Today I read an article from HBR that stayed that 50% of managers feel burned out. And start talking about how context explain this situation and how organizations needs to pay attention to managers… in any line talks about the responsibility of each manager of taking care of themselves.
In the heart of leadership is self-leadership. Everybody who has worked with me knows my first principle: you will get as a far as your communication skills will take you. Let me share with you what has become my second principle: you can only lead in others what you have led in yourself. Nothing more. Nothing less.
If you can’t manage your stress in a certain situation how can anybody ask you to manage any other stress in the same situation. Ridiculous, isn’t it? This is what we are asking leaders today. This is why today is so important self-management work for anybody who work with people. Essential if you are leading them in any form of leadership.
Do you want to improve the motivation, focus and direction of your team? Start with a self-assessment on how clear you have the strategy and how connected are you to it. It doesn’t have to be your purpose or be your vocation. It just has to make sense.
In a session this week I was working on a one-to-one meeting of my client with the CEO. When asking what his agenda was and what would be success for him, his answer was deepening in the trust and be part of the corporate projects. I asked him for an explanation as this didn’t make sense for me. I was listening to him saying he wasn’t aligned with the corporate strategy in a very particular business moment. How can you be motivated to work in such projects? How can this be your definition of success?
Many times, we have difficulties to connect with our vision and is hard to connect with the company vision and ask why we are not motivated. Stop looking in the company direction and start clarifying your own vision. Most of the time I find brilliant professionals with an outdated personal vision unable to connect with them and with the world.
If you want to finetune your vision as a first step to reduce a potential or real burnout, call me. In your personal journey is the key to learn how you manage your team’s journey.