leader you were born for this but somewhere between the toxic leaders broken systems and workplace trauma you forgot why you said yes to leadership this show is your invitation to descend to anchor to find the stillness beneath the noise so you can ascend back to your team with clarity conviction and renewed purpose I'm Dr. Denise Simpson, and I will guide you through five principles that restore your wholeness and call you back to your original assignment. Join me now so we can go deeper. It's time to find your way back. We're back. Welcome back, friends, leaders. So happy you are here wherever you're joining me from, whether you're watching on YouTube, LinkedIn, or Facebook on my business page and my personal profile. Welcome. So happy you're here. We're starting season four. And the overarching question that brought us to season four is, can you be an effective leader without sacrificing your soul? That's been my guiding question for the last few months as I am evolving in my leadership practice. evolving in my personal life, evolving in my business, things are stirring up. The soul is stirring up. The soul is asking very specific questions. And one of those questions that keeps rising to the surface after deep contemplation is, can you be an effective leader without sacrificing your soul, without destroying yourself? And that is the guiding question that will lead us into the series, these next seven, including today, seven episodes on being effective, being fully integrated, and not destroying ourselves in the process. That's what's guiding the conversation. And so because of that question, today's conversation is specifically about burnout. Why good leaders fragment? And that's the crisis that's hiding behind burnout. So again, that guiding question, can we be an effective leader without sacrificing our souls, destroying ourselves in the process? Well, in asking this question, the research has led me and now down this rabbit hole of, well, why are good leaders fragmenting? Why are good leaders like you and I burning out? What is the source, the reason, the root cause of burnout? Because burnout's everywhere. Burnout, I mean, open up Harvard Business Review. The first articles that you see are on burnout, leader burnout. Why are leaders quitting? Why is this workforce leaving so quickly? What is happening in regards to burnout. And so the question, can you be an effective leader without sacrificing your soul, was a natural segue into, well, is that possible? And what are those things that are keeping us from showing up in our full, whole, integrated, powerful selves? Oh, it's a thing called burnout. Okay. So then let's have a conversation about that. And that is going to be today's episode. again, why good leaders fragment the crisis behind burnout. And for those of you who are listening to this on Spotify or on Apple, I'm going live, by the way. I'm live, live. I'm live in the flesh, in color, right here on all of my social platforms. So comment right now live with me and I will pop your comment on the screen. But if you're listening to this after the fact, know that my intent, and it's a strong one, is to be with you live at various times during the next six weeks for sure. Could be Thursday morning like today, could be a Monday morning, could be a Tuesday night, could be a Wednesday afternoon. But the intent is to be with you live so that we can connect on these topics, have these conversations together. I'm not in a silo. I'm not doing this work alone. I have a group of leaders that I support, clients that I support, students that I support. And this is just another great opportunity for me to connect with those who have been listening to the podcast before. who have been following for a while, this is an opportunity for us to connect right here, right now. So if you're an audio listener and you want to pop into a live recording of the podcast, you're going to want to follow me on LinkedIn or YouTube or Facebook or wherever you're watching this or listening to this right now. So again, why good leaders fragment the crisis behind burnout. What a great opening to the season, this season, season four, because so many of us are coming to the table feeling exhausted, feeling burnt out, feeling like they don't belong in this organization anymore, feeling like they're not enough, feeling like they're constantly performing. How many of you are showing up either in your business or in your nonprofit or in your organization exhausted? Like sleep is not working. It's a chronic, this humming, a chronic humming. It's just like a murmur. It's like this undercurrent. And then we show up in the organization and we are exhausted, although we slept eight hours. So what's the problem? Well, it's the emotional exhaustion, the mental exhaustion, the mental rumination. It's all the things that we weren't taught about leadership, that we weren't shown how to cope with these high demanding roles. There's sometimes not enough recovery between campaigns, between projects, between seasons. And we are running on this constant fuel because that's what leadership is. Leadership is a high intensity demanding role. Like nobody's arguing that. Leaders know these are high, intense, intense roles. Like you raised your hand and said, I'm going to step in and I'm going to get into this pipeline of leadership one way or another, supervisor, coordinator, you know, manager. There you are, director. And you said, yeah, put me in. I got this. Why? Because you saw all the other leaders. doing the