Blog-> What you are doing is hurting your leadership, so stop!
Read-> If you are too busy for these five things... well… your life might be a little off course
Listen-> Become a better decision-maker
Verse-> 2 Cor 4:16 “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
Video-> What I learned This Week
What You Are Doing Is Hurting Your Leadership, So Stop It!
I am on vacation this week. As we drove to our destination I spent a lot of time thinking about rest, health, and leadership.
Leaders get burned out, frayed at the edges, and overall unhealthy. They often don’t recognize how this can hurt their leadership. They have a “just grind through it” mindset.
To be fair, I think there are occasional times where you will need to grind through a week or two. Maybe there is something above and beyond your regular job duties that is creating this overwhelmed, burned out period.
Something like facility upgrades or making a new hire can add things to your plate that brings an extra burden for a short period of time.
This happens. However, I am talking about the regular rhythms of being burned out, frayed out, and unhealthy that leaders often live in.
You might not be aware of it but you are half the leader you are capable of being when this happens.
Like a car, when your RPM’s get revved up and stay revved up for too long, bad things happen. And sometimes this ‘bad’ thing is so subtle you are fooled into thinking you are ‘good’.
You think you can run really really hard without rest and reflection, the very things that bring health. You are wrong. It will hurt you.
SURVIVORSHIP BIAS
You may not “shipwreck your life’ but it will hurt you. This is the part where you assure yourself that you are ‘okay’ at this pace.
Or where you give an example of one leader who you know who absolutely grinded through years of unhealth and still won.
This is called Survivorship Bias. You point out the one person who got away with it and then hold that up as proof. (You also probably know someone who smoked for 70 years and never even wheezed, let alone got lung cancer.)
There are natural rhythms that are in place daily, weekly, and yearly.
DAILY
At the end of each day, you will need to slow down, reflect and rest. I want to emphasize both the rest and reflection. Sleep is critical. Studies show you are a much worse decision-maker when sleep deprived.
Reflection is critical for health as well. Stop to think and ponder. Put your phone down and just reflect.
Listen to THIS AWESOME one and a half minute message on reflection and learning… so good!
WEEK
At the end of each week, you need an extended time to rest and reflect. Some would call this a sabbath. Call it whatever you want, but find space to do it.
Maybe not a whole day. But carve out several hours.
YEARLY
It is important to get away on an annual basis. Too often, coaches and leaders neglect the first two (Daily and weekly) and think the last one can make up for the neglect. So they take a ten-day vacation to the Caribbean and come back in no better shape than when they left. The rhythms of all three are important.
If an athlete told you they have been working on some skill improvement. You would encourage that but also encourage some strength training and some mental skills training to maximize their potential.
Same thing here. Good job on the 10-day vacation. But now focus on daily and weekly rhythms.
“Come on Travis. Really! I’ll sleep (and reflect) when I’m dead. I’ll be okay.”
WRONG.
You won’t.
You have limits.
Listen to them.
You will be a better coach when you listen to your limits and stop to rest and reflect.
Click Here to subscribe to this newsletter.
