#25: The Productivity Pendulum: Why Leaders Struggle and the Rhythm That Restores Balance

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eric:  All right, we are recording

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Neither of those pathways lead to what we're really looking for, endless. Hustle burns us out, disengagement leaves our team stranded, and our vision begins to die. Neither of these  creates the kind of steady leadership or sustainable productivity that our people and the world deserve. Dawn, you and I have heard so many leaders say this, I just can't keep up this pace.

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I'm gonna say it one more time because it's worth. Repeating. The hard truth is when we don't manage our pace. If we don't own our pace, then the pressures of our lives will own it for us and determine how we operate. And you and I talked earlier, Don, about  how this is where we start to find ourselves moving more and more toward a reactive way of engaging life rather than being proactive.

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It never comes. Hmm. So why, here's the question. Why do leaders  keep swinging? Why do we think that? It's like those are our two options. Hustle or exhaustion, pushing or. You know, burnout. Yeah. How, how do we break that cycle? So, as you said that we are looking at productivity over a long haul, not productivity this week or this month.

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How many times have we hung out with friends? Oh, I've been putting 90 hours a week in this. I've been, it's not to say that there aren't times when there's a sprint. When we push  kind of the, the limits of our abilities to to cross a line, to get a breakthrough, to finish a project, we understand that.

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We think the  harder we work, the better the results, and sometimes that is true. So I don't want, I don't wanna rob people of that. Sometimes we do need to put in some hard work. Mm-hmm. But busyness isn't the same as productivity, and it's definitely not the same as leadership. When the pendulum swings too far into hustle, we over-function, we micromanage and we drain ourselves when it swings into disengagement.

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But the costs of that over functioning shows up quickly. Teams either feel the weight of the overdrive, right? We all know leaders who are never satisfied with how much time and effort we are putting in. It's never enough,  or our teams feel the absence of our presence, right? We, we, we've burnt out and now our only option is to disengage.

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We, and we, we just, we worked  so hard and we were able to accomplish great things. Then the team began to grow and grow and grow. Now here's the irony. My wife and I enjoyed the mentorship of the couple that started the company and in our personal lives. They introduced us to this paradigm shift. They said, Hey, listen guys, for you to have a healthy marriage, for you to have healthy physical bodies for you to have healthy sleep, for you to have as, as they pointed toward health.

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eric: and it won't be the last I promise. 'cause they're just amazing. I believe if there was a Garden  of Eden for if you know, you know, that this was the forbidden fruit that nobody was supposed to touch because it's that good.

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The Horta Horticulture. Horticulture, horticulture understands, you know what we're talking about. But it's no different than, you know, when we drive our cars, our cars  require certain intervals of maintenance. Yes. And that might be just getting gas on a regular basis. That might be making, you know, and ensuring the tire pressure's.

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Yeah. And so we're learning this, like the value of like, hey, the input has to match the output. Right. The irony is on  the business side, we would push as a team and in, in our, in our, our, our, my mentor slash boss would say, we're, we're taking this hill. And whatever project it was, it might've been the release of a new book, or it might've been, you know, a, a new, a new service that we were providing for clients.

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And we got to the point where it became a lifestyle of push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, and the adrenaline rush. Of accomplishment, the adrenaline rush of a growing notoriety and reputation within the business. The, the dopamine hits of feeling successful in accomplishment was so strong that it  almost drove us into this mindset that we convinced ourselves that's okay, right?

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Push, push, push. And it ultimately was a, a significant. Factor in the downfall of that organization that like  for like five to seven years, it was like a shooting star. And we all know a shooting star in the distance eventually fizzles out. You don't see it anymore. And that's what happened to our business and it had a dramatic impact.

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But this other side. Is actually creating detrimental realities. And, and, and it, it wasn't until we left that organization once it, you know, it kind of fell apart that we realized, wow, you know what, that  five to seven years of incredible output and breakthrough and accomplishment. The, the big question in mine was, was that worth?

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And, and at the same time, it's really disheartening that those same leaders were.  Like instilling such inc incongruent teachings in their personal life and in how the business played out. But I think probably all of our leaders or all of our listeners can re recognize times in their past where they've worked with leaders who there is no celebration, there is no time of like, we did it.

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But. If we're not careful, it's like if it's like your car analogy, if I don't take the minor inconvenience, if I don't honor the minor rhythm of taking my car in to get the oil changed, stopping to put gas in the car  right in the moment, those are like, God, I really don't have time for this. Yeah, I, man, I wish I could just keep driving to this next event that I'm going to.

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eric: That's  so good. That's so good. It's interesting. I wonder for our listeners if they. Can relate to or even

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Mm-hmm. It's time to pay attention to the input of your  life and does it match and will it sustain the desired output.

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There's a price to be paid. We're either gonna pay it on the front end through healthy  inputs, or we're gonna pay it a bigger price on the back end through significant consequences.

