Leaders: Here’s How to Make Self-Care a Priority

by Madeline Hester
May 28, 2020

Taking time for yourself is not selfish; it shows you want to be your best self for others.

Self-care has become a much talked-about concept in the current zeitgeist. The outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic and the stress and anxiety it’s caused has forced many of us to reflect on how we spend our time. In quarantine, many people have taken up baking bread, going for long walks, gardening and home renovation. For leaders in tech, however, self-care can feel anathema to the “always on” culture remote work propagates. 

The leaders we spoke with from Colorado tech could not emphasize this idea enough: Make time for yourself. If you’re unable to take care of you, how can you take care of your team?

To that end, the following professionals recommend planning for self-care. It sounds counterintuitive, but scheduling time on your calendar for yoga, meditation, cooking dinner or simply being present with loved ones ensures accountability. 

 

Angelo Caruana
Manager of Talent Acquisition • Sumo Logic

Caruana said mental health is just as important as physical health. Scheduling time to meditate or do yoga ensures he takes time for himself, which helps him present his best self at Sumo Logic, a platform for cloud-native machine data analytics, every day. He recommends connecting with friends and family through phone calls and being present for playtime with kids in order to get the most out of socialization; simply being in the same room doesn’t count. 

 

What does self-care look like for you? 

 For me, self-care is, first and foremost, the realization and acceptance that if I do not take care of “me,” I will not be able to take care of others to the best of my ability, or at all. And care is not just physical. The mind needs care as well and that is often a much more challenging area to care for. Stretching, taking a walk, a fast bike ride, yoga or meditation, or even completing a fun outdoor house project that has been neglected for years might make you feel great. All these activities would help the body and mind. 

But mind care might also include holding an overdue conversation with an elderly relative or spending quality time with your kids. It can be really easy to think, “I’m working at home and near my kids all day, therefore, I’m with them all the time,” but we all know that is not how it works. 

 

How do you ensure you’re making time for self-care throughout the week?

Under the COVID-19 shelter-at-home order, many of us are saving between one and three hours a day of total commute time, never mind the energy drain that it causes. We should all be able to pull from that a chunk of time a minimum of 30 minutes a day to care for ourselves. But it’s easy for time to fly by, every single day, and never get to taking care of ourselves. So, just as with any task to be accomplished successfully, you need to use discipline to get through it. Use care in scheduling time for self-care, stick to that schedule, do not make excuses, and make sure others respectfully understand that such time is yours and it is important. 

 

What’s the most important piece of advice you have for leaders who are feeling burned-out or struggling to make self-care a priority?

If you are feeling burned-out or struggling to make self-care a priority stop and think, “If I get sick or worse, who will care for my children or elderly parents? If I lose my management job, will my replacement take care of my employees as well as I do?” Keeping a positive outlook, being grateful for what we have, and realizing that things will improve can do wonders in preventing burnout.

 

Activities for Self-Care

  • Stretching
  • Taking a walk
  • Biking 
  • Yoga 
  • Meditation 
  • Completing a fun outdoor house project 
  • Eating well
  • Being present
  • Attending the Yale University “Science of Well-Being” course

 

Julie Romanovsky
Director People Operations • GutCheck

For Romanovsky, self-care is about the basics. Exercising and eating well are the foundations that set her up for success at market research firm GutCheck. From there, she makes a conscious effort to be present. Less screen time, blocking off time to focus on work and curating thoughtful responses to co-workers help her prevent burnout.

 

What does self-care look like for you? 

Self-care for me starts with making a conscious effort with basics: eating well, making time to work out in the morning and getting outside with my dog Bear for fresh air and sunshine every day. These basics give me a healthy baseline to begin my day with energy and a positive, clear mind. 

Another example of self-care for me is doing everything in my power to be present. Being present with my family means consciously closing my computer or putting down my phone. I don’t want to look back at the end of the day and realize that I was completely checked out. I don't feel whole when I realize I wasn’t actively present in the events of the day. Being present and focused at work means blocking off focus time throughout the week so that I can be present in meetings. I use the focus time to recharge and to do my best to be thoughtful in my responses to my coworkers. My other self-care trick is getting up early when it’s still quiet in my house and getting a jump-start on the day. 

 

How do you ensure you’re making time for self-care throughout the week?

I am now a proud planner. Everyone is busy, but planning has helped our family reduce the chaos with two working parents and two boys that are busy with school and after-school activities. Planning meals, schedules and expectations before the week begins help manage our busy lives. Communication is huge here as well. If my husband and I communicate ahead of time versus when we are running out the door, we can hit the week head-on as a team.  

Again, self-care at work goes back to the basics: drinking water and tea throughout the day and having healthy snacks available to keep my energy up during back-to-back meetings. I also plan time in the day for email, projects, etc. so that when the priorities are done for the day, I don’t have to go home and catch up on email late into the night. 

 

What’s the most important piece of advice you have for leaders who are feeling burned-out or struggling to make self-care a priority?

You have to put your mask on first. It is difficult to lead others when you are burned-out. Finding the right balance between self-care, work, family and friends can mean different things to different people. Learning to recognize what balance means to you is essential to effective leadership. Your team is watching what you do and if your life is out of whack and you are asking them to take care of themselves, you are sending mixed messages. Again, it is about balance. You need to know when to shut it down for the day and give yourself time to transition from work to home so that you can be present. 

 Set limits and give yourself permission to disconnect. It is OK to have time away on the weekends, at night, or first thing in the morning. Decide where your limits are and stick to them. 

 

Jeanne Leasure
Chief People Officer • Magnite

Leasure oversees global human resources, training, career development, recruiting, and employee experience functions at SpotX. She keeps a regular schedule similar to her pre-COVID-19 schedule in order to maintain a sense of normalcy, however, she carves out extra time to take breaks with her kids. Spending time with loved ones is one of her favorite forms of self-care.

 

What does self-care look like for you? 

These are tough times for many. I’ve had to be really diligent about taking the right steps to stay mentally, physically and spiritually healthy so that I can stay sane and have the energy to help those around me. As much as I want to stay up late binge-watching HGTV, I stick to my pre-COVID schedule. I meditate before bed, get up at my normal time to exercise, eat a healthy breakfast and get dressed for the workday. This has helped to maintain a sense of normalcy. 

In addition, I’ve been attending the Yale University “Science of Well-Being” course to build more productive habits that lead to a happier life. Self-care these days also looks like taking breaks to hang out with my kids during the day and going outside as often as I can, which I wouldn’t normally do working in the office. 

 

How do you ensure you’re making time for self-care throughout the week?

I make time by sticking to a schedule and I say “yes” when one of my kids wants my attention. This whole experience has been an excellent reminder of what’s most important in my life. 

 

What’s the most important piece of advice you have for leaders who are feeling burned-out or struggling to make self-care a priority?

Take a step back to assess where you are, ask for help when you need it, shed the guilt of feeling like you aren’t doing it perfectly, and take time to recharge. 

 

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