Leadership recovery strategies from endurance athletes

How to maximise your time off and come back fresher

The secret behind successfully competing as an extreme endurance athlete is mental toughness, strategic planning, patience and humility; amongst other things. Sound familiar?

There’s a lot of similarity with leadership. And for many leaders the last two years have indeed felt like the ultramarathon you didn’t sign up for; with a few added sprints thrown in for good measure.

Leading through a pandemic, like an ultramarathon, is not for the faint hearted.

Over the last twenty years, restoration and recovery have had much more scientific attention and become recognised as non-negotiables for endurance athletes. They are now recognised as crucial ways to improve performance and an integral part of an athlete’s routine.

For leaders however, rest and recovery all too often fall into the ‘nice to do’ box rather than absolute ‘critical’.

Proper recovery prevents athletes from injury and burning out. It does the same for leaders too. Typically athletes incorporate two different categories of recovery.

For athletes, both short term and periodic recovery are equally important and are carefully scheduled and protected throughout the year. Is it the same for you and your leadership team?

Here are three inquiry questions to help you reflect:

• What’s your balance between short term and periodic recovery?

• Which do you do well and which do you need to invest in more?

• What could be one simple tweak you could do to find more equilibrium?

Rest and recovery is a business strategy

As in endurance athletics, statistical analysis is starting to show that even in business, recovery is not a luxury.

There’s a very real impact on performance output. When you and your employees feel burned out, performance drops to only 60% of your normal rate. Motivation lowers and engagement falls significantly, to less than 50%.

With burnout rates in the UK having more than doubled in 2021 since lockdown ended, leaders are not immune.

Yet as a leader, how you feel and behave ripples down through your organisation. If you’re on edge, your team will be too, at the very least they’ll sense it. It’s more important than ever that senior leaders act as role models of wellbeing.

So is now a good time?

For many, the pause that the festive period offers is an opportunity for recovery. If you take it. The ideal of course, is that you don’t enter any holiday period feeling burnt out and exhausted. If this happens regularly it’s a strong indicator that something else is going on that needs fixing.

However, acknowledging the roller coaster of 2021, it’s natural for your body and your brains to be feeling less than optimal as you enter this festive period. You may be on the road to recovery, but you’re doubtful all the way there yet.

The slight irony is that leaders often take it for granted that they’ll return to work from their holidays feeling rested. However a survey released this year by the American Psychological Association, shows that stress actually increases during the holiday season for nearly 40% of you. (Typically caused by a lack of time, financial pressure, gift giving and family gatherings.)

With that knowledge, assuming that you’ll get ‘rest' may be naive.

However, if you think ahead, prioritise carefully and identify (small or significant) opportunities to build recovery into your time, you can return to work feeling fresher and more invigorated.

So what do you need to do?

It’s important to remember that rest and recovery look different to everyone. What is restful to one person might actually be stressful for another.

Maybe some consistent deep sleep is what you need or simply spending more time outdoors amidst the downtime; a few long bike rides in the fresh blustery winter air for example. The festive period can be activity filled and for some that in itself can be energising and restorative.

The questions below will help stimulate your thinking about what works for you.

• How would I like to feel when I return to work after the holidays?

• What level of priority do I want to attach to that?

• What have I already committed to that will take me there?

• What activities help me recover most effectively? When do I feel most energised?

• What can I do to incorporate more of them into my time this holiday?

• What could get in the way of that?

• What red flags do I need to pay attention to? And what will I do when I see them?

And three broader questions to consider, at individual or leadership team level:

• What level of priority am I attaching to my recovery right now? Where should it be?

• What would it be like to be a role model for wellbeing to my team?

• What I have already committed to do that will take me there?

You can add to these questions as you feel fit, the idea is it starts to get you thinking about what you want, where you are now and identifying how you’ll get there.

A final reflection

Whatever you put in place to help you, no matter how big or small, a more restorative holiday period can be yours if you choose to make it a conscious priority.

Being a leader throughout the pandemic has been like participating in the ultramarathon you didn’t train for and that you certainly didn’t sign up for. So, like the endurance athlete, rest and recovery is critical.

And as the turbulence of the pandemic continues, grab any opportunity you get, and do what you can to maximise it.

If you’re not sure what you need to do or need some help getting perspective, send a quick note to me at rebecca@rebeccajjackson.com and I’ll help you figure it out. You'll be amazed at how energised you’ll feel to embrace and lead your team in the year ahead.

Thanks for reading this. If you found it thought provoking, please share it with someone you know.

With thanks,

Rebecca