Tag Archive for: personal development

Elevating Business by Leveraging Your Team

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Hi, and a warm welcome to The Human Side of Business Podcast. I’m your host Ange MacCabe. I’m pleased to introduce you to Jodie Cook, whom is an entrepreneur and writer.

Jodie started her business, a social media agency, in 2011 at the age of 22 and it was acquired in 2021. Along the way she wrote books and articles about the rollercoaster of entrepreneurship, including as a Forbes contributor, to help others with their careers. She was included on Forbes 30 under 30 list of 2017 and, after selling her agency, and published Ten Year Career, which helps readers reimagine business, design their life and fast track their freedom

In this episode Jodie and I examine mindset and how it translates to elevating business and teams.

Leveraging Your Teams Skills

Jodie Cook: So many business owners are very good at doing the doing because they come up with the idea and then they’re like, right, okay, let’s get to work, and then they do it. And a lot of the time, they don’t always do what they should do. They do what they could do. And because they’re very capable people, what they could do is just everything. So you end up doing everything. And then I was creating this limiting belief that it had to be me, because it wouldn’t be right if anyone else were doing it. And what I was doing there was confusing different with wrong, right? They were doing it differently. They weren’t doing it wrong. And so I had to move past that and be like, no, it’s okay. If I want to grow this company, I will have to bring other people in and take on board what they think, their ideas, and what they want to do. And it will take a different direction, but that’s okay because that’s necessary to live the life you want.

Dispelling Limiting Beliefs

Jodie Cook: So, getting over the limiting belief as well. 80% of the task is realizing that you have it, and then you test it. You go, what would happen if I decided to believe something else? Or what would happen if I decided to push this a little and see what happens? They will be wrong versus different ones.

It was like, I’m going to see what they do, and I’m not going to be the person who steps like swoops in to take control or tries to tell them to do something different. And from a leadership perspective, I turned from being a manager to a coach. So when I talked to my team, rather than being instructional, you did this, you did that, it would be, what do you think? Well, what do you think would happen if that happened? Well, what should your next step be?

Well, you’ve done this before. What happened last time? And it was a shift in how I spoke to my team and thought of myself as on a level with everyone. And we were all on the same side, on the same level, working towards the same goal. Rather than me as this boss who had these people working for me, I completely switched that and even changed that language.

So I never use the term employee; I don’t like it. I would always use team member or colleague or partner or associate.

How to Set Objectives and Achieve Goals as a Leader

Jodie Cook: everyone has their success system, which is different for us all. But when you have figured out what it is in one area, you can apply it to other areas in precisely the same way, and it will magically work because it’s your unique system. First, it’s setting the intention. It’s like, okay, what do I want to dWhich is either sell my agency, systemize my agency, write this book, or get this score in a competition, and then after that, it’s, who’s done this before? Or what did someone else do to get this? And in systemizing my business, I read the email because I figured that Michael Gerber had taught people he’s done it himself, and that would be a method that I could learn as well. And then, in selling my business, it was asking other people who sold their agency to tell me what they did. So there’s a kind of education piece, but the education piece can’t be just asking a friend who’s never done it has to be asking someone who has done this before and who knows who’s willing.

Yeah. After that, it’s figuring out what I need to do, and then it’s breaking down what I need to do into probably first monthly things, then weekly things, then daily things, and then putting them in my calendar, as in, like, you are going to do this every single day. When I wrote my book, I was speaking to other authors. It was creating a plan for the book and getting the concept.

But then the actual writing of it was 90 minutes at 07:00 a.m. Every single day for three months. And just having it on a wall chart in front of me where I ticked off each day when I’d done it because that’s just part of the successive system that my brain quite likes.

Facing Difficult Situations Head On

Jodie Cook: When the pandemic hit, I remember thinking, oh my God, because we lost about 25% of our client base in one week. We had clients in hospitality, travel, and events, and they were having a much worse time than us, but it knocked on to us. I remember thinking, “oh my God”, I’ve never known anything like this before. But because I have the training through powerlifting and whatever else, I could take a step back and go, “so this is my first pandemic. What are we going to do here?” and view the problem with distance. So it’s like anything difficult that happens, if you can take away the emotion, you can get into action and analyze it, and then you’ll figure out a much better response to it.

