Why HR Leaders Need Endurance, Not Just Resilience
Speakers
Schedule
Wednesday, November 18, 2026
About This Session
If you’re an HR leader with a team, you’re often playing three roles at once. Melissa Carson looks at it with an endurance sports lens: You’re an athlete, doing the work. You’re the coach of other athletes, developing your team. And you’re the coach’s coach, the person coaching all the other coaches and the one everyone calls when it gets messy. So who’s coaching and supporting you?
Grab a coffee and join Recognize CEO Alex Grande for an honest conversation with Melissa Rider Carson, a strategic advisor and former senior HR leader with more than 20 years combined at Accenture and EPAM. Melissa holds SHRM-SCP and SPHR credentials and is an ICF Professional Certified Coach. They’ll dig into why bouncing back isn’t enough, what an endurance foundation looks like for the people who hold everyone up, and how to make good calls when you’re stretched thin.
We’ll talk about:
⭐️ What each role asks of you, and why carrying all three is challenging
⭐️ Why resilience isn’t the solution and why a focus on endurance is a better strategy
⭐️ The risks of making big decisions when you’re tired, busy, and pulled in every direction, and three questions that can help
⭐️ Why support and recognition can’t all run through you, and what to build instead
⭐️ What to start or stop before 2027 to build up your endurance foundations
Speakers & Hosts
Meet the people leading this session. Full bios and titles are shown below.
CEO and Co-Founder, Recognize
Alex Grande is a web developer with a passion for motivation and human behavior. Alex has spent over a decade engineering the "Human API", using technology to scale the fundamental psychological need for appreciation.
Strategic Advisor
Melissa Rider Carson is a strategic advisor, executive coach, and speaker with 30+ years of experience in leadership, organizational effectiveness, and business strategy. She helps leaders navigate complexity and build organizations that thrive through growth, pressure, and change. Her work focuses on Leadership & Organizational Endurance.