The conversation about AI dominates the workplace and it gets louder every day.
It’s about productivity.
It’s about job loss.
It’s about efficiency.
It’s about speed.
What it’s rarely about is cognitive endurance and the silent pressure leaders are facing with constant change and uncertainty.
For women leaders especially, the pressure is layered. You are expected to be strategic and composed. Decisive and ethical. Technologically fluent and emotionally intelligent. Calm in uncertainty.
And now, unlike past eras of change, there is no clear beginning, middle, and end.
When I spoke with Dr. Marie-Hélène Pelletier , clinical psychologist, executive coach, and author of The Resilience Plan , she reframed the entire AI conversation in one sentence:
“Earlier, we had waves, with a beginning, a middle and an end. Now it feels more like a constant wave.”
This is not just another disruption.
It is a permanent cognitive climate shift.
And resilience, she argues, must evolve accordingly.
The Old Definition of Resilience Is Incomplete
Pelletier is clear:
“The definition of resilience is the same – which is our ability to go through adversity and come out even stronger. It involves a growth mindset and learning; it also includes, in adversity, both acute and chronic demands, which AI represents.”
But what’s changed is the nature of the adversity.
AI introduces:
- Rapid and constant change
- Persistent cognitive demands
- Ethical ambiguity
- Decision acceleration
- Information overload
“What we need to do is to focus more deliberately on being strategic about our resilience. This in part means recognizing the unique and significant demands brought by AI and emerging technologies, including the rapid and constant change and the cognitive demands that this translates into.”
In other words: resilience can no longer be reactive.
It must be designed.
Read the full article on Substack.com
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