For more leadership insights check out my blog: 3 Ways to Develop an Intentional Approach to Leadership

Link to full podcast episode

How Perfectionism Impacts Performance

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Have you ever wondered the impact of your perfectionism on performance?

I’d like to tell you about my ‘Why’ in becoming so passionate about helping professionals elevate their performance.

The world has a funny way of pushing you into paths. I won a Facebook contest and could choose a 1/2-day group session or a one on one coaching session. I choose the one on one session as I am conditioned for coaching. My intention was to grow from coaching, but I had no idea what I was about to discover. And (know now) subconsciously believed I could breeze through it.

For the coaching session all I needed to do is show up, be honest and vulnerable, discover and choose how I will move forward. EASY I thought.

WRONG! What came out of this session with Ricky Goodall was a flood (I mean literally a flood) of emotion that my perfectionism was a result of feeling like I am not enough. I am not smart enough, experienced enough or brave enough.

Let me back up. Throughout my career I’ve always done well, finding ways to make it to the next corporate step but feeling small along the way. I’d do one of two things: 1) avoid and delegate; or 2) often time take personal time to perfect the report, the program or strategy.

I’d go out of my way to help other leader’s successes instead of focusing on my own success.

After self discovery, and responding to some really hard questions: it boils down to; am I enough and what does that have to do with performance, you ask?

EVERYTHING! Working through my career, I was sarcastic (which many found funny), and wore a corporate veneer while letting others take the limelight because I always told myself it wasn’t important to me. But that was a fib. It was a defense mechanism to navigate through corporate worlds from fabulous bosses to the bosses that shouldn’t be bosses.

It gave me an out from things that may intimidate me or challenge me in a good way.

As an entrepreneur, now, those defense mechanisms are stunting me, come to find out. I’ve read so many books and articles and follow the Gary Vee’s, Simon Serik’s, etc. that you do not have to be perfect but you do have to put yourself out there.

My gap was always things like: someone else has talked about it, someone else is the subject matter expert or someone else says it so much better.

My own realization: You do not have to be perfect and you do not have to be the first to the mark, because no one will say it how you do. Perfectionism and avoidance are red flags sometimes disguised as being too busy.

My defense mechanisms are what drive my passion to help others grow their performance. Now, however, I have a different lens, a developing lens that says I can play ‘big’ AND help others.

I do not have to downplay myself to help lift others. I can sit with them, in their communication language and help them elevate their performance from within.

I’d enjoy sharing more of my learning opportunities with you! Feel free to subscribe to Intuity Performance for more great performance, coaching and facilitation moments!

Contact us for your complimentary consultation.

Navigating Our New Normal

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As we navigate COVID-19 and what our new ‘normal’ will be, there are a few things that come top of mind. Part one of this two blog post series is about our ‘new normal’. Our primary focus is: self-kindness and self-awareness are the roots of managing stressors with positivity.

How we act in response to where we are at with self-kindness and self-awareness can determine our results and outcomes with both professional and personal relationships.

We Are Out of Our Element: Self-Kindness is Key

For some of us, work has stopped completely, or maybe slowed to a ‘work what you can’ from home schedule, to working in a totally changed environment that can be downright scary to some.

Sidebar, thank you to all front line professionals: we see you, we love you, we are grateful for what you are doing for everyone.

In some situations, it is not top of mind that living in this industrial world has conditioned us to have, generally speaking ‘high’ expectations of outcomes and productivity regardless of our environment.

Self-kindness is key more so now than ever before. Self-kindness can take many forms but what I’m talking about is self-kindness first to ourselves. How can we give to our teams, our spouses or our children if we are spinning ourselves?

