You're coaching an executive on self-care and performance. How do you help them find balance?
Executives often juggle intense workloads with personal life, risking burnout. To maintain both health and performance, consider these strategies:
- Encourage routine physical activity, which boosts mental clarity and stress resilience.
- Suggest mindfulness practices, like meditation, to enhance focus and decision-making.
- Advocate for regular 'unplugged' time, ensuring restorative breaks from digital devices.
How do you balance the demands of leadership with self-care? Share your strategies.
You're coaching an executive on self-care and performance. How do you help them find balance?
Executives often juggle intense workloads with personal life, risking burnout. To maintain both health and performance, consider these strategies:
- Encourage routine physical activity, which boosts mental clarity and stress resilience.
- Suggest mindfulness practices, like meditation, to enhance focus and decision-making.
- Advocate for regular 'unplugged' time, ensuring restorative breaks from digital devices.
How do you balance the demands of leadership with self-care? Share your strategies.
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Helping an executive find balance is all about showing them that self-care fuels performance, not the other way around. I start by mapping out their priorities—both personal and professional—and identifying where time is slipping away. Then, we build a realistic routine that integrates quick wins like daily movement, intentional breaks, or mindfulness practices. I remind them that leadership is a marathon, not a sprint, and investing in themselves benefits their team too. It’s about making self-care non-negotiable and showing that balance isn’t a luxury—it’s a strategy for sustained success.
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Setting boundaries. Mine for example is refusing to go up to my home office after I have left, even if it means I am occasionally on my phone.
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En una sesión, un ejecutivo me dijo: “No tengo tiempo para cuidar de mí mismo, mi equipo me necesita siempre”. Le pregunté: “¿Qué tan eficaz puedes ser si te quemas?”. Esa pregunta lo llevó a priorizar su bienestar como base para su rendimiento. ¿Cómo ayudarles a encontrar equilibrio? - Reenfoca prioridades: “¿Qué impacto tendría en tu equipo si estás en tu mejor estado?” - Crea hábitos simples: Establece rutinas diarias pequeñas pero consistentes. - Monitorea el progreso: Evalúa regularmente cómo el cuidado personal mejora su rendimiento. El equilibrio no es un lujo, es una estrategia esencial para liderar con eficacia y sostenibilidad.
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I think step one is to talk about if they feel that they deserve self-care. In my experience executives sometimes think that if I take time to prioritise myself and my well-being - I am being lazy, unreliable and don't take my responsibilities seriously. That is something we need to talk about. We need to spend time on it so that they can see the value in self-care and truly feel that it is ok and actually will make them more productive, not less.
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I've helped several executives on the value of self-care and high performance. All leadership begins with being able to lead your mind. The rest follows once you get that.
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Burnout happens before you realize it when you're juggling an intense workload. You can easily forget to make yourself-care a priority. A good practice is supporting the executive in setting clear boundaries around work hours, especially if they’re prone to overextending. Help them define a “wind-down” routine at the end of each day, allowing time to mentally transition from work to personal life. This daily practice can reinforce a healthier work-life balance, boosting overall performance and well-being.
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It could be useful to start exploring the meaning of "demands of leadership" and "self-care" for the specific person. To find out opinions, beliefs and actions which are limiting the "balance".
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As a coach, I partner with executives to explore what balance means for them personally. Through powerful questions, I help them discover their own definition of success beyond just work metrics. We might explore: "What does an energizing day look like for you?" or "When do you feel most fulfilled?" Rather than prescribing solutions, the coach guides the client to uncover their own insights about their values, boundaries, and priorities. We work together to identify patterns, test new approaches, and measure what works for their unique situation. The key is helping them develop sustainable practices that align with their values, identity, and authentic goals.
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I emphasize to clients that I am a business coach, not a life coach. That said, I let them know that no topic is off the table. In my experience, "self-care" issues usually derive from relationships with spouse and/or kids. This opens up a conversation about values. A value isn't a value unless/until it costs you. If you value family more than career, you will find a way to be home, even if it costs you political capital. The coaching work, then, is becoming more effective in managing, delegating, communicating and saying no to meetings and tasks that are not relevant. And also being more effective as a spouse/parent.
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