injustice, the unfairness, the moral integrity, compromising behaviors, there you were saying, no, put me in. I got this. I'm a good leader. I come from this collective. I come from this follower group. And now I can lead this collective. So you raised your hand. So you got in. And then you got in and then realize, oh, wait a minute, hold on. I knew this was high demanding, intense role, but now I hate myself and I hate my team and I hate my life and I hate what I've created. So what's the problem? Well, the problem is we were sold a bad bill of goods. You're stepping into leadership in very interesting times, number one. Number two, you're You're stepping into structures, these interesting systems that were put in place way before you and I were leaders or raised our hands and got ourselves into the pipeline. There were systems already in place that are toxic, that are damaging, that focused on performance and profits over people and progress. right? They were focused on perfectionism instead of progression, right? So here we are leading in these toxic systems. And then we wonder why we're exhausted and there's chronic stress. And we question everything about ourselves because of these leadership circumstances. And so again, that overarching question that's going to drive every single episode in this season, season four, is can you be an effective leader without sacrificing your soul? I think that's a really important question to ask yourself right now. Because I love my work. I love to lead my people. Sometimes I hate this organization, but overall I'm doing good in this organization. And I don't want to leave because of the burnout. Is there a different way to do this? Is there a different way to see burnout? Is there a different perspective on burnout that I haven't heard before? Because again, you open up Harvard Business Review, you open up McKinsey or any of those incredible consulting companies, and they're plastered on their website, plastered on their articles, burn out. What's happening with the burnout? Well, my goodness, how do we solve this problem? Because all of these well-intended knowledge tanks are sharing with you and regurgitating with you, to you, the studies. They're general studies. Sometimes they're so niche. It's like a sub, sub, sub, sub, sub group of a sub, sub, sub, sub population. And you're like, well, does that apply to me? And how can you help me understand this information? But more importantly, how can I resolve this burnout? And so we do a disservice to our people when we regurgitate these studies and then we use it in this blanket, generalized way for all of us leaders out here. Well, there's nuances to your leadership. I know there's nuances to mine. And so I want to take that information, but more importantly, I want to take it a few layers deeper so that I can better understand how to solve the root cause. Because you're telling me about all the symptoms, right? Like when you go see a doctor, you're like, I have a headache and I have a cold and I, you know, I'm trembling at night and I think I may have a fever. Like I've got these symptoms. And then the doctor's like, well, let's do some tests, some diagnostic testing, because the symptoms that you're experiencing may not be the same, maybe the same as the person next to you, but the root cause of, of what's happening in their body may be very different than you. So let's do some diagnostic testing on you, individual leader. And that's what we're going to achieve today on today's very first season opener, season four episode on why good leaders fragment and the crisis behind burnout. So the intent is when you walk away today, you're going to deeply understand what this word fragment means, why you are fragmented, why burnout literature, burnout research is not supporting us at all. It's giving us information, but it's time now to integrate. And what we do as fragmented leaders is we step back and we anchor ourselves into some very powerful guiding principles so that we can then reemerge. We can ascend back to our teams fully integrated and whole. Because you're saying, I don't want to leave this role. Like for me to go look for another job is going to take so much more effort and energy and focus. And I've been here for the last seven years and I don't want to go anywhere. I'm upset. I don't like my people sometimes, you know, there's, there's these sleepless nights, there's these mental ruminations, these loops that I go into. And, you know, I'm, I'm, I know what burnout feels like, but I want to do something about it. And this is the episode for you so that we can do something about it together. So welcome, my friends. If you're watching, there is a way for you to comment. We're on StreamYard. That is the platform I use to do these lives and even to record the podcast. But we're live, live. We're live, live today. Okay? We're live. I'm here. So in the comments, say, let me know you're here. Let me know you are watching, where you're watching from. Okay? and if and if this is more importantly resonating with where you are right now in leadership and so for those of you who don't know me i'm denise simpson it's what an honor to be here with you all today like i am so honored to be able to put this on my calendar to do a live live podcast recording i know i keep stressing the word live Because those of you who are seasoned followers, you know I record the episode two to three days before publishing. And this is something I used to do and loved doing. And now I'd like to return to