Is Your Resilience a Strategic Asset, or an Invisible Trap?

We are told that a leader’s greatest virtue is the ability to endure. We pride ourselves on being the last to leave and the first to respond. We make 35,000 decisions a day, and we wear our stamina like a badge of honour.

But lately, I’ve been forced to confront the "Alligator" in the room.

Between navigating current geopolitical and economic shifts and a sudden, unexpected family crisis—my wife suffered a serious fall down the stairs resulting in surgery and a long recovery at home—my role has shifted. My "absolute presence" has been required in ways I didn’t plan for. My days have become a marathon of care, coordination, and constant "on-call" leadership.

In my framework, Dysfunction #07 is Exhaustion. I often speak about Wei Jié, the avatar for this struggle. He believes his limitless resilience is his gift to his team. In reality, his depletion is contagious. When we refuse to stop, we don't inspire our teams—we merely manage a culture of collective depletion.

I had to fight my own inner beliefs this week.

There is an external perception—and a very loud internal critic—that says sitting in a deckchair in the middle of a week day is "lazy". That a leader should always be "doing".

But I’ve realised that if I don’t make the Sustainability Decision, I am not leading; I am just surviving.

This photo is my five-minute regeneration. It isn’t laziness. It is stewardship.

Sometimes, the most high-impact leadership decision you can make is to stop. To look at the blue sky and recalibrate. We don’t save our organisations by destroying ourselves; we lead better when we give ourselves permission to breathe.

Whatever your "35,000 decisions" look like today, I hope you find five minutes to fight the guilt and choose regeneration.

Have a restful weekend.

#Leadership #7Dysfunctions #Resilience #Sustainability #ExecutiveHealth #DecisionMaking