Your next level growth in leadership requires more rest and less hustle.

When we think of growth and leveling up, this is often attached to more hustle, more work, more energy, more, more, more! What I’ve found through my own personal leadership journey and observing our clients is the opposite. Your growth as a leader is directly correlated to the amount of time you prioritize alone. Allowing you the time and space to breathe, recharge and think clearly.

Let me be honest, hustle is absolutely required but in optimal increments of time. For me, hustle means intention. It doesn’t mean depleted and burnt out, instead it means strategic increases of effort to see substantial growth. You have to put your head down and get to work to see results!

Once you’ve built your foundation, there will come a time where what got you here, will not get you to the next step. Maybe you’re in your hustle mode now and maybe you’re feeling like it’s time to exit and get results in a different way. Either way, remember that everything beautiful in life requires ebb and flow, valleys and peaks and your business or career is no different!

Here are some things I practice in my own business AND teach to my clients that help you put into practice more intentional recharge time.

Time blocking. 

This might seem obvious but do you actually practice this? Do you actually hold to your boundaries and say “no”? The easiest person to cancel on is ourselves, especially when it’s between helping a client or that time. In the long run, those little moments of choosing you will add up to real change. Just like building trust, it's never one moment that makes you trust someone, it's little acts of trust overtime that build it. (1% everyday - habit building!)

So, my visionaries YES prioritize that time, say no with love and grant yourself the gift of mental clarity. I promise everyone will be OK and the world will continue to turn.

Stop being needed.

This ones rough and probably the hardest to put into practice. Codependency by definition is a person who needs to be needed. Which is exactly the environment created when you go into problem solving mode and do not provide your team with the resources to operate independently of you. (love you hustler!!)

Shift this belief of needing to be the company's google search engine of answers into → how can I prepare and empower my team to solve problems independently of me? 

If you’ve ever heard of the self-determination theory you’ll know it means that a person who comes up with their own solution is more likely to remember and implement it, as opposed to someone else's solution. Which is why getting advice from someone when you just want to vent is so irritating. Which brings us to my next tip…

You do not need to be the expert.

Your role as a leader is to support from behind, not lead the charge in the front. Your people are capable, so give yourself some grace from having to know everything. Focus on honing in your communication skills and delegation skills (hellloooo Hugs N Hustle!), asking better questions and providing the resources your team needs to succeed.

There’s so much power in releasing the grip, but it’s not an easy thing to do when you’ve been in the action for so long. This is why getting in continued education and finding a community of people around you to support you is so crucial for success as you grow - a non-negotiable!

Doing those 3 things will help set you up to actually take the time needed to recharge, rest and think clearly. It’s a process, it won’t change overnight and it’s definitely not easy lol. But what in life that’s worth anything is easy, right?

Remember to give yourself grace and space to implement, especially if you’ve been in hustle mode with your team for a long time. It takes time and intention to make or break habits - you’ve got this!