Time Out. Slap the Floor. Take the Shot...The Curious 5 with Rob Clark
“Step Off the Platform”: Resilient Leadership and the Questions That Change Everything
Over the last few months, I’ve been toggling between strategic consulting projects in New Orleans and long, overdue pauses in nature where I chose family time first—from safari adventures in Zambia to sailing the high seas of the West Indies. Every moment was worth it and being present could not have energized me more. Along the way, I’m constantly journaling, asking and listening the patterns one should be paying attention to.
When I began writing for Substack, I wanted to bring visibility to those in my career experiences who best exemplify and share what will help improve teams capabilities, performance and growth. True leaders will insist on opportunities to learn about oneself, continue to pursue personal growth and lead their teams to greater success.
Rob Clark and I attended Duke University together and have spent a LOT of time cheering on Duke basketball and have kept in touch over the years while debating some of these same concepts. .This heart felt conversation with author and resilience expert Rob lit up some of the questions I’ve been holding close in this season of transition, creative problem solving, and recommitment to positive impact in the marketplace. His second book focused on resilience explores lessons from golf and breaks down resilience into more digestible and actionable guidance—but we went much broader in this exchange.
Here are The Curious Five questions (plus a bonus) to reset your lens on leadership, marketing, and building the kind of teams—and lives—that actually hold up when tested.
Fifteen years ago, Rob Clark found himself surrounded by negativity at work and made a quiet but radical commitment: to be a positive force and model of resilience for himself and for others. That decision sparked a decade-long personal and professional journey to study, write, and embody resilience, which led to the creation of The Resilient Worker blog and his first book Everyday Resilience for Everyday Heroes. As he looked back on years of writing, he noticed recurring lessons—especially from his own unlikely evolution in golf, where he overcame his own limiting beliefs and chose to embrace his own growth no matter how frustrated he might have been. We have all been there in sports activity, right? This reframed resilience not as toughness, but as the capacity to improve with effort, feedback, and connection. His new book is a collection of 25 short, punchy lessons—built for the busy reader, beach-ready, and designed to be revisited whenever life throws a curveball. It’s not about mastering golf or life perfectly, but about practicing resilience in small, actionable ways. Rob hopes the book becomes a desk-side companion—simple, relatable, and full of moments that remind people they can bounce back and grow forward.
1. What’s a belief in your career recently that has changed your mind about business growth or leadership?
I used to think authenticity was fixed—you either comfortably practiced it or you didn’t. I also believe now that authenticity is different than resilience. Resilience can be built, one must look for authenticity yourself. But I’ve watched authenticity evolve inside my real teams, led by the right mentor or moment of radical honesty. Authenticity isn’t as simple as “be yourself”—it’s a capability leaders can model and unlock. When someone is even a few degrees off from who they really are, it’s usually visible to others before it's visible to them. It really is a leader's responsibility to get the best out of everyone, and authenticity is one part of that. Probably the biggest thing that I've changed. You know, with my mindset was fixed before, on authenticity, I have an open mindset on it now. Working with others, call it out with compassion in a conversation. Help them come home to themselves.
2. What’s one decision for your business which looks small from the outside, but had a big impact internally?
Accountability. It’s easy to confuse kindness with avoiding hard conversations. One of the most transformational leaders I worked with brought radical honesty—and did it without cruelty. He separated being kind from being nice. That single shift raised our sales, helped people step up instead of shut down, and made me reconsider how I was enabling mediocrity under the guise of empathy. I could see people helping each other out more, rather than less, because of accountability, and that's something I've struggled with as a leader. I generally have a good heart, and so I hadn't separated the two. I don't want to ride this person, you know, about missing a deadline or whatever. It's just ineffective. That little small change on accountability, changed the way we went to market and changed our sales.
3. Where have you learned about your customers or partners—where they want to go and where your product or offering doesn’t quite help yet?
