I define a “Corporate Exhausted Hero” as a leader who is trying to do it all, and just feeling exhausted.  This leader continues to be overwhelmed with individual contributor work, continues to try to manage and support their team, and spends their “spare time” setting the vision and influencing change.   The Corporate Exhausted Hero is really a fire fighter instead of a fire chief.

I call on all Corporate Exhausted Heroes to use this time to hit the reset button.  In a time when everyone is adjusting to working from home, working at a distance from their boss, and building new routines, it is a great time to build new procedures and expectations as a leader.

• Re-establish Goals:  Clear goals provide your team with the big picture direction and empowers them to deliver successful results.  Many Exhausted Heroes provide daily or weekly task lists to their teams.  Be a Strategic Manager and build clear goals for the month, quarter, or year and ask them how they want to meet their goals.
• Rebuild One-on-Ones:  Corporate Exhausted Heroes rely on reactive drive byes to get work down through their team.  This is a great time to hit the reset button on consistent One-on-Ones by establishing a clear agenda, focus on forward looking projects, and using the time to think together vs. the manager directing tasks.
• Delegation:  A leader needs to focus on what challenges are coming before they arrive.  This enables leaders to mobilize their teams for big fires, instead of running into the fire.  To focus on the future, you need to delegate the present.  Take time to review your to do list and identify who can take on tasks or become the captain on a group of tasks or project. 
• Take a Lunch:  Yes, it is possible, and it is healthy to take a break in the middle of the day.  Corporate Exhausted Heroes either eat at their desks or don’t eat at all.  In this new world where you are working in seclusion, take a lunch break every day.  Eat with your family, take the dog for a walk, or just sit on the back porch and eat.

Corporate Exhausted Heroes have a choice!  The exhaustion doesn’t have to be the way of life.  Take some time now to hit the reset button and aim to be a Strategic Manager focused on the future.  And if you need assistance or suggestions, shoot me an email at mheydt@gameplanleader.com. And look for my book, “Rescuing the Corporate Exhausted Hero” coming out later this year from Advantage/ForbesBooks.