Anaheim -
Rest and Responsibility. Amid all the stress and fatigue, it is essential to rest. As a leader, it is your responsibility to help your people find time for rest and revitalization, too.
I was honored to speak about leadership to college and university deans and directors here. The need for rest arose in our discussions because people do not do their best work when they are too stressed and fatigued. They make mistakes and misjudgments. Their creativity atrophies. Ultimately, they quit and leave even more work for the colleagues they left behind.
We Americans have difficulty taking time outs, which is foolhardy, short-sighted, and long part of our pseudo-hard-charging theater of productivity. The system feels designed to keep us working and it takes wise leaders to back away occasionally from their endless workload and set the example, when necessary, for their people to do likewise.
Yes, it takes wisdom and self-confidence to insist on rest. The FT Weekend’s “Art of Life” columnist Enuma Okoro wrote about the wisdom of rest in the 8-9 October edition of the newspaper, “We all need rest, not just sleep, but rest that has the possibility to help restore our equilibrium.”
Echoing the reluctance some employers and employees have to understanding the productivity benefits of rest, Okoro added that, “We sometimes have trouble taking the rest we need” and yet “to rest is to act with wisdom and to maintain a long view of our commitments.”
Yes, there are moments when you can - you must - take the long view in creating a climate for people to rest and reset. It’s your responsibility as a leader and as a colleague. Rest and Responsibility. It’s the new R&R.
