Leading Through Transformation – Reflection

I often say to the leaders and teams I coach, "every strength is a weakness, given the right circumstances."

Quite often, we measure our value by what we produce. What we create. Products. Code. Slides. We stack meetings. Boy…do we stack meetings. When we look back at the day, we feel good when we can see the relationship between our time and our output. The more I created, the more I was of value for the day.

Don't get me wrong, productivity is a wonderful thing. It's just that there's a limit. Inevitably, the more we try to do and the more we try to produce, particularly over an extended duration, the less we actually produce. Of quality anyway.

We talk about self-care and recovery, but we more often celebrate the "grinders" than we do the "resters". This is how our strength of grinding becomes a weakness. When we run from meeting to meeting, we incrementally reduce our ability to focus, to make effective decisions, to produce quality.

When it comes to transformation, the mistake we often make is cramming in as much as we can. Don't just teach your teams the skills they need. Also, teach them how to balance growth with recovery. Studies show that after about 90 minutes, your brain needs 20-minutes or so of inactivity. This could be a walk, a short nap, quiet reflection. When we do this when are far more effective.

When we play the short-game in transformation, we meet our schedule deadlines with a potentially ineffective or over-worked. When we play the long-game, we balance growth and recovery.

Play the long-game.