Practicing Self-Care Will Make You A Better Leader

Being a leader is hard…really hard.

As a leader one of your main responsibilities and privileges is to serve, hence the concept of the “servant leader.”

You need to serve your team, your customers, your partners, and your leaders (if you have them).

BUT… there is one group that leaders oftentimes forget to serve, and it is perhaps the most important one.

As a leader you also have to serve YOURSELF! Yes, you have to serve yourself.

I put together a video which talks about this in more detail below.

Please check it out below and if you want more content like this you can subscribe to my Youtube channel.

If you’ve ever been on a plane you’ll recall that during the safety briefing the flight attendants always say that in case of an emergency you should put your own oxygen mask on first before helping others.

Why?

Because if you are incapacitated then you can’t help others. The same idea is true when it comes to leadership.

If you are burned out, disengaged, exhausted, stressed out, or physically sick, then you can’t show up to leader others.

As a leader you need to serve yourself. This means taking care of yourself physically, spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. Do whatever you need to do so that when you show up to work, you are at your best and you are able to guide and lead those around you.

This might mean you eat healthy, exercise, meditate, journal, take time for yourself each day, stop working at a certain time, indulge in one of your hobbies, go to therapy, or do something else that lets you serve yourself.

Whatever it is that you need to do…do it.

Barbara Humpton is the CEO of Siemens U.S. and she is responsible for the lives of over 60,000 employees. One of the ways she practices self-care is by making sure she gets enough sleep each night (around 8 hours!)

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