Now, we must let go of any predetermined notion of what we anticipated accomplishing in the next month, three months, six months and maybe even a year. I am not saying give up on our goals but immediate results and response is the adjustment needed. It’s tough and we are all living it, but just think about how much space and energy we free up for ourselves if we let go of previous expectations of outcomes and all that self-pressure.

These question may be of value in assessing whether realignment with self-kindness is needed:

  • How are my current self-expectations impacting me?
  • Do I have current beliefs of outcomes that are holding me back?
  • What am I doing, right now, to ensure I am kind to myself?

Figuring out how much is in our way or weighing us down is a powerful form of self-kindness and discovery. Minimally, ensuring that we are taken care of through self-care (exercise, sleep, nutritious food and anything else that is a positive change) can allow us to have space for those important things like pivoting, realigning and innovating.

Now is the Time to Elevate our Self-Awareness

Did you know that Emotional Quotient (EQ) is a leading indicator of whether you are a successful leader? Studies have shown that over 87% of leaders who engage with and look to positively impact their teams (servant leaders) have higher levels of EQ and most importantly self-awareness.

So what is self-awareness? In short, self-awareness is the ability to understand in the moment how situations trigger and impact you along with your external responses and how to align your actions with your values. Although many leaders (and individuals) believe they are self-aware only 10-15% studied have been deemed self-aware. Self-awareness is a small proponent but largely important in the grand scheme of emotional intelligence.

Unlike Intelligence Quotient (IQ), EQ can be strengthened, just like focusing on a core group of muscles for strength and endurance.

So how do you start? By doing an EQ assessment(s) for your baseline and looking for candid and honest feedback from individuals you trust. Then you can understand your blind spots and where you want to focus for growth. It is only upon repetition that we can shift our habits and actions.

These questions may be of value:

  • What would you want to discover more about your emotional quotient (EQ)?
  • If you were to discover your EQ how do you think it would impact your professional/personal life?
  • What areas of EQ do you want to learn more about to elevate your professional/personal growth?

Becoming The Master Of Your Inner Voice

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How often does that inner voice pop into your head?

You know the one. It’s always there to provide you with an excuse, self-doubt or anxiety. It shows up when you need it least. Well, I’d like you to meet Barry, my inner voice.

He comes alive when I’m in bed and the alarm goes off. Telling me, I NEED 5 more minutes – like its life and death. He is there when I push my comfort zone. Reminding me of the worst possible outcome, assuring me that it will occur. Nagging me to choose mindless distractions over what I need to do.

Barry can also be encouraging – but only when it comes to working on what’s easy over what’s hard.

That inner voice serves a great purpose, to protect and make us aware of immediate dangers. Although this worked well while living in the wild, the only hazard I’m facing now is when I forget to pick up oat milk for my wife’s morning coffee!

In the world we live in today, that inner voice may be holding you back from reaching your full potential.

Taking the first step

Taking the first step can be difficult, or it can be easy. It’s easy to procrastinate, but hard to get started.

It’s easy to press snooze, but hard to get up and go to the gym. The first step determines which direction you’ll go in – productive or distracted. Fulfilling your goals or procrastinating on them. But there is a way to take back control — a way to override the inner voice that is holding you back from achieving something great.

5 seconds to succeed

You see, Barry is quick to jump to a conclusion, but he’s slow to react. There is a small window of opportunity where I don’t have to negotiate with him. Author Mel Robbins calls this, The 5 Second Rule. In those first 5 seconds, Barry is still hibernating and doesn’t realize what we’re about to do.

Counting down 5… 4 … 3 … 2 … 1 Springing out of bed at the sound of your alarm. Starting that report you know is due tomorrow. Making that sales call you’ve been dreading all week.

Taking action before the inner voice realizes what’s going on. Beating it to the punch before it can make a list of excuses, causing inaction.

Two minutes to greatness

Another technique written about by James Clear is called the two-minute rule. If you’re looking for a boost of motivation for taking on a looming task or project, this is the technique for you. The idea is to focus on the first 2 minutes of any project. Your only goal is to achieve those first two minutes. Anything that happens after is inconsequential. Get a coffee or tea and begin to write an outline.

