Pulse November 2025 | Page 50

Reset for resilience: Taking stock of your current state as a leader BY LEAH CRUMP

THE END OF THE YEAR IS NOISY. Deadlines, meetings and expectations collide, and many leaders slip into a sprint that feels necessary in the moment but leaves them depleted by January. But resilience doesn’ t mean muscling through. It’ s about rhythm, balance and the courage to pause. This reflection invites you to notice where you are now and make small adjustments that restore steadiness before you step into what’ s next.

Why resets matter When pace goes unchecked, you disconnect from yourself. Focus narrows, decisions feel heavier than they should and the spark that makes your work meaningful starts to fade. You can still deliver, but the cost is high: your patience, your creativity, your presence. Resetting is a practice of self-leadership. And when you take better care of yourself, the ripple is immediate. Your steadiness shifts your work, your relationships and your community.

A spa director admitted she dreaded her weekly strategy meetings. She treated them like a requirement, even though they drained her energy every time. One day she paused long enough to ask whether they were actually working. The answer was obvious. They weren’ t. By cutting the meeting in half and moving routine updates into a weekly email, she reclaimed her time and her focus. Her team picked up on the change right away. What looked like a scheduling edit became a reset of her energy and influence.

And maybe you already know which meeting of yours could be the same— the one that drains you before it begins. What would happen if you trimmed it, just once, and gave that time back to yourself?

Rethinking your calendar Here’ s a challenge: Open your calendar and find one meeting to shorten or reshape this week. Not someday. This week.

Why? Because your calendar is more than logistics. It’ s the architecture of your day, and it quietly dictates how you feel inside it. Could a 60-minute meeting become 45? Could 30 minutes become 20? What’ s truly worth a live conversation, and what could be captured in a thoughtful note? These aren’ t minor edits. They’ re part of a proactive holistic approach to balancing. Each adjustment opens breathing room, giving you space to walk into the next moment with presence instead of pressure.

Consider a brand manager who was drained by constant video calls. He decided to shorten every meeting by 10 minutes and use the extra time for resets. Sometimes it was a quick walk. Sometimes three breaths with his phone set

PULSE n NOVEMBER 2025 36