How leaders can give themselves the permission to pause
As the ongoing stress of the pandemic forces a breakneck pace of innovation and pivot after pivot, how can exhausted executives create space for people to take a break?
We live in a culture where we are expected to always push through—”just do it” and keep going at all costs.
We also live in an unprecedented time where there is an unprecedented need for people to take a pause. We need the time to replenish our energy in order to perform at the levels that are expected of us in a world that remains somewhat uncertain.
Business executives, in particular, are burned out. When we are burned out, our energy and our inner light will dim and we put ourselves at risk, along with our teams, clients and our company. There is more at stake than just financial gains.
As top executives, we would never think of taking our eye off our company’s performance and our clients’ needs. Please remember to do the same with your mental and physical health.
When we work hard, it feels good and purposeful, but there is a limit to what we can do on a daily basis without taking a pause every now and then. Rachel Goldman, PhD, FTOS at NYU School of Medicine says that right now, “We are at the risk of establishing an overload of chronic stress.”
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