Paula Davis JD, MAPP, is the Founder and CEO of the Stress & Resilience Institute. With 15 years of experience, she advises leaders in organizations of all sizes on improving work environments. A globally recognized expert on workplace stress, burnout prevention, and resilience, Paula left her law practice to earn a master’s degree in applied positive psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. She later joined the University of Pennsylvania faculty, teaching resilience skills to soldiers as part of the Army’s Comprehensive Soldier and Family Fitness program.
Paula authored Beating Burnout at Work, focusing on burnout prevention through a team-based approach. Her second book, Lead Well: 5 Mindsets to Engage, Retain, & Inspire Your Team, releases February 4, 2025, outlining essential mindsets for leaders. Both books are “must-reads” by the Next Big Idea Club. Paula has shared her expertise at institutions like Harvard Law School, Wharton School Executive Education, and Princeton. She has received two distinguished teaching awards from the Medical College of Wisconsin.
In an exclusive interview with CXO Outlook Magazine, Paula delves into the five essential leadership mindsets needed to navigate today’s workplace challenges, emphasizing the importance of resilience, well-being, and engagement in high-performing teams. She highlights the connection between burnout prevention and effective leadership, sharing actionable strategies such as the “thank you plus” technique to enhance recognition and motivation. Drawing from her research and personal experiences, she also explores the evolving role of leaders in a post-pandemic world, addressing the impact of uncertainty, generational shifts, and the rise of AI on workplace culture.
Your new book, Lead Well, focuses on five transformative mindsets for leaders. Could you share the inspiration behind these specific mindsets and why they are crucial for today’s leaders?
The mindsets emerged from the work that I have been doing in the areas of burnout prevention and team resilience. In that work, I discovered that leaders and teams kept voicing concerns about similar issues and problems related to team performance and stress. In that sense, creating the framework for the book was easy – the mindsets are meant to address those challenges. In addition, there are also clear macro factors that leaders need to account for today. Those factors are the post-traumatic growth many experienced due to the pandemic (amplifying meaning and purpose seeking), the persistent state of uncertainty (at work and around the world), the emergence of Gen AI (driving a more human-focused approach to leading), and the needs of a multi-generational workforce. Further, it became apparent that leaders don’t have the right skills, tools, or frameworks to address all of this, at this moment in time, and as such often lean on legacy mindsets, one-off well-being programs, or other tactics that don’t really help solve the increased stress, burnout, and disengagement many are experiencing.
Both Lead Well and Beating Burnout at Work emphasize resilience and well-being. How do you see the relationship between these concepts and team performance evolving in the current work environment?
Resilience is essential to the workplace’s well-being and thriving. Resilience is the capacity for an individual, team, leader, or organization to navigate stress, uncertainty, obstacles, and setbacks to not only bounce back but also grow from experience. During the pandemic, workers with higher resilience scores preserved both their well-being and their ability to maintain a certain level of high performance at work. Work continues to present unexpected challenges, complexity, and uncertainty, and it’s changing at a rapid rate. Given all of that, resilience has continued to emerge as one of the skillsets most critical for workplace well-being today.
Your work emphasizes actionable tools and strategies for leaders. What is one “Tiny Noticeable Thing” (TNT) you’ve seen make a significant difference in creating sustainable productivity or team well-being?
One TNT that is a superpower is saying a thank you “plus.” I talk about this TNT in my chapter about prioritizing what I call “sticky” recognition and mattering. Lack of recognition emerged in my work as one of the top sources of burnout and stress for people and teams. The thank you “plus” skill counters that. When you say thank you to someone (peer to peer, leader to direct report, or even up the chain), add one more sentence. That’s the “plus.” Talk about the specific strength or behavior that you saw that led to the good outcome. That plus piece is what makes it sticky. It takes the impact out of the short positive emotion burst (which is what a thank you provides) and into the longer-term feeling of “I belong here and matter,” which is a different level of psychological fuel.
The book draws from extensive research and workshops with thousands of leaders. Could you share a particularly memorable insight or story from these workshops that helped shape the book?
I was asked to speak to a large healthcare organization about taking a more human-centered approach to leadership. My remarks were part of a yearly event this organization hosted to recognize people at all levels who were nominated by their leaders and peers for living the values of the organization. It was a rare instance where I noticed that literally everyone, regardless of job title, really had bought into the values of this organization. Everyone was really walking the talk. The positive energy was palpable, and it made me curious to explore the root causes of such a positive culture.
Leadership books often stem from deeply personal experiences or lessons. What personal or professional moment in your journey inspired you to write Lead Well?
It took me a while to come back and identify it, but I started the book talking about the story of my parents, who took a huge risk in the early 1980’s to start a business. My dad had a stable job, and my brother and I were very young, but he had a great idea and went for it. I realized that he very intentionally created a positive culture (in a tough environment – factory work), and I wanted to learn more about it. My dad’s leadership style actually incorporated many of the mindsets I had identified, and so it was a profound moment for me to connect those dots, and to then have a conversation with my parents about that experience in a way that was different from any of the others I previously had.
As a globally recognized expert on workplace stress and burnout prevention, how do you personally practice resilience and balance while managing your responsibilities?
I try to keep my capacity for resilience as high as I can because running a business, traveling for work, and raising a young daughter creates a lot of stress. For me, I must stay connected with my friends and family. Even though I’m an introvert, I need that outlet to vent, to share, to feel uplifted, and to restore. I also need regular physical movement, usually in the form of running or kickboxing, to drain anxious mindsets. I’m also going to be a coach for my daughter’s school chapter of Girls on the Run, which will help keep me connected to sports, which is a huge stress reliever for me. I live with a lot of stress, so I really try to practice what I preach.
Lastly, what is one piece of advice or encouragement you would offer to leaders who are navigating today’s turbulent workplace dynamics?
It’s really important to know that there are very specific (and simple), evidence-based tools to help you navigate all that I’ve talked about above. You do not have to spend a lot of money or make big shifts in your culture to see some amazing outcomes with your teams. And when you do, you’ll notice that you’re more able to focus on the work that matters to you.