Pack your gym bag and get in the car. Sit down and begin meditating. The sole purpose is to focus on completing the first two minutes of any task. Who can’t get motivated to complete two-minutes of an activity? I can even convince Barry quite easily to commit to this one.

Once the two-minutes are up, you can stop what you’re doing guilt-free. But by focusing on getting started, you’re more likely to continue. Use the two-minute rule as a source of motivation to overcome your inner voice and take on dreaded tasks or challenges you can’t seem to get started on.

Habit Challenge

It might sound odd, naming your inner voice. But when you own it, you become more aware of it. And through greater awareness, you can begin to slowly change its narrative. Who’s that inner voice that is holding you back? What if you didn’t have to listen to it anymore? What could you accomplish? We’ve seen that the first step is the most difficult, yet the most important. How you decide to act in the face of resistance will influence the steps that follow. Put into practice the

5-second rule and try it out for yourself.

Tomorrow morning as the sound of the alarm count down 5… 4 … 3 … 2 … 1 and jump out of bed without a second thought. Or focus on the first two minutes of any task and hold yourself accountable to only completing those first 120 seconds. You might fail at first, but that’s ok. The key is to focus on progress over perfection and keep practicing until it becomes a habit.

Becoming the master of your inner voice.

How To Design Your Environment For Success

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I’m beginning to realize the lack of control I have over my actions. When I’m with certain friends, I act differently than I would with others. Where I go, will determine what I wear. How I’m feeling, will impact my decision-making. Even the time of day can have an effect on my patience. We have so much less control over our decisions than we think we do. Our behavior is largely influenced by our environment.

If I get a compliment on a new shirt, I’ll be more likely to wear it again. But if I feel out of place, I’ll think twice before putting it on. But that makes sense, right? Past experiences help form future behaviors through trial and error.

When I get a positive reaction, it reinforces behavior and a negative one will deter me from it.

What makes up your environment?

Our environment can be broken down into 5 categories, which influence behavior.

Environment / Example /  Behavior

  • 1. Location / At work / Dress appropriately
  • 2. Time of Day / 9:00 / Drink coffee
  • 3. After event / After eating / Rinse dishes in the sink
  • 4. Social Influence/ With athletic friends/ Eat healthy food
  • 5. Emotional State/ Stressed out/ Eat comfort food

However, our environment is subjective and can trigger a different response for you than it would for me. In the morning, you might drink coffee and I may drink tea. After eating, you might clean your dishes and I’ll leave them on the counter. When stressed, I might binge and you might exercise.

Your environment is the first step in The Habit Loop, which sparks a craving, behavior and then reward. But let’s focus on how you can design your environment to create good habits.

Why is your environment important?

It plays a role not only in your behavior but also on your mood.

Have you ever cleaned your desk and felt a weight lift off your shoulders?

I recently gave away a bunch of stuff in my office and felt more focused. While an otherwise messy desk causes me to feel overwhelmed.

This created a positive association between a clean environment and increased focus. The next time I feel my concentration declining, I might look to clean my environment.

Even better, I may even be proactive in keeping a clean desk to avoid losing focus. And that’s the type of habits we’re looking to create.

How does environment influence behavior?

Your brain is always looking for shortcuts to making decisions. Habits are a great way to make decisions automatic.

Therefore, you can design your environment to cue positive behaviors by reinforcing associations.

For example, how I associate a clean desk with feeling focused. Or when I get into the shower, my brain is cued to wash, and when I take a bath, it’s cued to read and relax.

Over time your mind prepares itself for a specific action primed by a particular environmental cue. However, if you do something different than what was expected, your mind will take notice.

If one day I decide to wash in the bath and read in the shower, my mind will say; “WTF Scott, this isn’t the association we developed!” That’s an extreme example. But the same thing occurs when you take a drink of Coke but find Sprite in your cup instead.

