on complex negotiations to helping teams build trust, influence and collaboration even when the stakes are highest. His approach blends practical frameworks with psychological insight, giving audiences tools they can apply immediately in business, leadership and life.

In this exclusive interview with the Inspirational Leadership Speakers Agency, Scott Walker shares his perspectives on real resilience, the role of communication in trust-building, and what separates high-performing teams from those that falter under pressure.

Question 1: Drawing from your experiences, what does real resilience look like?

Scott Walker: Wow. Real resilience. So many people will buy a mug or a T-shirt with #resilience on it and think that makes them super resilient. But in my experience, only 20 years doing this now, resilience is built by doing difficult things. It’s being comfortable with being uncomfortable.

It’s doing things that you’d rather not do, but ultimately you know you’re going to become better as a result of going through it. Having debriefed hundreds of hostages when they’ve been released, the ones that came out the other side almost better as a result of their experience developed this thing called post-traumatic growth.

We hear so much about post-traumatic stress, which is indeed a real thing. Yet post-traumatic growth is also a real thing that happens when people take control and take personal responsibility for the meaning they give things, the meaning they give the situation or the circumstances that they find themselves in.

There are some prisoners, some hostages, who are kept in solitary confinement and really poor conditions. Physically, they’re really restricted in what they can and can’t do, but their mindset stays super strong. They realise, actually, I have 100% control over how I interpret this and the meaning I give things.

Now, this is not about naive optimism where the world’s full of unicorns and rainbows and toxic positivity. It’s not that. But nor is it catastrophising and doom and gloom and taking on victimhood.

It’s being able to develop what I call wise optimism, which is essentially hope with its sleeves rolled up. It’s leaders going, “Okay, I’m accepting the reality as I find it, not as I wish it would be, but reality as it is.” I need to accept that. And now, from this place, from a solid, grounded, emotionally regulated place, I can now do something about it.

I can lead people through these challenges and obstacles, and we can see things better than what they are because we can do something about it. So really, that’s what resilience, real resilience, particularly in high-stakes situations, is all about.

Question 2: What role does communication play in preventing a crisis and building trust?

Scott Walker: Communication to prevent a crisis and at the same time building trust goes back to what I was saying a short while ago around it’s not about you. All right, get over it. You already know what you think, feel, and want to do. So how about you spend time finding out what someone else thinks, feels, and wants to do?

It doesn’t mean you’ve got to agree with them. It doesn’t mean you’ve got to condone or acquiesce. But if you can aim to do these things, you will be able to get buying from more people than ever before.

All eight billion of us want the same thing. We all want to feel seen, heard, and understood. If we can do that, and genuinely mean it, because we can all spot it when leaders are just going through the motions, it makes a huge difference.

I’m going to bring more curiosity than assumption to this conversation. Because assumptions are like earplugs. They just get in the way. They amplify our biases and we can miss what’s really going on for you, what’s really important for you.

Even if we disagree on a topic, and you know the way the world is right now with everyone shouting but no one really listening, this is something the world needs in business and in wider life as well.

Even if you don’t have negotiation in your job title, you’re negotiating every single day, whether you realise it or not. Because negotiation is simply a conversation with a purpose.

By taking the time to build trust, to make people feel seen, heard, and understood, we increase our chances of achieving cooperation and collaboration exponentially.

Question 3: What separates high-performing teams from those that crumble under pressure?

Scott Walker: In my experience, the thing that separates high-performing teams from those that crumble under pressure is that high-performing teams do three things.

First of all, they’re willing to take the initiative and a calculated risk. They provide a culture where it’s okay to fail. If you approach something with the right intent and do it for the right reasons, and it goes wrong, it’s treated as a learning exercise rather than a punishment.

People ask themselves, does my boss, does my team leader, does my organisation have my best interests at heart? Or will I be thrown under the bus if I make a genuine mistake?

The second thing is they always seek cooperation and collaboration as much as humanly possible. You can go alone. You can play hardball. You can win the odd deal like that. But businesses want a queue of customers and clients wanting to work with them, and people wanting to join their teams.

That only happens through trust, cooperation, and collaboration for long-term success rather than a win-lose approach.

And finally, the third step is trust. High-performing teams build this culture of trust internally and with their customers and clients. As a customer, I need to trust that you’re going to give me everything I’m expecting and probably more.

So step one, they take initiative and a calculated risk. Step two, they seek collaboration and cooperation. Step three, they take the time and effort to build trust.

Question 4: What’s the biggest misconception about influence and persuasion in both business and high-risk situations?

Scott Walker: In my experience, the biggest misconception around influence and persuasion is that people don’t see it as collaboration or cooperation.

Everyone’s life needs to be better as a direct result of engaging with you. If it’s not, what’s the point?

Whether as an individual or as a business, people need to feel as if this is a collaboration. I’m alongside the customer or the client, as opposed to it being done to me or being a win-lose.

Rather than fighting over a fixed slice of pie, we should be trying to expand the size of the pie as a whole. Regardless of whether it’s everyday business or crisis situations, influence and persuasion comes down to people feeling that this is something we are doing together.

Question 5: What do you hope audiences will take away from your public speeches?

Scott Walker: I hope people take away from my speeches an understanding that to be able to negotiate well and influence others is a meta life skill. It’s applicable to all areas of our life.

It’s simple, yet not easy. If you follow proven steps that have been forged and tested when the stakes can’t get any higher, it will stand you in great stead for challenging conversations and difficult people that you need to navigate and overcome.

Success in business and life comes down to the quality of your conversations. Negotiation is simply a conversation with a purpose. All of us, regardless of our circumstances or situation, are having these conversations all day, every day.