Tired and overwhelmed.....

This image of ad in the subway in New York says it all - we are constantly bombarded with message to always be achieving more and getting things done......Part two of leadership and wellbeing.Struggles of being a leader in this day and age…..

Tired!! Always on, I just finished coaching a leader who was coaching his team members, and the tiredness in everybody’s face was so obvious it really touched me – we are running, running, running, where to? No break in between meetings, and now that the meetings are online, we don’t even to walk to another meeting room and in that time give ourselves the mental space to reset and reconnect.

Now on Zoom, it is 3.15 to 4.00 and 4.00 to 5 pm, and so on, and sometimes some intelligent leaders and their assistants schedule breaks, but what happens when meetings over-run? As there is space, we allow them to eat into our breaks…..

Would you take your body to the gym for 12 hours straight and be frustrated because it is not working at optimum level the whole time?

Pause and think about this before reading on… you probably think it is a stupid question as it is obvious you wouldn’t do that – unless you are trained for this, as a navy SEAL, or special services, then, it would be possible, but not every day, just on special missions and then you would take many days off to rest the body…..

But how many of us are mentally ON for 12/14 hours a day, expecting our mind to be fully functional and at optimal level without a minute of rest? Do you get frustrated with yourself? Do you chide yourself for not being achieving constantly at high levels? 

I once heard the term “insecure overachievers” and it made me sad. If you don’t take care of yourself and you don’t feel you are good enough, added to unrealistic high standards for yourself, the path to burn out is quite quick, and not only…..I just learnt of a participant in one of my long leadership programs with a company who lost her baby in the 1sttrimester due to job pressure and inhumane working hours – we can say no, I don’t believe there are many leaders out there who would pressure a pregnant woman to work 12/16 hours if she put up her hand and said she couldn’t/wouldn’t do it – I doubt she would get fired for this. 

We often put the company needs before our own, but if we get sick or after 6/8 hours, we are no longer productive, we are actually doing a disservice to the same company we want to give our all to.  When I was regional marketing director, I would kick out my staff that would stay after I left – they were more “useful” to me when they had energy, enough sleep and a balanced life that included work and personal time. 

Other leaders I have spoken to or I am coaching are feeling overwhelmed by the current state of affairs in the world – they feel their energy depleted dealing with people in Russia/Ukraine, or listening to the barrage of bad news. There is a sense of disempowerment and frustration at the inability to do anything about the state of affairs, except having conversations that are motivating and comforting to the people they know who are suffering in their day to day due to a real war; not something many of us can say we have lived through, even though we might act like that if somebody so much as dares to criticise us ;-)

Another struggle mentioned during my interviews relates to leading different generations who have different values around what it means to give their lives to a company, or just a different work ethic which clashes with the expectations of the older generation who believes in giving their best to the company they have chosen to work for.

An interesting challenge arises from the hybrid work situation, in which people who enjoy connecting with people at work, feel there is a loss of connection and real creativity when people are not coming into the office – ask people who choose to work from home, and they will tell you that they are productive and can now get on with their lives in a more balanced manner – taking a yoga class at 11 am, but working until 8 pm – a spoiler, the age group of people who prefer working from the office is higher than those who really appreciate the working from home set up, and would actually change jobs if their companies didn’t give them that flexibility….

So much stuff going on, inside and outside of us, that is impacting our overall wellbeing at a physical, mental, emotional and spiritual (meaning, purpose and values) level, that it is no surprise that despite all the material wellbeing that a lot of us are surrounded by, the levels of real happiness, calm, connection, contentment, joy, peace and satisfaction are at an all time low. 

Stay tuned, in the next article, I will go into wellbeing tips, and will be asking a lot of you very knowledgeable colleagues what wellbeing tips you have to offer…… Stay well, and ask yourself, how can I take care of myself right now?