The Cost of Leadership: Playing Hurt

Self-care is a leadership discipline. If we want to be effective, we must take the time to ensure we are consistently at our best. After all, as leaders others are counting on us!

I have learned to love the game of basketball. My son is a great basketball player. He has a passion for the game. He is intentional about his personal training and acts with consistency towards systematic improvement. One thing I have learned about the game is that when a player gets injured, the game continues.

It is at that moment that coaches and trainers have to do some quick evaluation. Is it a debilitating injury, necessitating being sidelined? Or does it instead require a short break? 

Here is the thing: regardless of the evaluation and ultimate determination, the game goes on.

As leaders, we too can get injured. When we do, there also has to be an evaluation. Does the injury necessitate being sidelined for a period of time, or is a brief period of rest needed? After all, self-care is important. But that doesn’t stop the game.  Sometimes we don’t have a choice - we just have to grind it out and play hurt. 

As leaders, we have to remain tenaciously determined regardless of how we might feel in a particular moment. That is what we signed up for when we accepted the role of leadership.

When we are hurting, sometimes we need a break.  We need a “time-out.”

Sometimes, though, that time out is just something we want to take because we are tired. And there is a big difference between what we need because of an injury and what we want because we are fatigued. 

Regardless of our motivation, the game is going to go on. 

In those moments of evaluation, we have to quickly determine whether the needs of the team outweighs the desire for a breather. As leaders, sometimes we just have to keep going and play.

We need to have systems in place to help regularly recover and recuperate.  Our teams need us to be at our best if we are going to lead effectively.  But when the chips are down and we are in the middle of the game, sometimes we don’t have that luxury.  We have to figure out a way to keep playing. The game is going to keep going and our team needs us. It is one of the costs associated with leading others.