Episode 426
Guarding Your Leadership Energy
This episode focuses on the importance of protecting your energy as an essential part of leadership, especially for introverts. It highlights how taking on leadership roles often brings increased visibility, more meetings, and greater decision-making demands, which can be particularly draining for those who thrive in quieter, more focused environments.
To manage this, the episode suggests creating personal systems to safeguard your capacity, such as blocking out time for deep work, leaving space between meetings, and practicing saying no to avoid overcommitment. The importance of honoring your energy as much as any other work commitment is emphasized.
Listeners are encouraged to identify what tasks, people, or situations drain their energy and why, as well as what restores it. Reflecting on physical sensations of stress and the impact on productivity helps in understanding when to step back and create breathing room. The episode wraps up by reminding listeners that effective leadership comes from taking care of one’s own energy first.
Transcript
Hello and welcome to the Traveling Introvert. Today I want to talk about how protecting your energy as a leader, as a human, as an introvert is part of the job, it's part of your career, it's part of your life, it's part of your operating system, it's what you need to do. Because energy is your most valuable leadership resource. And what people find is that the higher up you come in organizations and the more leadership roles you take on, they tend to be also higher visibility roles. So that comes with more meetings, more decision making, more eyes on you, or at least that's how it might feel. And that can be a lot for anyone because you're worried that the slightest thing that you do could be wrong and have major consequences. But this can be especially thought provoking for introverts like myself and you who thrive in deeper and quieter spaces. We don't want to feel like we're on all the time.
Janice Chaka [:And so because of this, we need systems that protect our capacity. And that's something to think about when being a leader. And so what you need to do is create systems that go ahead and protect your energy so you don't feel like you have to be on all the time. Ideally, you would have set yourself up for success by being successful without feeling like you have to be on at all and just be you. But if that is not the case, at least having some strategies so you don't feel that you have to be on all the time and to manage and protect your energy. And that could be anything from blocking out time for deep work to building in space between meetings, saying no more often than not so you are not over committing yourself and making sure that you really think through before saying yes. Even if you don't want to say no to start with, you could say, let me check my calendar and actually check your calendar and see if you have enough breathing room, space and everything else to do that. And what does that look like? Because saying no is going to help you not be stretched too thin.
Janice Chaka [:Your energy and your use of it needs to be honored. And we forget that a lot, but it needs to be honored just as much as a project deadline or a meeting. And so making sure that you sit in that and how that feels and what that looks like for you is really important. So I want you to just think for a minute in the role that you do, or the role that you want to do, or you aspire to, or the business that you currently own, what drains you? What are the tasks, the people, the projects that Drain you? Can you pinpoint why they drain you? Is it chaotic? Is it the other person's energy just doesn't jive with you? What drains your energy and what does that look like? How does that affect other things? Does it make you less productive? Does it make you irritable? Does it mean that you can't concentrate? And then think about what restores your energy? Are there certain people that you love to work with? Is there certain types of tasks that you really enjoy? Maybe it's organizing, maybe it's public speaking, maybe it's something else. What restores you? And the other thing is to think about how your body feels when you have to lead. When you think about, oh, okay, I need to do this thing specifically, what does that look like? What does that feel like? Do you feel it in your gut, in your chest? In your shoulders? Are your shoulders up to your ears? Because you're, you're feeling so anxious about it? What does it feel like in your body? And how can you undo that feeling? And to undo that feeling, how can you build more breathing room into your week? Take a look at your week. Is it chock full of meetings? Do you have to attend all of them? What does that even look like and feel like? Remember, you can only lead from a full cup. So prioritize energy management for yourself before anything else because that's important.
Janice Chaka [:You lead better when you are not overwhelmed. So think how that would feel, what that would look like for you. Thank you for listening. This is Janice at the Career Introvert, helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.
