Melissa
Carson
CEO/Chief Catalyst Officer at Melissa Rider Carson
"From Resilience to Endurance: Building Sustainable Leadership Capacity"
"From Resilience to Endurance: Building Sustainable Leadership Capacity"
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Session: From Resilience to Endurance: Building Sustainable Leadership Capacity
You're one critical decision away from breaking. Leadership burnout isn't weakness—it's the expectations we carry too long. Resilience patches you after you break. Endurance prevents the break.Most leaders are sprinting. But leadership isn't a sprint—it's an endurance sport with no finish line.
This workshop introduces the I-CAN Model for building leadership endurance:
Intend: How do I want to show up today?
Clarify: What actually matters right now?
Align: Where is my energy going versus where it should?
Navigate: How will I adjust when things shift?
Participants will identify their current leadership pace (sprinting, steady, coasting, or crawling) and find their growth edge—the I-CAN element that feels hardest. Through reflection exercises and peer discussion, you'll discover where you're sprinting when you need to pace strategically.
Your exhaustion isn't invisible. Your team feels it. Leadership behaviors are contagious—if burnout spreads, so does balance. We'll explore what your team is learning from your pace right now and what you want them to learn instead. You'll learn to build recovery time before you need it—proactively, not reactively.
This isn't another wellness band-aid. It's a systematic approach to leading in a way you'd be proud to see reflected.
You don't need to bounce back. You need to last.
Key Takeaways
- Endurance > Resilience
- Recognize the warning signs of leadership burnout before they become critical
- Use the I-CAN framework to build sustainable leadership
- Understand that rest is strategy, not weakness
- Lead in a way you'd be proud to see reflected
Bio
Melissa Carson is a leadership strategist and ICF-certified coach who partners with women leaders in tech navigating high-functioning leadership burnout—still performing, still showing up, but starting to run on empty and one decision away from breaking.With 25+ years in executive HR and talent strategy across scaling or large tech companies, Melissa brings both strategic thinking and grounded truth-telling to help leaders cut through the noise, clarify what actually matters, and build the endurance to lead sustainably without sacrificing impact.
She's affiliated with the Delaware Alliance for Nonprofit Advancement (DANA) and previously served on the board of the Philadelphia Society of People and Strategy and YWCA Delaware. Melissa holds an M.A. in Human Resources Management and lives in Delaware, where she's never met a conversation about leadership she didn't want to dive into.
