I heard a podcast guest say in passing that you “can’t pour from an empty cup.” He meant that your ability to motivate, inspire, help, encourage, listen, strategize with, learn from, teach, engage with, guide, support, advise, serve, counsel, mentor, model, play with, observe, and accept your team is hindered when you are not at your best. The car with no gas doesn’t go far. Leaders have big jobs. Big jobs require big energy expenditure. The trick is having enough of the right kind of energy to expend every day. The open secret that was once ignored is that taking care of yourself benefits your team. No martyrs allowed. Not anymore.
With your teams, don’t get out of the way, do this instead
"Get out of the way!" I often hear some version of this sentiment when talking about building a culture to incentivize high performance teams. "You have to find the right people, equip them, and then get out of the way." People who talk about getting out of the way...