It’s a marathon, not a sprint

One of our team members has been carrying lots of responsibility lately and working very hard. He assures me he’s doing okay but I can see he’s taking strain.

In my experience most people are “doing okay” until they are suddenly not. You blink and there is a burnout related resignation on your desk. My job as a leader isn’t just to make sure things get done. It’s also to help people survive the doing!

I don’t have all the answers but I do know the starting point is to cultivate genuine care and concern for your colleagues.

It’s mostly an attitude not a skill. If your attitude shifts you will naturally start to acquire the soft skills required to succeed. But if we don’t actually care, well, then no leadership course or email from HR is going to make a difference.

It’s easy to think about ourselves. And natural to care about getting the work done. But caring about the wellbeing of our colleagues takes a bit of effort and a willingness to approach work as a marathon, not a sprint.

“Pushing really hard is glorified, and for good reason. But there's pushing really hard today, this week, this month. And there's pushing really hard this year, this decade, over a lifetime. The latter gets you far and often requires stopping one rep short on the former.” - Brad Stulberg