February 17, 2026–Washington, D.C. — In a compelling conversation on the podcast Notes on Resilience, Tony Crescenzo, Marine veteran, CEO of Intelligent Waves, and founder of Peak Neuro, delivers a clear message to leaders across industries. Resilience is not a soft skill or employee benefit. It is the infrastructure that keeps the mission alive.

Hosted by Manya Chylinski, Notes on Resilience explores how adversity shapes leadership and culture. In this episode, Crescenzo discusses the pressure tests every organization faces and why the ability to withstand stress determines long-term success.

Additionally, Crescenzo draws a sharp distinction between management and leadership. Management focuses on minimizing deviation from a plan. Leadership inspires people to make a vision real and to own it. Under pressure, that difference becomes decisive.

He outlines practical principles for building resilient teams that perform when stakes are high:

  • Start with the question, “What do you need?”
  • Focus on outcomes rather than style.
  • Make organizational values actionable in daily decisions.

Crescenzo describes values as the attributes of an exemplary colleague. When values are clearly defined and tied directly to performance, rewards, and behavior, they become operational tools rather than abstract ideals. His integrity metric is simple and memorable. It is the distance between what you say and what you do.

By publishing his leadership philosophy and filtering decisions through two lenses, what serves the customer and what serves the employee, Crescenzo has built a culture that reduces fear, accelerates decision-making, and scales trust. When people understand the framework for guiding decisions, ambiguity decreases and performance improves.

For Crescenzo, resilience must be treated like cybersecurity or logistics. If it fails, the mission is compromised. Organizations that invest in resilient leadership systems position themselves to adapt, perform, and lead under sustained pressure.

Tony Crescenzo is the CEO of Intelligent Waves, a leading IT integrator serving the U.S. government, and the founder of Peak Neuro, LLC, an AI-powered, neuroscience-based platform focused on enhancing cognitive resilience and performance.

Notes on Resilience explores how adversity shapes leadership, culture, and growth, offering practical insights into building teams and systems that bend rather than break. For leaders committed to strengthening culture and performance under pressure, this episode offers principles that can be applied immediately. You can listen to the podcast on Apple and BuzzSprout.