Design your environment for success

You can design your environment to establish certain behaviors. However, it will take time to create new associations. As described, start by creating positive associations within your environment.

This can be as simple as dedicating each location for specific actions – by giving every behavior a home.

  • My computer is for work.
  • Tablet for play.
  • Dinner table for eating.
  • Couch for watching tv or playing video games.

By devoting specific spaces to new habits will help in making them stick. The more environmental cues you use, the stronger the association becomes.

I meditate on the same chair (location), at the same time (time of day), after I shower (after event).

Combining environmental cues helps to make my meditation practice habitual. However, when I used to travel for work, changes in my environment made my habit more difficult. Another example is if you watch TV in bed; you’re creating multiple associations for your bed.

Watch TV and sleep, which can be confusing. Every time you climb into bed you’re brain may be primed for sleep or TV – which are 2 very different associations.

Try and use location cues for similar activities to avoid discrepancies. However, you can also design your environment through other cues.

  • Time – Around 9 am each morning, I drink a cup of coffee.
    After Event – After making a protein shake, I wash my blender right away.
  • Social Influence – When I eat out with healthy friends, I’m more conscious of what I eat.
  • Emotional State – When I feel stressed, I pause and take a few deep breaths to relax.

Habit Challenge

For this week’s habit challenge, design your environment according to the associations you wish to create.

  • 1. Make a list of locations
  • 2. Determine relevant associations for each location (+/-)
  • 3. Design your environment to reinforce positive actions

Here are a few examples of how I’ve re-designed my environment to reinforce good habits.

I keep a water jug in plain sight to encourage drinking.

A book beside my bed as a reminder to read.

Sweets are hidden away in the pantry or fridge and healthy food in front.

I’ve even designated one side of the couch for reading and the other for watching TV!

The goal is to design your environment to make bad habits difficult and good habits easy.

Fostering Community

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At Intuity Performance, we believe in people, community and understand the importance of giving back. Each year Intuity Performance evaluates synergies and selects a charity to partner with, this year we are thrilled to have partnered with Family SOS.

Intuity Performance is the partner that elevates individuals, teams and cultivates an environment for growth through Whole Person Performance. Similarly, Family SOS is a Halifax-based, non-profit, child-centered organization directed toward building strong and healthy families.

Family SOS serves our community by:

  • Increasing parenting confidence
  • Developing relationships within families
  • Fostering self-awareness
  • Improving confidence in children and youth
  • Encouraging prosocial choices
  • Strengthening communication within families
  • Improving health and well-being
  • Empowering self-sustainability

com·mu·ni·ty

/kəˈmyo͞onədē/

noun

  • a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common.
  • A feeling of fellowship with others due to sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals.

Definitions from Oxford Languages

Feeling comradery, “sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals,” translates whether you are an entrepreneur or a family struggling with a problem. A robust community is powerful – together, people can achieve and build amazing things. We are better together.

In our efforts to give back we have created Intuity Branded shirts that will be available for sale. All proceeds will go to support Family SOS and the programs they provide to local families.

If you would like to help support Family SOS, you can purchase an Intuity T-shirt here.

Can Workplace Culture Evolve Through Leadership?

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I’ve interviewed over 80 CEOs in the past 12 months, and often we get on the topic of company culture. I get excited each time. When we ask CEOs to define culture, the range of responses varies with every company, AND many leaders are not aware of what culture means to them specifically.

Some responses include:

  • Teams create culture as a company grows.
  • Culture changes based on values, beliefs and assumptions of the organization’s values, ideas, and assumptions.
  • Culture is built around the goals and objectives of the organization.

The odd time, we get a candid answer – “I don’t know- but we need to figure it out!”

Culture Defined

So what is culture, and why does it matter in the workplace?

Workplace culture is not tangible. The term is thrown around all the time, but it’s not something that you can point to and say, “That’s culture.” Yet, it holds immense value because it is essential to tie together every aspect of your business.

