Steve had always been the go-to person in the office. Whenever there was a crisis, an urgent deadline, or a task that no one had the capacity for, his name was mentioned. The justification for it was that he is high performer, high potential talent and it will be great projection for him.
Steve bought the narrative and thrived in the chaos, feeling accomplished as his to-do list got checked off, one impossible task after another but his direct manager was concerned.
Lately, something was different. The energy he used to have was fading, and small mistakes started creeping into his work and then bigger ones. He noticed his hands trembling as he typed, and his once-sharp focus began to blur. Still, Steve pushed on, telling himself that ‘he’s got this’ yet another time but his attention span was waning and he was becoming irritable.
One evening, after staying late for the fourth night in a row, his manager, Shelly, walked by his desk. She paused, watching him struggle to keep his eyes open, the weight of exhaustion heavy on his shoulders.
“Steve,” she said gently, “when was the last time you took a break?”
Steve blinked up at her, unsure of the answer. It had been weeks, maybe months, since he had really rested. Running on 4-5 hours of sleep had become his thing.
“You can’t keep running on empty,” she continued. “The work will always be here. But you? You need to recharge.”
Steve realized then that pushing himself past the limit wasn’t a badge of honor—it was a slow unraveling. He finally embraced the idea of rest, not as a sign of weakness, but as a necessary part of being his best self.
Now:
🎯From the attached image, Identify the various types of rest and the signals that tell you that Steve needed to rest?
🎯What signals are you spotting for yourself and members of your team / family? What type of rest do you / they need? As a leader, how will you enable this?
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