The Resilience Trap: When Grit Masks Organizational Stagnation

TL;DR: Resilience is widely celebrated in business, but too much of it, applied uncritically, can become an excuse for avoiding the real work of change.

Most of us were taught to view resilience as an unquestionable virtue. Many leadership books and performance models center on resilience as the essential ingredient for long-term success.

But what if the very quality we celebrate can quietly become a liability? I.e., when resilience is weaponized as a virtue to delay hard decisions?

In my journey as a leader, advisor, and student of organizations and team dynamics, I’ve seen countless examples where “pushing through” becomes the enemy of progress. Some of the most well-meaning teams I’ve observed were—unknowingly—normalizing dysfunction under the banner of grit.

Resilience is powerful, yes. But when unexamined, it can mask root issues, delay critical change, and slowly corrode team capacity.

Let’s explore.

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Note: This post explores the nuanced tension between resilience and organizational dysfunction. It’s not a critique of grit, but a call to apply it more wisely.

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The Hidden Forms of Dysfunctional Resilience

When resilience becomes misapplied or over-relied on, it tends to show up in a few predictable (and quietly corrosive) patterns:

⚠️ The Heroic Workaround

Teams pride themselves on adapting to broken systems instead of fixing them. “We always find a way” becomes a badge of honor—and a blind spot.

⚠️ The Martyr Complex

Individuals absorb the dysfunction by over-functioning. Their loyalty and grit enable leadership gaps to remain unaddressed.

⚠️ The Gradual Decline (a.k.a., The Boiling Frog)

Organizations adapt incrementally to poor conditions. Each shift feels minor, but cumulatively, they've accepted mediocrity as the norm.

⚠️ The Performance Paradox

High achievers deliver results despite, rather than because of, the system. Their success becomes a shield, protecting broken processes from scrutiny.

These are not signs of health. They’re warning lights disguised as wins. They’re symptoms of quiet organizational erosion: hard to detect, harder to reverse.

Equally important, these risks aren’t just cultural: they’re physical.

A study published in PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) explored a phenomenon called “skin-deep resilience.” The researchers followed adolescents from disadvantaged backgrounds who succeeded academically, displaying what society would celebrate as exceptional grit.

But biologically, they showed signs of wear:

• Elevated inflammation and stress hormones

• Higher blood pressure

• Accelerated cellular aging

These students were succeeding, but at a cost. Their bodies were silently absorbing the strain.

Now imagine the corporate equivalent:

• The team that hits every launch date, but runs on caffeine, Slack/Teams messages at 11 PM, and emotional suppression

• The leader who says, “It’s fine,” when it’s not

• The culture that rewards endurance over evolution

In short, resilience becomes unsustainable when it props up dysfunction.

While the patterns above may look familiar, what separates resilient teams that grow from those that burn out? Intentional leadership a few practical tools.

👉🏽 The rest of this article is available to paid subscribers. It includes the diagnostic rubric and action strategies I use with high-performing teams, plus a sneak peek at one of the central themes from my next book on Adaptive Leadership.