doing this because I think it brings us... It brings a layer of intimacy in these podcast episodes. You get to communicate with me right here live, and I get to also talk to you through this screen. so welcome to the dr denise simpson podcast like i said i'm denise simpson and over the next seven episodes including today we're gonna we're gonna talk about some interesting leadership conversations conversations that are not being had right now in corporate america or around the world And so we're not going to talk about burnout tips. I'm not going to talk to you about biohacks or productivity hacks. Not today. Today is not what we're going to do. We're going to go much deeper. We're going to talk about what's actually happening to good leaders like us out here in our various and respected industries and levels of leadership. And it's called fragmentation. Fragmentation, at least from what I've seen, is not used in this context of leadership. It's not division. It's not being divided. It is fragmented. It means breaking off into pieces. And I want to talk a little bit about that and how I experienced that over twenty years ago. The burnout, the chronic stress, the cortisol hijacking my body, the incredible fatigue in my body. There were, you know, these phantom symptoms in my body. I didn't know what was going on. But all were directly related to the burnout and the chronic stress that I was experiencing in my mid-twenties. leadership was not talking about burnout then. Nobody was talking about burnout like we do now. And how wonderful though, how wonderful that we now have language for what we were experiencing then. And so what I experienced was very interesting. I was Sometimes I had about eighty faculty and staff and we served over three thousand students across three different counties. It was an incredible program. I was only twenty five years old. I was coming from the retail world. I was a nineteen year old bath and body work store manager for many years. led big teams, led big campaigns, led one of the highest producing, highly visible store in San Antonio. And I was young and had so much excitement and ambition for leading my people. And retail was so much fun. It was so flexible for me. And I loved meeting my customers. And I had such a great time and I excelled. It was a great time. uh for me and while i was doing that full time i was going to school and and doing all the things that you know we were told we needed to do get your undergrad then go to graduate school and all that so by the time i hit i said okay i need to return home because my mother is suffering from alzheimer's and i need to go back and someone who didn't have children or was married at that time The responsibility was on me, this daughter, to go home. And I thought I'd go home, find a great job, and make it my home for the rest of my life. And so I find this incredible opportunity. And someone said, and I know who that someone was on a panel of incredible people said, you know, she has these skills. She doesn't have skills per se or experience per se in academics, in higher education, but here are these incredible skills that she can transfer into this role. Let's bring her on. And they took a chance on me, a young, twenty-five-year-old leader in an industry that I had never led before. But I was equipped with all the graduate degrees, equipped with a resume, a CV that was ridiculous. I had all the things that they needed to see to be convinced and compelled to hire me. So here I am, a young girl. And then I walk into a disaster. I walk into my worst nightmare. I walk into a department that had a budget that was really interesting. There were decisions that were made, things that were being done. It seemed like in the dark, behind the scenes. And I was there, brand new, brand new pair of eyes, no bias, just looking at data, looking at spreadsheets because one of my stronger suits was financial budgeting and data processing. And here I was looking at black and white numbers and going, there's something wrong with these numbers. So there I was poking around and questioning. And boy, did I poke a bear in its sleep and wound up exposing some very interesting things that were happening in that budget that I inherited. And so of course I bring it to my Dean and my Dean's like, Whoa, what is this? Okay. Let's look into this further. Not that he didn't trust me, but he said, let's, let's talk to the CFO. Let's talk to the president of the college. Let's get some people involved here because you're right. These numbers do not make sense. So here I was new. I inherited what I did was looking at it in black and white and going, okay, Whoa, this is interesting. So that began a very long investigation into what was really happening. And a lot was exposed. A lot was destroyed. A lot had to be rebuilt because of some things that came to light. And I remember my dean saying to me, well, welcome. Welcome to... academics and welcome to higher education. And now that you have all the faculty wanting for you to be fired and all of your own department wanting you to be fired, this is what can happen. And I remember he was such a guiding light for me. Because I had so many emotions all over the place. I thought I was losing my mind because I was questioning my own skills and abilities. I was questioning my own intellect. And I thought, oh my goodness, I'm probably super wrong. This is probably really wrong. I can't be right. This can't be right. I remember telling him that. This can't be right. Someone should