Workplace culture is the beliefs, behaviors, and values shared by employees within an organization. Whether good or bad, working in an organizational culture can significantly affect how people grow professionally and personally.

Based on my experience, I have learned three essential things that contribute to culture shaping which companies can apply to get desired results.

  • Self-awareness allows you to see others more clearly by understanding how beliefs, behaviors, and values shape performance.
  • Curiosity – what drives and motivates the human side of teams
  • Judgment – Ensuring there is enough information to see people without bias.

Here’s what we know about culture:

  • We go after what’s easy – changing company artifacts, behaviors, and metrics is more straightforward.
  • Writing can easily change company artifacts, behaviors, and metrics.
  • Influencing changes in behaviors and metrics can be easily agreed upon by teams.
  • Beliefs, values (our real ones, not those on an internal billboard), and assumptions are much harder to change.

Blind Spots

Organizations can write down and discuss their intentions, but here’s where the realism comes into play. If our beliefs, values, and assumptions aren’t aligned, we do not have an effective organizational culture – despite the matched RRSP and monthly gift cards.

Culture touches on everything – mountains of data tell us that organizational culture hits on performance, decision-making, atmosphere, team approach, structures and even how we communicate.

Regardless of the debate, culture is from the top-down and the bottom up. The profound thing that screams out to me is that culture isn’t as intentional as it should be. I haven’t done the research, but it certainly leans into self-awareness and EI-Q.

It’s something that is moving and growing daily. That demands our attention, especially now in this hybrid working world with new and undiscovered pressures.

We are human first – To answer the questions around “Can culture change with leadership?”. In short, YES! By becoming self-aware and tapping into the human side of organizations, leaders can capitalize on the human (soft) skills that drive performance, decision-making, atmosphere, team approach, and communication in order to drive performance and foster an intentional and effective workplace culture.

3 Ways to Develop an Intentional Approach to Leadership

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What is Intentional Leadership?

Good leaders care about the people they lead. They make sure their teams are clear on goals and objectives and that they are empowered and aligned with the organization’s overall direction.

Intentional leadership is effective in the workplace because it empowers teams with the knowledge and tools they need to meet objectives. When everybody is confident in their role and understands their contribution’s impact on the big picture, it sets leaders and teams up for success.

Why is Intentional Leadership important?

Lack of intention in leadership can cause harm to teams and affect confidence and motivation. Without clear direction, teams can become confused and frustrated, which can negatively impact organizational outcomes.

3 Ways to Develop an Intentional Approach to Leadership + Bonus Leadership Self-awareness Checklist(s)

1. Prioritize Personal-development

We’ve all heard the saying: “Leaders are made, not born.” But what does that mean?

Leadership is a skill, not a talent. It’s one thing to have a natural ability to lead, but empowering yourself through continued learning helps leaders guide and inspire others to show up too.

What does it take to be an effective leader? First and foremost, you must be committed to your own personal development. A leader who knows that there is always more to learn and improve upon will be able to help others grow as well.

Personal-development Checklist:

  • Do you know your leadership style?
  • Do you understand the different leadership styles and how they can be adopted for different scenarios?
  • Are you communicating clearly and effectively
  • Are you a self-aware leader?

2. Build Trust

Leading with intention requires leaders to help their teams discover the answers for themselves. Sometimes as a leader, it’s essential to get out of the way – this may seem hard at first!

You might be worried about losing control over what happens next, but this is where leading with intention comes in: Instead of telling your team what to do, ask them what they think is the best course of action. Encourage them to come up with their own solutions. Don’t make decisions for them—instead, guide them to figure it out independently.

It takes practice to let go of your ideas and suggestions. But when it works, it’s beautiful. Teams feel empowered, which motivates and builds trust because they can see their contributions are valued.

Fostering Trust Checklist:

  • Acknowledging your shortcomings (I’m human too)
  • Having your team’s back
  • Proving space for your team to be heard
  • Being proactive vs. reactive
  • Leaving ego at the door when communicating/collaborating
  • Leading with empathy over judgment

3. Engage and Show Interest

Good leaders know the value of taking an interest in their teams.

