You’re going to be hearing a lot more about Dr. Taryn Marie Stejskal, especially in this day and age that is characterized by more difficulty than most of us have experienced in our lifetimes. Dr. Taryn Marie has been working with people, and their organizations, for more than 20 years to teach them how to more effectively face adversity. Today, as the unrivaled #1 international expert on resilience, mental health, and well-being, her remarkable journey reflects her commitment to not only understanding, but teaching people how to more effectively confront challenges, adapt to change, and navigate complexity.
As a top-ranking executive coach and the go-to inspirational keynote speaker for all things wellbeing, Dr. Taryn Marie has worked with prestigious companies and universities ranging from Pfizer to Toyota, from Amazon to Kraft Heinz. While these industries are wildly diverse, it turns out that the process of enhancing and even amplifying the mental health, well-being, and resilience for leaders, teams, and the organization as a whole, is not so different. As humans, although we are individuals, there is a need for universal practices to sustain us during difficult times, and this is exactly where Dr. Taryn Marie is the foremost expert on wellbeing and mental health.
Dr. Taryn Marie’s path has been very far from an overnight success story; shaped by two decades of dedicated learning, exhaustive research, and deep self-reflection, she recognized early on that challenges are an integral part of life — not a matter of “if” but “when” we will face difficulty. While many people talk about resilience as something that lives outside of us, Dr. Taryn Marie has a refreshing and innovative perspective: Resilience lives within all of us and is tied to our humanity, it is the essence of being human. If you’re wondering whether resilience can be taught, Dr. Taryn Marie has found that our innate resilience can be enhanced by simply engaging in specific behaviors and practices that are tied to navigating challenges more effectively. Not only are people uplifted by her work, she has has found a tangible return on investment (ROI): On average, for those that participate in her coaching, workshops, and programs, there is a 31% increase in engagement, a 37% increase in sales, and a 41% increase in innovation. When you identify the practices that make a difference and amplify resilience individually and collectively, you can make large-scale impact, Dr. Taryn Marie tells us.
Forget perfection, focus on the power of consistent practice
Long before resilience became a buzzword, Dr. Taryn Marie embarked on a quest to identify commonalities amongst the people that seemed to flourish, even in the face of life’s inevitable obstacles, setbacks, and heartaches. Her pursuit revealed that not only are there common traits people can leverage to effectively face challenges, she also developed the framework known as “The 5 Practices of Highly Resilient People“, the only roadmap of its kind proven to cultivate greater resilience. This framework became the cornerstone of her best-selling book by the same title, rapidly ascending to #1 on the Wall Street Journal’s (WSJ) bestseller list, endorsed by luminaries such as Arianna Huffington, Kathy Ireland, and bestselling business author Daniel Pink.
Dr. Taryn Marie underscores that the term “practice” is purposeful, emphasizing the importance of making progress rather than striving for perfection. Perfect, Dr. Taryn Marie tells us that perfection is a luxury none of us can afford! Drawing from her work interviewing hundreds of people and collecting thousands of pieces of data on how people effectively face challenges, along with examining her own life experiences marked by adversity. Dr. Taryn Marie also draws on her own two decades of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) stemming from a high-school stalker and academic struggles related to undiagnosed dyslexia in her TEDx talk entitled “How Resilience Breaks Us Out of Our Vulnerability Cage”, which has been viewed more than 1.3 million times. By exemplifying resilience in her own life, Dr. Taryn Marie now teaches others to do the same.
No stranger to being a leader in corporate America, Dr. Taryn Marie has held prominent roles, including spearheading Global Leadership Development at Cigna and heading Executive Leadership Development and Talent Strategy at Nike, where she worked alongside the C-Suite, and oversaw the advancement, mobility, and development of the top 400 Vice Presidents in the organization. Although her impact was visible and rewarding, she felt a higher calling beckoning her to share her insights on resilience with a broader audience, to allow those outside of her organization to receive insight on how to effectively face their greatest challenges.