have seen this before. I didn't want it to be me. I didn't want it to be me. But during that process, I lost trust. My staff didn't trust me. My students didn't trust me. I had, again, faculty wanting to, they were petitioning for my termination because I exposed something in the books that was going to then determine the fate of some of my faculty. And so I remembered being hated. I remembered, you know, I was the last person anyone wanted to, you know, be associated with. I mean, I had to lead every single day this very large body of faculty and professional staff and a very large body of students. I mean, can you imagine at twenty five going into an environment like this and you find something? It's like, oops, I tripped over something in the dark. You turn on the light switch and you go, what the hell was that? Oh, yikes. Did anyone see that before? Oh, nobody saw that. OK, I'm the one that now I'm the one that has to expose this. Okay. Well then I'll be the scapegoat. Fine. But I'm, I, you know, I just, I'm just looking at this in black and white and I took it to my leader to help me better understand why these numbers were showing the way they were showing. Okay. But in that time period, Ooh, Ooh, my goodness. what a hard time that was because not only was i you know trying to make sense of my role and trying to make sense of why no one was trusting me why everyone was blaming me for what i had to the decisions i had to make why was i not being effective there i was sacrificing my soul for this role really what Not only that, but all the other areas of my life, like we can go down every area of my life at that time. And it was in crisis. I was in chaos. I was raging in every area of my life. Like I would start one fire over here and then another fire I'd pick up over here. Yep. Yep. And then I'd burn that bridge over there. And then I'd go and set that building on fire. Like I was setting fires all over my life in every area of my life. All the while, my mother is declining because of her Alzheimer's diagnosis. And here I was thinking, I'm going to go back home and support my family and be there for my mom and my father. And no. All of my energy and all of my focus was siphoned into this role, this leadership role. So there I was sacrificing all these other areas of my life because everything, every ounce of my energy and focus was on this role, on this leadership role. And let me tell you something, as a twenty five year old young person, that was a scary time for me. I stayed there for the next six years in that same role. And by the end, I thought by the end I had made amends with my staff. Talk about brutal leadership, trying to get people, influence, inspire, compel my staff to do a new policy, to implement a new policy, to advocate for a new change. It was like I was speaking to a wall for all of those years. It was very, very hard. And nobody told me. Nobody told me. that I didn't have to sacrifice my soul or destroy myself for that leadership role. It was part of the culture, a very toxic culture that actually rewarded fragmenting, that actually rewarded these decisions. I mean, my peers and my superiors were like, amazing work, while my staff hated me and wanted me out of there immediately. There was no way I was going to be effective in that role. And I know I wasn't. I know I wasn't. But no one told me that it could be different. No one said, you don't have to keep doing this. You don't have to live this way. You don't have to lead this way. Here's a better way. Why? Because nobody had a better way then. This was over twenty years ago. Talk about chronic stress and burnout at that time. For six years, I was in chronic stress and burnout. But the regrets, okay, the regrets, wow. I mean, they're heavy. They're heavy because I wish I could have done things differently. I wish I could have made decisions differently. You know what? The morality and integrity will always be there. Those decisions, the hard decisions, those needed to be made. And I have no regrets on those decisions, but there were some other things that I could have handled differently. But hindsight's twenty twenty and how wonderful that I as a contemplative, I get to look back and extract the gold, extract the value from that very harsh time in leadership. And let me tell you something in that moment in time is captured in my mind. It's captured in my nervous system. I talk about this moment, this time period in my life, because that set the trajectory for the rest of my career. I said, no way, no how, not now, not today, will I ever, ever do that again to myself and to my staff. Because of what happened and how things developed and unfolded at that time, I now have perspective and I'm now able to see, okay, here's what we could do differently. Here's how we can lead differently. Here's how we can cope. Here's how we can recover. Here's the support that you need. Here's where the resources that I didn't have, but that I now can get. So because of that moment in time that was captured for the public to see. I was able to now, yeah, twenty plus years later, be able to support leaders because I know what chronic stress is. I know what burnout is. I lived it for so long. My goodness, I can spot it a mile away. And when a leader comes to me and says, I feel like I'm constantly performing. Or I had one client say to me, you know, I lost the sense of this role. I have no purpose in this role anymore. There's so many external factors that are impacting the way I'm showing up in this