Next Foundation Blog

———

Continuing on with looking at  Scott Eblin’s book. In the first part of the book he talks about how insecure people make lousy leaders…we can all agree with that.

We continue to look at some great practical tips on how to deal with these personal skeletons in our closets. Personally I think this book is worth the investment of your time.

—————

When faced with a challenge, a natural response for many leaders is to bear down and speed up. Having chalked up success after success, they see each new challenge as simply another hurdle to jump over. They believe that all it should take is more of what brought them to that point: smarts and willingness to work harder and do more than the competition. The problem with this approach at the executive level is that it is one new challenge after another.If your immediate response in the face of every new challenge is to bear down and speed up, you will eventually run out of gas and crash. Managing the demands of executive life requires picking up regular renewal of your energy and perspective, and letting go of running flat out until you crash.

The transformative challenge for new executives is to learn to take the regular breaks needed to renew the energy and perspective that enable them to perform at their best. Even brief periods of recovery or downtime can make a huge difference in executive performance. For executives who already feel the pressure to get through yet more work, stepping off the treadmill of working seven days a week seems like a leap of faith. But breaking the cycle of continuous exertion allows some time for recovery and reconnection to how they are at their best.