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And sometimes it was my wife, sometimes it was one of my kids. Sometimes it was my doctor, sometimes it was a close friend. Sometimes it was a, you know, a  some person in my life that reflected back to me. Oh. If there's a big consequence because you haven't been paying attention because you have not attended to the necessary inputs, you are now functioning in a way that is unhelpful, even though you think you're just push, push, pushing, and you're gonna get the breakthrough, but you are now reaping particular consequences that could have been avoided.

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So let me do this, let me jump into this paradigm shift that I, I, I've foreshadowed earlier. So here, here's, here's the shift. I'm talking about the answer to  this conversation. The solution is, is not to live in extremes. Mm-hmm. Even though we're tempted to, right. It's the, it's the work hard all week and then crash on the weekends, work hard all week and crash.

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Healthy leadership means  we know how to move between work and rest. Productivity and renewal without getting stuck in either place. And I love the image of that we're about to jump into with this, this tool that we, we call the productivity pendulum.

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Productive and  efficient and effective and impactful in our lives. Right? But it's, but, but there's a direct correlation between the two that the, the output matches the input. Thi this image that the tool, the productivity pendulum, which by the way, for our listeners, you can go back to the first season and listen to a whole episode

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eric: Really powerful thought. We're human beings before we're human  doings.

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eric: I've earned. I've  earned my vacation. I've earned my weekend. I've earned my time on the golf course. I've earned, earned, earned, earned, earned.

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dawn: it. As we've given so many examples of how this is reflected, you know,  different analogies of where we see this in nature in our cars and our personal lives, but what are some of the key indicators? Because we, at Empower, we have some very specific things that we can point to that say, this means I'm resting Well, right rest isn't just crashing.

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I don't think we think of this through the lens of every other area of our life. Mm-hmm. Right. Our time, our energy,  our mental wherewithal, our emotional capacity, all of it is resource that we get to invest. So when, when I, when we think of, you know, the intentionality around swinging to the, the rest side of the pendulum, right?

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Mm-hmm. Like, are we making the appropriate  investments into our person? For me, some of those predictable patterns or disciplines or rhythms or routines is I journal on a regular basis and there are a particular set of reflective questions that I use to help me make sure that I'm investing into who I'm as a human being, staying connected to my core values, the vision and mission of my life.

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Anything requires. Engagement with that view, but we have to identify what are the primary partnerships that we need to make an intentional investment into That will  allow us to swing into all the other areas of our life with greater sense of clarity, energy, and productivity. So for me, that would be my spouse.

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And so in, in order to move away from a reactive. Lifestyle. We have to move toward a proactive, which means we have to slow down to ask the question, what do I want to give  my time and energy to today, this week, this month, this quarter, this year.

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About something that really doesn't have much impact. Or value in your life right now. Yes. Right. And  for some of us that could be, you know, an, an overconsumption of political issues on life. For other people it could be, you know, worrying about you know, some social dynamic that we're dealing with in our country.

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First of all, strategic in nature and that it reflects an appropriate perspective rooted in who we are as human beings. So that's just a quick little idea of,  hey, if these are the things, if these are things that we're paying attention to and we're investing into, there's other things we could talk about, like play and power and all kinds of other things.

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We, we've talked about a lot of stories in our own lives of how we've experienced this. How can  our listeners start to put this into practice? For themselves. How, how do we break that cycle? Some of those really ingrained beliefs that we have about earning rest and hustle culture and, and all of the things that we're battling against with this conversation.

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Right for us as individuals, for us as a team to make sure that we're investing into who we are and what are, what are who, who are the partners that we need to lean into and, and work with and what, let's make sure we have the appropriate perspective so that we can set our priorities so  that, so that we're at least.

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So I would say on a daily basis to simply ask the question. What are my predictable patterns? What are the  rituals or routines that I already engage with? I think we need to take an inventory of our daily rituals and routines. I think we need to do that for our weeks. I think we need to do that for our seasons.

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Now,  again, where do I feel empty or do I feel like I'm lacking? Well, it's probably, you can tie it back to a lack of intentional investments. Mm-hmm. Whether they are, whether there are no investments or there are unhelpful investments. Right, and then we, then we begin to ask the question, okay, how do I recalibrate my daily and weekly or seasonal investment strategies, my routines, my rhythms, my predictable patterns so that I can best.

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Habits or patterns like as we like to say, that's what makes this doable because it's not about feeling like you have to  overhaul your whole calendar. We're not asking you to go to a monastery and do an extended silent retreat. You know, it's about weaving in small patterns of rest that keep you grounded, that then refresh you and send you back out to do.

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That if, if we intentional  that investment, for some of us, if we just sleep for an hour or two, we think, well, I slept, but okay, how do you feel the next day? Like, how's the fuel tank? How, how about at the end of the week if you're doing this over and over and over again? Right. Are you getting the output you want?

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And unfortunately,  I think most people. Are more concerned about their output 'cause of this desire to be more productive and successful. That pressure at the, at the expense of paying attention to our input. And oftentimes don't realize something needs to change until it's too late.

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eric: Yes, can't keep this up.