organization and I don't want to keep exposing myself to this. I am exhausted, I am burnt out. And so we read all about the burnout, we read all about tips and productivity hacks and performance hacks and all the things that these well-meaning think tanks publish, but I want to take this ten layers deeper and I want to name it and I want to call it fragmentation. That's the root cause of the burnout. Something I want to touch on because, and I briefly skimmed over it when we first started our conversation here, leadership is a high demanding role, period, end of story. We don't hide from that. We don't run away from that. We know. We know it's intense. We know that there's a lot of responsibilities on us individually as leaders to perform, to achieve KPIs, to excel in our objectives. Yep, we got, yep, that is checked, understood. But burnout is when we have limited recovery or limited resources. between these events. It's like there's good stress and then there's bad stress. And the bad stress that doesn't allow us to recover because of these high demanding roles. We don't have the right coping strategies. We don't have the right tools. We don't have the right resources. This is when it turns into chronic stress and burnout. That's what burnout is. That's what burnout is. And I liked how the World Health Organization defines burnout as a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. and that it's characterized by exhaustion, mental distance, or cynicism, and reduced professional efficacy. Thanks, World Health Organization. Thank you for putting language to what we have been experiencing for generations. But because of what happened several years ago with COVID, and we saw mass exodus in really good leaders and good people, right? And the reasons they were leaving was because of burnout. Then I, as a researcher, go, wait, wait a minute. Well, we've always had chronic stress, but we just lack the ability to resource ourselves with the right strategies, with the right mindset, with the right tools. So why aren't we doing that for leaders so that we can navigate through these high, intense, high demanding roles and that we don't reach burnout? Or when we do touch a little bit of the burnout, oh, we pull back and we understand, okay, there's a warning sign. Okay. What strategies, what tools, what do I have in my toolbox to help me recover faster, to help me get back on my feet quicker? So the good leaders are the ones that are impacted the most, the harshest. This is why the title of this episode is Why Good Leaders Fragment, The Crisis Hiding Behind Burnout. Good leaders are the ones that are raising their hand saying, I'm here, let's go. There's a strong moral compass. There's a strong sense of justice and fairness. I mean, I talked to some younger leaders that are entering the pipeline of leadership in their twenties and they're like, this is unfair. And I know I can do this better, but I don't want to repeat what I saw my parents do, or I don't want to experience what my leader went through. That's the last thing I want to do. I want to well... resourced, whole and integrated life. Is that even an option for me? And some of these leaders are telling me that they don't see that as an option right now. And I want to tell you that there is an option. And so what we have to do first is name it. It's called fragmentation. This is the root cause of burnout. And so where do we go from here? We fragment. We're in these broken pieces, but it is your job. So it's not your fault that you're fragmented, but it is your job to integrate. Hear me closely when I say that. It's not your fault that we're fragmented, that you're fragmented. You're leading in these very toxic leadership models and systems that were put in place way before you or I. But here you are. saying yes to this role. And here you are leading in these very interesting times. And I'm the one to tell you, yes, you can lead differently. And you don't have to sacrifice your soul to be an effective leader and have a fantastic life. Like I like to think of fragmentation like rooms in a home. you know, you have a house, you've got the ground floor, you've got the, you know, the living room, the dining room or the kitchen, whatever, right? So you've got, you've got rooms in the house and then you, you go down the hall over here and that's the master bedroom. And then you go down the other hall and it's one of the kids' bedrooms. And then you go upstairs and it's, you know, the, the study room, the movie room, the whatever room, right? Or the third, you know, bedroom up there. So you've got all these bedrooms, you've got all these rooms, right? And here you are stuck in one room. You're stuck in one room. And that one room is your career. That one room is your leadership role. And you've forgotten that there are other rooms in the house. Ooh, like the recreation room. Let's go jump around in there because I want to have some fun and move my body and get back into my spirit. So why is that room locked? how about that other room oh my spirituality is closed off to me too what the hell so i'm stuck in this room for the rest of my life wait a minute and then you look into the other room and and try to open that doorknob and it's your intimacy room it's like oh my relationships are now being sacrificed because i don't have access to that room anymore so you've got all these rooms In your house, in your body, in your soul, in your spirit, these are the rooms. But you have fragmented into one room. You're now in one room and that's the only room that you have access to. And so when we integrate and when we take the steps necessary to integrate into these leadership roles, Every room in that house is wide open. It's accessible for you. It's like, oh, I can go jump into the spirituality room anytime I want. Great. Let's go. Ooh, how about that fun room over there? That's the movie room. You know what? I'm going to go watch Artemis because I love me some Ryan Gosling and I love that Rocky alien. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Put me in there. I want to have some fun. Or how about in that other room? Ooh, that's the room with all my hobbies. Like, I don't know about you, but I'm going to start taking singing lessons. Like that's my hobby over here. How about the music room? That's where you play your piano, your violin, right? So you've got access to all these rooms now. That's what whole and integration looks like. It's like, I get to bring all of these aspects. Hear me clearly, leader. You get to bring all these aspects of who you are into your leadership role. Every aspect of your life impacts and informs each other so that you're not stuck in this one leadership role this one room where it's you're obsessed with your career you're burnt the hell out you're overwhelmed and exhausted and you want to you know run out the door hold on how about we just take a beat take a moment open the door my friend And walk down the hallway and start opening up the other doors because you have access to so many other incredible things that will inform how you lead, that will impact how you show up in the organization. That's what whole, integrated, resourced leader looks like. So that's the solution. That's what I'm proposing us to do and how to see burnout moving forward. It's okay. It's burnout. Thank you for the definition, World Health Organization, and thank you, HBR, Harvard Business Review, and all these other incredible think tanks that publish information on burnout. But now, okay, now I have a better understanding. I'm fragmented. Nothing's gone wrong. Of course. I'm in a few pieces, multiple pieces here. I've been torn apart. Okay. Well, now I'm going to put myself back together again. And here's how I get to do that. I get to call it what it is. I'm fragmented. And now I get to find awareness around the resources and the tools and all of these things that Denise is saying that I have access to so that I can show up in my whole fully resourced, integrated leader. That's the solution. That's the answer to our prayers. This is the antidote to burnout. And that's what I'm proposing us consider, at least for this time that we're together. And as we move into the next episodes, they're going to build upon each other. So if you are resonating with this and you are seeing yourself in burnout and you've been saying to yourself, I feel disconnected. I don't know if this role is right for me anymore. I'm tired of performing. I'm tired of losing sleep. I want to be effective in my role, but I don't want to sacrifice my soul for this. And now I get to see that there's a different way to lead. And this is the opportunity. This is why we need more good leaders like you to stay in the pipeline of leadership. Because your intentions are solid. Because you were brought into this pipeline of leadership by your free will. You said, yes, put me in. I can make a difference. I know it's going to be hella hard, but I'm going to do my best to be as effective. And woo, maybe one day transformational. Wow. But then you got caught up in the storm, my friend. You got caught up in the storm. And when those seas are raging, it's hard to hold on. You're getting flipped around, tossed around on that boat. And so is your team. And you're asking yourself, how in the hell am I going to navigate through this storm? I'm burnt the hell out. And you want me to push through this? Here's another project. Here's another deadline. Here's another campaign. And you want me to push through this while my body is physically and mentally and spiritually exhausted and burnt out. So there you are on that boat getting tossed around. And your job is to navigate through the crisis. Your job is to navigate through those uncontrollable circumstances. But here's what you have control over. You get to decide. You get to decide to descend with me. And we do that every week here. And I even have private containers where we get to do that offline in a sacred space. But you get to find awareness around a choice. Okay, I get to descend. I get to drop down below, down below to the bottom of the ocean floor. And there at the bottom of the ocean floor is where I anchor myself. And I remember who I am. And I remember why I was called into this leadership role. And then I remember why these responsibilities are truly sacred. Here's where I reconnect to my expansive vision. Here's where I fully embody myself. This energy, this essence of a contemplative, fully integrated leader. This is where I get to transform myself and others right here, anchored at the bottom of the ocean floor. But when we anchor and we're fully integrated, we ascend right back onto that boat. We don't go swim away. We don't stay at the bottom of the ocean floor. No, there's a team up there. There's a team fighting for their lives up there. And they're waiting for you to come full and whole and resourceful and integrated. And here you are going, I'm ready. Let's go. So you descend, you anchor, and then you ascend back into that boat. That's what we get to do as whole