While leaving her dream role at Nike was not an easy decision, in February 2020, Dr. Taryn Marie departed to become the CEO of her own company, the Resilience Leadership Institute (RLI). Just a month later, the COVID-19 pandemic erupted, introducing unprecedented uncertainty and challenges. Once again, she became both a student and a teacher of resilience simultaneously.
Remaining adaptable amidst crisis
The ensuing months were uncertain and unbalancing for the entire global community, and Dr. Taryn Marie recalls this as a particularly grueling time for her as well. All the business deals and plans Dr. Taryn Marie had forged with colleagues to replace her salary prior to leaving Nike literally vanished overnight due to the worldwide pandemic. Without an income or a clue about how to run a business in a global pandemic, her children, ages five and eight at the time, returned home from school, giving her little choice, as a single mom, to juggle homeschooling, caring for her children, and figuring out how to run a company simultaneously. Yet, she had an advantage, too. Based on her years of inquiry, she knew the behaviors that would allow her to create positive outcomes amidst this crisis. She continued exemplifying the practices of resilience she had so carefully studied, demonstrating how to productively persevere when life takes many unexpected turns.
During the unparalleled challenges of the pandemic, Dr. Taryn Marie credits Arianna Huffington with shining a spotlight on resilience by declaring it has her word of the year. Huffington’s apt focus on the power of resilience transformed it from a “nice-to-have” to an imperative for everyone in a world grappling with unforeseen challenges. Dr. Taryn Marie, with her decades of study and practical experience, emerged head and shoulders above the rest as the undisputed expert on resilience, mental health, and well-being. As her work rose to prominence, she’s been profiled by renowned platforms such as Forbes, NBC, Fox, and Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper.
Although Dr. Taryn Marie’s ability to inspire and empower people facing diverse challenges is backed by over two decades of research, her hands-on experience and practical applications as a management consultant, executive, and entrepreneur also sets her apart. She excels in working with leaders and executives, women in business, along with entrepreneurs and founders dealing with significant challenges, unsure of the next step, who often feel isolated, or even embarrassed by their inability to figure it out on their own, who are seeking guidance to navigate their greatest problems.
The transformative power of our resilience stories
Achieving success as a #1 WSJ bestselling author of her book The 5 Practices of Highly Resilient People, Dr. Taryn Marie continues to be on a mission to positively impact the lives of people, and one way to do this is by encouraging others to share their resilience stories. She firmly believes in the transformative power of each of our stories of challenge, change, and complexity, The 3 C’s, to inspire and support others. She is convinced that our greatest healing comes from taking the darkest experiences in our lives, and finding a way to transmute those stories by sharing them in a way that lights someone else’s path. Dr. Taryn Marie is now giving others an opportunity to share their resilience stories through the compilation book she and her team developed entitled ”Triumphs of Transformation”, where thirty authors will share their compelling resilience stories, reminiscent of the beloved “Chicken Soup for the Soul” series, to share the transformative power of story to uplift and shine a light on the paths of all of us facing so much challenge in the midst of darkness.
Her company, RLI, is a tangible manifestation of Dr. Taryn Marie’s vision and dedication to nurturing resilience in leadership and life. It revolves around her belief in the inherent worth and value of individuals, their strengths, skills, and talents, and is committed to helping people recognize these attributes, believe in themselves, and develop resilience to unlock their full potential. The company provides services such as keynote speaking, training and workshops, executive coaching, talent and succession planning, leadership development facilitation, and the signature digital course entitled Flourish. Dr. Taryn Marie and RLI assists individuals and organizations in enhancing their resilience, mental health, and wellbeing with offerings that empower individuals, leaders, teams, and organizations with the tools to address their greatest challenges more effectively.
Today, there is incredible opportunity for individuals and organizations to harness resilience and The 5 Practices of Highly Resilient People to both guard against burnout, the negative impact of stress, and exhaustion, along with amplifying wellbeing and mental health, especially with many companies embracing wellness as a strategic imperative and differentiator to attract, retain, and engage their talent. Dr. Taryn Marie is truly leading the change and serves as a beacon of hope and empowerment for all those seeking to embrace resilience in all aspects of their lives and leadership.