I am in commercial real estate or you are in solar energy, most customers aren’t just trying to buy a product. They’re looking for security. Stability. A little more control in a world that keeps shifting. They’re trying to feel less uncertain. And no matter how good your pitch is, if your offer doesn’t address their core emotional need, it’s noise. You’ll lose the deal, or worse, never even enter the conversation. I always want to help solve their problems and there’s so much uncertainty or unpredictability. So I just haven't been able to break through on solving for that uncertainty, and uncertainty can lead to paralysis, with no decisions made, and that's difficult on both sides. It's difficult for the business and it's difficult for the people trying to sell to that business.
4. How do you separate signal from noise when the data never stops?
We have a program at JLL called Signals—looking for clues that companies might be expanding or shifting space. But this awareness applies everywhere: the best way to separate signal from noise is by asking better honest questions. Not “here’s what I think—do you agree?” but open-ended, curious, generous questions that dig under the surface. Great questions = real insights. The rest is distraction. You really need honest answers, and you'll get the signals you need from that, and you'll realize what is noise.
5. What’s one team-building principle you’ve borrowed from a high-performing group?
Preparation. I’ve been a shoot-from-the-hip kind of leader—good instincts, decent improvisation. But I learned the hard way that discipline around customer engagements—rigorous prep, real agendas, frameworks—makes everything smoother. I borrowed a prep template from a team I admire and never looked back. Especially when you’re not a details person, structure is your friend.
Bonus Question: What’s a favorite meal—or place of rest—that resets you?
I’m a sucker for a proper chicken pot pie. It’s comfort food with consistency and surprise—same soul in a different crust, every time. People make it in different ways. So not all chicken pot pies are created equal. I like variety at the same time. I love the consistency, right? You're going to get the same thing in the middle. It's just comes in a different shell every time.
If I need a reset, I’m heading to the beach. Especially in the off-season. That long walk, cold wind, the wide open horizon—my brain rewires, ideas loosen, and what really matters rises to the top.
Thanks Rob for jumping off the bench and answering our Curious Five questions for this week. I appreciate the insights and time you have invested with my teams to think about how they would discover their own authenticity. We found those sessions, dare I say therapeutic. I look forward to seeing you soon and laughing about our time at Duke and Sigma Phi Epsilon brother events.
I ordered a few copies of Rob’s new book and delivered one in person to a close family friend and golf pro at dinner in Carrboro, NC. Enjoy the book Bobby Neville!
If this resonated, share it with someone running fast and trying to find their footing.
And if you're one of those leaders navigating your next chapter—I’d love to hear your answers to the The Curious 5. Going forward we will feature some of local leaders in New Orleans to celebrate their life lessons and daily presence.
You can order your copy here, enjoy this review From Amazon, "The Resilient Golfer" offers a unique blend of golf wisdom and life lessons that showcase the game as a metaphor for resilience in our personal and professional lives. Through 25 engaging "Links Lessons," Rob Clark shares humorous anecdotes and insightful observations from the golf course that translate into powerful strategies for overcoming adversity, building mental toughness, and achieving success.
From learning to "embrace the danger off the tee" to understanding that "the secret is in the dirt," this book offers practical advice for both golfers and non-golfers alike. It explores themes such as self-belief, perseverance, adaptability, and the importance of maintaining perspective in the face of challenges.
Whether you're a scratch golfer or have never picked up a club, "The Resilient Golfer" will help you develop greater resilience in all areas of life. It's a testament to the power of bouncing back, staying positive, and always moving forward – both on and off the course.
Relax. Swing away. Enjoy the round we call life.
What I’ve Been Reading and Listening To
It’s the “Year of Chenier”, Happy 100th to the King of Zydeco! If the Rolling Stones contribute a track to your tribute album, you know this musician is one of the coolest!
At McIntyre’s Books in Fearrington Village, I found this featured author, Steve Cavanaugh’s Witness 8 for my Summer reading in hard cover. Support your local independent bookstores. They’re the best. I love McIntyre’s because almost every book comes with notes from a staff member why you should read it and they have!
I am jumping back into Anthopic’s AI Fluency Course after having completed a ChatGPT focused intensive online training course this Spring.
An exceptional music journalist and lifelong buddy Craig Havighurst just shared the Table of Contents for his next book.
Still working to better understand the legislation passed last week and its impact on all the climate future progress we had been supporting. Here’s the New York Times evaluation article.
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