Don’t Burn Yourself Out Being a Hero, and Other Leadership Tips

May 12, 2020 by Kimberly Tallon

Overworking yourself and trying to be a hero during a crisis can bring down your whole team. Practicing mindfulness can help nurture teamwork and collaboration. Creating a mentorship program can help your organization build leadership potential with the resources you already have available.

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Don’t be a hero.

Burning yourself out by trying to be a hero when a crisis hits could get you into serious trouble, warns a new article by the Association for Talent Development.

When you try to run on empty for the sake of your team, you may unknowingly model a behavior that causes others to burn out too. Instead, put your own mask on first. That means setting schedules that help you focus better, making time to chat with loved ones, and getting enough exercise and sleep.

ATD’s other advice for leading in a crisis:

Source: Cognitive Pitfalls Leaders Should Avoid During a Crisis

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Practice mindfulness.

Teamwork and collective intelligence are often needed to help companies tackle complex challenges—especially in times of crisis. But how can organizations nurture these abilities among employees? They can practice mindfulness, says a recent article from Knowledge@Wharton, based on research by Boston Consulting Group and Awaris.

Source: Mindfulness Can Help Unlock Your Company’s Collective Intelligence

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The power of mentorship.

Looking to build leadership potential in your organization but low on resources? Consider creating a mentorship program, says a new article from TLNT.

Here’s how:

Define your goals and share them with your team—and make clear it’s a business priority. If your goal is to foster diversity and build a path to leadership for underrepresented team members, your mentorship program will be structured differently than if your goal is to welcome new hires or build more technical skills. Make sure that mentors and mentees have the full support of your leadership team to invest time and resources into the program.

Pair your mentors and mentees. Identify the rising stars at the junior levels of your organization and set them up with someone more senior who can help them navigate the transition to a leadership role. A particularly effective way is to have mentees list the kinds of skills they most want to learn and mentors provide a list of the skills they’re most comfortable imparting, then presenting mentees with a few options and having them choose. Interpersonal dynamics are important: even if someone looks great on paper, they might not click.

Set expectations and get in sync on a format. How often will the pairs meet, and who will drive the content of each meeting? For instance, pairs might decide on biweekly meetings where the mentee comes in with problems or issues, the mentor gives advice and both share some reflections on progress.

Evaluate performance over time. After your mentorship program has been running for a while, collect data—e.g., promotions, turnover, level of career satisfaction and confidence—and go over it with your team. Are there areas for improvement?

Source: The COVID-19 Crisis Is a Mentorship Opportunity: Here’s How to Take Advantage of It

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