{"id":142,"date":"2023-06-30T18:15:59","date_gmt":"2023-06-30T17:15:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/westpeak.flywheelsites.com\/?p=142"},"modified":"2023-09-12T17:27:20","modified_gmt":"2023-09-12T16:27:20","slug":"suffering-from-leadership-fatigue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewestpeak.com\/en-us\/suffering-from-leadership-fatigue\/","title":{"rendered":"Three tell-tale signs you\u2019re suffering from leadership fatigue"},"content":{"rendered":"

The last few years have been tough, to say the least. At points, you might have questioned how much longer you want to do this for. A sign you are suffering from leadership fatigue.<\/span><\/p>\n

The relentless, never-ending pressure is draining your energy and it\u2019s becoming harder to hide it. It\u2019s affecting you and those around you, and you\u2019re avoiding accountability because you\u2019re overwhelmed enough as it is.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sound familiar? You\u2019re not alone. The C-Suite is under huge pressure to deliver right now.<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019re going through political upheaval, a changing economic climate, the war in Ukraine and the hangovers of the pandemic and Brexit. Retaining employees and keeping up with their new demands is difficult, hiring new people is even harder, and consumer confidence has dropped with the cost-of-living crisis.<\/span><\/p>\n

Adding to that, some of us are working at home and attempting to juggle childcare, while others are desperate to remain in the office and the rest still can\u2019t figure out how to unmute themselves.<\/span><\/p>\n

And it\u2019s you that everyone turns to for the answers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t it a great time to be a leader?<\/span><\/p>\n

In this blog, we\u2019re going to share three tell-tale signs of leadership fatigue that we\u2019ve picked up on from working with some of our clients. See if you can relate to any of them\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

1. You\u2019ve become cynical<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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The sales team are bringing in leads, but nothing will come of them. People can\u2019t be trusted to work at home, more gets done in the office. The intern got your Starbucks order wrong, you knew that would happen. You\u2019d be better off getting rid of everyone and running this business alone. \u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Does that remind you of anyone?<\/span><\/p>\n

Whether it\u2019s you or someone around you, this kind of cynical attitude can often be due to built-up stress. Unless you\u2019ve always been that miserable. But our guess is that your mindset is a result of everything that\u2019s been thrown at you lately.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not easy to put a brave face on in tough times, but you must remember that your team are looking to you for reassurance and guidance. Cynicism has no place in leadership and if you\u2019re dealing with it, you will not be leading effectively.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, what\u2019s the cure? It all starts with you. You need to prioritise a period of self-care. And no, don\u2019t roll your eyes at the idea of face masks and bubble baths. Real self-care is sleep, exercise, getting outdoors. It\u2019s clearing your mind. It\u2019s setting some boundaries. It\u2019s turning notifications off. It\u2019s laughing. It\u2019s doing something selfless. Practising\u00a0self-care is not a weakness<\/a>.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Then, start practising gratitude. Look at all your successes rather than dwelling on your failures and do it with your team around you. If that feels difficult, discuss what\u2019s gone wrong lately but take a positive spin on it and look for the learnings. How will these mistakes or challenges help you do better?<\/span><\/p>\n

If it\u2019s not you that\u2019s the cynical one and you\u2019re dealing with a cynical team member, it\u2019s even more important to nip that in the bud. Cynical people believe nothing can change. They\u2019re stubborn. We all know one!<\/span><\/p>\n

The danger of cynicism is that it\u2019s contagious. And it spreads quickly.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, how can you try and eliminate cynicism within your team? Provide them with new experiences to build curiosity and creativity. Open their eyes to what they can achieve when plunged into the unknown and give them a rare opportunity to strengthen their bond.<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve delivered plenty of offsite experiential events for leadership teams (like\u00a0this one<\/a>), where they benefit from immersive learning out in nature. They\u2019re usually up a mountain or somewhere equally chilly and challenging! Individuals within the teams learn so much about each other, and we learn loads from them, too. They come back with a fresh energy and focus on the future. And sometimes frost bite.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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2. You\u2019ve lost your passion<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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You used to get such a buzz out of work. Where did it go? Where\u2019s that spark gone? You used to feel fulfilled in your role, but it\u2019s feeling less meaningful and you\u2019re losing purpose in your work. You\u2019re bored.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Despite how much you\u2019ll be trying to hide it, your dwindling passion will be blatantly obvious to your team.<\/span><\/p>\n

They\u2019re working for you because they believe in you. They bought into your vision. Your passion was what made them excited to be a part of your team.<\/span><\/p>\n

When you stop leading with passion, you lose the trust and belief of your followers.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s normal to feel less passionate when there are so many difficult challenges being thrown at you. You\u2019re having to spread yourself thinly, meaning you and people within your team are no longer playing to your strengths. By doing that, you\u2019re missing out on having an impact where it matters.<\/span><\/p>\n

Think about where the strengths lie within your team and make sure everyone\u2019s strengths are being utilised in the right places, being aware of their limits, too. Start delegating better.<\/span><\/p>\n

Focus on the things you\u2019re good at, and that passion will start to come alight again. Typically, if you\u2019re good at something, you enjoy it. You get satisfaction from it. Make sure you and everyone in your team are aware of each other\u2019s responsibilities and craft their roles around their strengths to provide more fulfilment in challenging times.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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3. Everything just feels\u2026 average<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cAn average team with average performance. Just about scraping by.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This was a challenge a new client came to us with recently. Have you ever felt \u2018average\u2019?<\/span><\/p>\n

You may have heard of the Jim Collins\u2019 book, Good to Great. In it, Jim examines what it takes for ordinary companies to become great companies.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, if your performance is average, just read the book and bob\u2019s your uncle, you\u2019ve gone from average to great.<\/span><\/p>\n

Joking aside (but definitely read\u00a0the book<\/a>), a quote of his that we believe in says:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLasting transformations from good to great follow a general pattern of build-up, followed by breakthrough.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

That \u2018general pattern of build-up\u2019 is about making small changes rather than focusing on skipping forward to achieve that massive thing. Small, marginal gains that make significant improvements.<\/span><\/p>\n

The theory of marginal gains is something Sir Dave Brailsford, former performance director of British Cycling, applied to his coaching methods. He believed that if you make a 1% improvement in a range of small areas, you\u2019d see enormous results from those cumulative changes.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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If everything\u2019s a bit \u2018meh\u2019 right now, what are some small changes you can make to increase performance? Is there a process that needs looking at? Do some responsibilities need clarifying? Do you need to spend some quality time together as a team?<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t overlook the significance of the smaller steps. It all adds up.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1284,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewestpeak.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewestpeak.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewestpeak.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewestpeak.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewestpeak.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thewestpeak.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewestpeak.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewestpeak.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewestpeak.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewestpeak.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}