integrated leaders who use contemplative practices, by the way. That's what we do. So I hope, and the intent, as I mentioned at the start of this, is to help you better understand burnout and have a new perspective on burnout. And it's called fragmentation. It's a way for us to be empowered and look at it as we have the power. We always have had the power. And how we're going to recover from burnout is by supplying ourselves with the right resources, with the right guiding principles, with the right strategies. And so the power is in your hands. It always has been. But the literature out there has shown us that there's not much you can do. And this is what's expected. And don't think you could be any different than the rest of these generations who suffered through burnout. Didn't have a definition for it, but we suffered through it. So now why are you so different? And why do you get to recover from burnout? Why do you get to solve burnout? Because I don't deserve it is what you're going to tell people. Because I'm worthy of more. Because if I'm going to live and a third of my adult working life is working in my career, a third of your life, my friend, is spent Let me be specific. A third of your adult waking life is spent on your career. Ooh, ooh, that's a lot of time to give to a career. So it's worth doing this work. And so your response to people will be, yeah, no, I can lead differently because I refuse to burn out. I refuse to do what they did. I refuse to live that way. And if there's a solution for this, then give it to me all day, every day. I'll do what I can. I'll do what I need to do so I don't destroy myself or sacrifice my soul for this leadership role. So walk away knowing you're fully empowered. You're fully empowered. And the question, the guiding question that brought us to this season and this episode is, can you be an effective leader without sacrificing your soul? And the answer is yes. And I'm going to keep proving that to you every single episode in this season. And I want to invite you, by the way, I know some of you may know me for many seasons now. Some of you are brand new to me. Fantastic. Cool. Here's what I'd like to do is I want to invite you to my website. Go to drdeniessimpson.com. You're going to learn all about me. I'm not going to spend any time sharing my credentials, sharing all of that. Who cares? You're the expert in your life and in your leadership practice, and I'm just here to guide you. But if you want to know more about me and what I do, it's drdeniessimpson.com. And then, my friend, I want to invite you into a private workshop. It's you, me, and a few other folks. It's not, it's not a big group, but it's on zoom and it's off, you know, the social platforms or whatever. And here's where we get to do some contemplative practices. And so I want this, a private space with leaders who are ready to do this kind of work, right? Because some of you are ready and some of you are just learning about you and deserving better, right? But some of you are at your wit's end and you're like, oh no, I'm willing to do whatever I need to do. Get me there now. You're going to want to join me. And let me stop this little ticker here at the bottom. I don't know how to do that. Oops. Let's edit that and let's stop the ticker. I love StreamYard. This is so great. Okay, here it is. Free workshop. You're going to want to go and head over to drdeniessimpson.com forward slash anchored workshop. There is where you're going to find my next workshop. It's next week. There's no selling. There's no pushing you to do anything. It's just an opportunity for us to do the work that we're talking about right here, right now. Listen, I don't know about you, but I am craving connection. I'm craving intimacy because leadership is lonely. It is lonely, even for a business owner like me. And here's where we'll be on Zoom in a meeting room. I get to see your beautiful face. You get to see mine. And I get to guide you through some contemplative practices so that we can anchor ourselves into those principles that I briefly touched on. This is how we become integrated. This is how we return to being whole and resourced. And you're going to want to join me. Again, drdeniessimpson.com forward slash anchored workshop. All right. And I'll make sure that's in the show notes too. Hey, thanks so much for joining me today. If you are watching the replay or even an audio listener on Spotify or on Apple, head over to one of these platforms, YouTube, Facebook, or LinkedIn, and go comment. I'd love to see your comments over there as well. All right. Leaders, thank you so much. I hope you're walking away fully empowered and resourced to move through your day and being an effective leader that you intend to be. Wonderful serving you. Take very good care. Until next time, bye for now. You came here for a reason and that reason is bigger than you know. If today's episode stirred something in you, that stirring is your assignment calling you back. Don't ignore it. Here's what you can do next. Subscribe, leave a review or share this with a leader who forgot why they said yes. And when you're ready to go deeper, my friend, join me in my program. It's called Anchored. This is where we descend into the five principles that restore your wholeness and return you to your original assignment. The world needs the leader that you were born to be. So head over to my website at drdeniessimpson.com to learn how you can join me inside my program called Anchored. Until next time, take very good care.
