How to maintain your leadership mojo when things get busy

Got too much on your plate? Feeling overworked, overwhelmed and stressed out?

You are definitely not alone. In our busy world of multiple demands, at work and at home, life can get hectic. Throw in some work travel, extra commitments outside hours or tight deadlines and we can sometimes push it too far and lose our leadership Mojo.

To make matters worse, we women too often put the needs of everyone else before our own. We say yes to that extra commitment, work our butt off to get things “perfect” and “right” or take care of what needs to be done because no one else seems to doing it.

We put everything and everyone ahead of our own needs.

Doing your best work, remaining productive and focused, keeping your mood and emotions in check; these are all vitally important to any leader. To achieve this we need to feel fresh, energised and on our game….. not stressed out and tired!

My question today is “What are you doing to take care of you?”

What are you doing to allow your brilliant best to shine every day at work, even when things get a little busy?

We all know what we should be doing… but are we doing it?

These are questions I have had to ask of myself more than once over the past couple of months with an increasingly busy schedule involving plenty of interstate travel. Early morning flights, long days of workshop facilitation and living out of a suitcase can really disrupt my regular routines.

Too often, when we get busy, the first thing we drop off the to do list is our self care. But it is exactly these times when maintaining our self care rituals and routines are most important.

Here are my personal rules for maintaining my leadership mojo even when things get busy.

1. Keep moving.

Ok… you don’t need me to tell you that exercise is important. It is important for your health and brain function to maximise productivity, creativity and general mood. No one likes a grump around the office!

With my busy schedule, I like to have options. When the weather is fine there is nothing better than an early morning walk to get me set up for a productive day. But the thing that has made the biggest difference to me this year is a regular Pilates and Yoga practise.

Have you tried CLASSPASS to access thousands of different classes at studios and gyms in your city and around the world? I LOVE it. It gives me choice and flexibility and is perfect for my busy lifestyle

When we get busy it is all about keeping it simple, having options and being ok that doing something is better than doing nothing at all.

2. Quality refuelling.

If you put poor quality fuel in a racing car it doesn’t go well. We are the same. We can’t expect our mind and bodies to perform at their best if we don’t pay them the respect with high quality fuel.

This is about quality whole foods. But of equal importance is keeping hydrated. I had let this one slip over the last couple of months. The easiest solution for this is to always have a water bottle on hand or, my personal favourite of late, a jug of water infused with mint and lemon. Yum!

3. Still the mind.

There is now proof – thanks to recent research – that meditation and the powerful state of “mindfulness” is good for leadership. Not that I need proof. Intuitively I know that when I make time for even 10 minutes of meditation, I feel calmer and my thinking expands allowing ideas to flow, creative solutions to appear and projects to be completed without quite so much effort.

If you are looking to get started with a little guided meditation, I can recommend the Deepak and Oprah 21 day meditation experience.

4. Say NO.

Learn the art of not automatically saying yes to every request. How often have you said yes to something, only to later wonder why you did or, worse still, feel resentful and trapped into doing something you don’t want to do or is not your responsibility? Instead, take you time. Think it through and only commit to those things that are part of your job, of real interest to you or will help you to achieve your career goals.

5. Schedule You time.

Ladies…. I know many of us are hard wired to put others before ourselves. However, if we don’t take care of ourselves, we can all too easily end up feeling depleted, burnt out and exhausted. And when this happens we end up with nothing left to give anyone.