“You don’t forget that you are a leader. You forget that you are human.” 

Nearly 2000 CEOs resigned last year, a 16% increase from the year before. Though reasons vary, the majority did so because they couldn’t keep going. Something had to change, and the change they made was vocational.

I can guarantee they lost touch with one of three qualities that characterize leaders who end well: the meaning behind what they do, the focus on what they do, and the energy needed to do what they do.

Meaning

You don’t find meaning in your work, you bring meaning to your work. If the role you are in is not an expression of your meaning, you will eventually lose your sense of meaningful work.

Victor Frankl said “Suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning.” That’s why you sacrifice without care when you are working toward a meaningful end; and it’s why just one more meeting that serves no purpose will have you drinking bourbon from your dog bowl.

Meaning is unchanging. You may find various ways to express meaning - you could be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company or the Executive Director of an Animal Shelter and what matters to you will come with you. Whether you are saving money or saving pets, you are a savior. Whether you are mentoring a C-Suite or developing veterinary interns, you are a leader maker.

Meaning gets lost in the swamp of misplaced validation. You allow others to dictate what success is or what strong leadership looks like or how so and so did this and that. Comparison, competition, and adulation suck out the life of your genuine validation: being true to what means the most to you.

Question: No matter where you lead, what is always true of how you lead? Find a noun for it: savior, developer, thinker, teacher, champion, strategist, change agent, etc.

Focus

Meaning is constant; focus is changing. Focus is timebound; meaning is timeless (when your life is done, what meant the most to you means more now to many).

Burned out leaders lost right focus. They lose focus in either their responsibilities or in their seasons.

When it comes to responsibilities, they may have been focused, but on the wrong things, or they were focused on the right things but let it slip.

If you find a leader struggling with strategy, delegation or development, it’s a focus issue.

You experience seasons of leadership: the worker, the warrior, the ruler and the sage. Holding on to a season that has passed, and failing to embrace the season that is coming, leads to loss of focus and frustration. Believe me, you know when you are around a leader who is clinging beyond a season; you won’t want to be around them long. 

Question: What season are you in and how does affect what you focus on?

Energy

You sleep with your super hero cape on. 

Your competence to do a number of things fights against your capacity to get them done.

You fail to preserve margins and the text of your leadership spills over healthy spaces.

You are a high-performance leader who ignores the practices of high-performance athletes: recharge and reset. 

I had more natural energy as a worker and a warrior. The energy drains more easily as a ruler, and comes more slowly as a sage.

I used to be fueled by vision; I have learned to be fueled by meaning.

Fuel is the right word. Leaders run out; they run on fumes. Flame out, burnout, rust out, and either way you are out. All three have loss of energy as the culprit.

“God gave me a horse to ride and a message to deliver. Alas, I have killed the horse and can no longer deliver the message.” Robert Murray M’Shane, before his death at age 29. 

I didn’t realize the value of energy until it became harder to come by. Now I value sleep, nutrition, movement, stillness, hobbies and relationships.

Take in what gives you life in order to be life-giving. 

Unless you serve from a position of strength, you will falter in a place of weakness. 

Dig deep who you are, not just what you do.

Question: What gives you life that you have marginalized?

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