Leadership Behaviors or Self-Care? Maybe both.
I set the timer on my phone for 10 minutes this morning.
I gave myself 10 minutes to clean up all of the "junk" from my computer screen desktop this am. My brain can't function in a mess- all of those unnecessary icons on my desktop have been driving me crazy for months. I'm sick and tired of having to search through all the shit to find the thing I need.
One of the documents that I came across on the mass deletion cleaning spree was the following. I had written the answer to this question for a leadership workshop class I attended back in 2019. I have no clue [I'm actually quite appalled at myself] why it sat idle on my desktop for over three years. Maybe I was meant to find it today, during my busiest season of business.
"𝟭. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗯𝗲𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗱𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘀𝗲𝗲 𝗮𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗹𝘂𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗶𝗻 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀?
𝐿𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑏𝑦 𝑒𝑥𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐼 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙 𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑙𝑦 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡. 𝐼 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑚𝑦 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑏𝑦 𝑒𝑥𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑎𝑠𝑘𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑚𝑎𝑦 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙 𝑖𝑠 “𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚” 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑦 𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑜𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑚𝑦 𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑜𝑦𝑒𝑒𝑠. 𝐹𝑜𝑟 𝑒𝑥𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒, 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝐼 𝑐𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑡 𝑛𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝐼 𝑑𝑜 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝑐𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑠𝑢𝑐ℎ 𝑎𝑠 𝑣𝑎𝑐𝑢𝑢𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑐𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑖𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑟𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑤 𝑚𝑦 𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑜𝑦𝑒𝑒𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑠𝑒 𝑡𝑎𝑠𝑘𝑠 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑡𝑜 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑠𝑢𝑐𝑐𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐼’𝑚 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑏𝑢𝑠𝑦 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚."
I find it ironic that I came across this today because last night, at closing time, I had three new, young, employees working in my store. I could have EASILY instructed one of them to vacuum the floors; after all, it is on the checklist that they are supposed to complete during every shift. I hear a podcast voice ringing in my ears right now that would tell me "Be a CEO. Do the things that earn you money, hire the rest."
Maybe my valuable time could have been more effectively used to do a higher income-generating task; but something unexplainable within me moved me to vacuum the floors myself last night.
At 7:17 pm, it was an inherently thoughtless task on my part. I should have been rushing out the door to get my kids from daycare since they'd already been there for ten hours that day. By the time I get them picked up on Monday nights, I'm lucky if I spend one full hour with them before bedtime.
But instead of barking orders and scattering out the door- I vacuumed the floors myself. My body and my brain must have been on the same wavelength last night, because I absentmindedly did this act of self-care. I vacuumed the floors because I know how much better I feel in the morning when I enter a clean store. My head is clearer; I'm more relaxed walking into a tidy space. When I walk into an orderly room, I can focus on what actually deserves my attention rather than the chaos of clutter that distracts me.
Many might think that I have no business doing the "cleaning" that I am. Afterall, this is the busiest month of retail. People probably think I should be replying to social media comments, finally finishing that newspaper advertisement, or ordering more "things" that you missed out on because somebody else bought them first. You know, all of the duties that an entrepreneur does to PLEASE EVERYBODY ELSE.
Hopefully, this is a sign from the good Man above that I'm doing the right thing. Not only am I demonstrating to my employees that we are all teammates and we need to work together towards a common goal, but also, practicing self-care at the same time. Ultimately, don't we all need to practice self-care to exemplify being a good leader?
If this blog post was interesting to you, consider reading this one from January 2022: A Shiny Gold Symbol of our Gratitude.
I talked about this post ^^^ with my new staff members last night. I encouraged them to read it, too. It is about something being associated to winning in every industry. NASCAR drivers get trophies and Monster Energy girls. The NFL players get rings and too much money. PGA golfers get a small fortune and some new tees. Kentucky Derby winners get a wreath of flowers and a shot at the Triple Crown. The Bachelor gets a wife and some emotional damage. What do you get for shopping at Broker Leather?
![Sunday Shopping at Broker Leather [BONUS HOURS]](http://brokerleather.com/cdn/shop/articles/Sunday_Shopping_at_Broker_Leather_BONUS_HOURS_{width}x.png?v=1731527404)
![Sunday Shopping at Broker Leather [BONUS HOURS]](http://brokerleather.com/cdn/shop/articles/Sunday_Shopping_at_Broker_Leather_BONUS_HOURS_400x.png?v=1731527404)
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