Team connection is about more than status reports and delegation. Taking an interest in your team members individually helps you understand their talents, motivations, and goals and can build respect between you and them. Respect is a huge motivator for both parties and can be huge for productivity!

This is especially true for employees who are not just seeking a salary but also fulfillment and job satisfaction.

Fostering Engagement Checklist:

  • Understanding the needs of your team
  • Asking questions/staying curious
  • Carving out time for routine check-in’s with team members
  • Identify/acknowledging your team members working styles
    • Who likes to work fast and requires communication that is direct?
    • Who is more methodical and needs time to understand and plan before starting a task.

On the surface intentional leadership seems simple: It’s creating a plan and effectively communicating it to a team of people to execute. However from the leadership lens intentional leadership is much more nuanced than that. It’s actually a layering of hard and soft skills that require training and development, and well…the intention to do so.

Are you interested in developing your skills to become an intentional/human-centric leader? Check out our Whole Person Leadership Cohort info page to learn more.

Leadership Burnout: Common Symptoms and How to Turn it Around

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What is burnout?

We’ve all been there, feeling mentally or physically exhausted, but what is burnout really? Most of the time, burnout comes from taking on too much at once, like an overwhelming workload. But it can also come from neglecting your self-care (i.e. how much sleep did you get last night?) and being isolated from friends, family and colleagues (remember early pandemic days). Burnout can be tough whether you’re a leader, manager or individual contributor.

If you’re starting to feel run down in life and at work, it’s time for some self-reflection. Slowing down and thinking about what’s bogging you down is the first step toward feeling better. If you aren’t sure if you are experiencing burnout, here are some common symptoms that arise:

Symptoms of Burnout

  • Detachment from colleagues, company engagement opportunities, friends and family
  • Not communicating feelings of failure and self-doubt
  • Loss of motivation leads to increased procrastination and absenteeism.
  • Exhibiting anger or lack of patience towards employees, friends, or family.
  • Showing signs of reduced efficiency.

Life is busy, and it can be so easy to get wrapped up in our daily responsibilities, but I’m sure we have all heard the saying, “You can’t pour from an empty cup’ – this statement couldn’t be more accurate. If you’re feeling burnt out, it can be hard to take action because it can feel like ANOTHER thing to think about on top of your already huge pile, but it’s better to face burnout head-on to find your way back to your best self.

Here are some things to consider when trying to overcome burnout:

How to Overcome Burnout

Practice self-awareness – becoming aware of your thoughts, feelings, and environment and understanding how you react to things can help you step back and allow for space to make more precise, better-informed decisions.

Find your purpose – leaning into what lights you up can lend to your well-being; when we feel like what we do matters, it helps us focus and fulfill objectives.

Practice well-being – most people focus a lot on their careers, but the truth is there is a lot that goes into ensuring we as people are functioning in our optimal state. It’s essential to take the time to get movement into your day, eat nutritious food and get optimal sleep. We can’t expect to show up as our best selves at work if we aren’t taking care of ourselves in the other areas of our lives.

Learn to Prioritize – there isn’t a person on earth who knows and can do everything, so practicing resilience is essential.

  • Break large tasks down into smaller, more manageable parts and assess if items can be delegate
  • Learn to prioritize tasks in order of importance or impact
  • Aim for consistent, not perfect
  • Focus on personal development, and learn new skills that foster growth and improve work-flow.

As individuals, we all experience natural ups and downs in our energy levels. However, incorporating conscious choices into your daily routine can significantly impact your motivation, engagement, creativity, and productivity. By proactively managing your physical, emotional, mental, social, and spiritual well-being, you can create a healthy balance that allows you to perform at your best.

By exhibiting a healthy work-life balance as a leader, you can foster a workplace culture prioritizing mental health and well-being, leading to increased engagement, better productivity, and higher job satisfaction

Take a step back and prioritize your well-being so that you can lead your team to do the same.