Leadership Tachycardia
David Freund

Last week, I was at a leadership conference in Orlando when I heard someone discussing the rhythm of a healthy heartbeat. We’ve all seen those EKG strips — the line rises and falls with each beat, with a brief pause in between.

I happened to be sitting next to my son — a former ICU nurse — so I leaned over and asked him, “What’s the value of the resting period between heartbeats?”

You can probably tell I’m not very knowledgeable about medical things, and I think I may have surprised him with my question. But his answer surprised me even more…

I expected him to say something like, “Well, it gives the heart a chance to rest before it has to beat again.” But that’s not what he said.

He explained that the time between beats is when the heart refills with blood so that it has something to push out into the body with the next beat.

Now, I probably should have remembered that from biology class, but I didn’t. As soon as he said it, I was struck by the leadership lesson hidden in that simple explanation: If we don’t take time to refill, we’ll eventually have nothing left to give.

Perhaps that’s one reason we have a society filled with exhausted people and organizations struggling with burnout. We’re so focused on moving faster, accomplishing more, and driving results that we rarely stop to ask what all that activity is actually producing — or what it is costing us. Could we be going through life suffering from leadership tachycardia?

We rush from one crisis to the next, one meeting to another, one deadline to the next. Then we go home so exhausted that we barely have the energy to engage with the people who matter to us most.

When was the last time you slowed down long enough to learn something new? When did you last have a meaningful conversation that energized you emotionally? When did you last create enough margin in your life to think, reflect, dream, or simply refill? So how do we know if we’re experiencing leadership tachycardia?

Some symptoms of physical tachycardia can include fatigue and dizziness. What might the leadership version look like? Are we constantly exhausted? Are we struggling to maintain emotional balance? Are we noticing more negativity in our thoughts and communication? Are we becoming more impatient or irritable with the people around us? If so, maybe the problem isn’t that we need to work harder. Maybe we need to slow down long enough to refill.

The solution to leadership tachycardia is becoming intentional about creating space for growth, learning, reflection, relationships, and renewal. It means being intentional with our daily calendars and taking control of our agendas rather than continually surrendering them to everyone else.

A healthy heart doesn’t just beat. It refills between the beats. Maybe healthy leadership works the same way. The world needs us. Our families, organizations, teams, and communities need the best version of us. But to give them our best, we need to be healthy enough to have something worth giving.

Slow down. Refill. Then give.

Because you can’t give what you don’t have.

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