Non-Negotiable
The most overlooked factor in leadership today is not another software, workflow, or KPI. It is rhythm.
Leaders who honor the ebb and flow of rest and work create healthier teams and healthier results.
Chick-fil-A or Hobby Lobby are the obvious front-runners of intentionality in this space. Their choice to close on Sundays is often framed as a loss of opportunity, even though the results tell a different story.
Revenue is strong. Loyalty is deep. Their culture is distinctive. Why? Because they have embraced a counterintuitive truth: flourishing requires rest and renewal.
The spirit of Sabbath and a culture of healthy rhythm goes beyond a day off a week. It is not a business strategy. It is a recognition of what it means to be human.
We are not machines designed to run endlessly. We are whole beings created for a rhythm of work and rest. Without renewal, productivity may rise for a season, but health will inevitably collapse.
Traditionally, the onus has been on the employee to ensure a healthy work/life balance. But more and more, organizations are realizing the upside of building a structure that supports holistic health in their workforce.
Patrick Lencioni reminds us that organizational health is the ultimate competitive advantage. If that is true, then ignoring the health of our people is not just shortsighted.
It is destructive.
Jim Collins once wrote about the “20-Mile March” that illustrates the discipline of steady progress, not frantic bursts. Sabbath (a steady progress rhythm of rest and renewal) is that same kind of discipline, except instead of more output, it insists on recovery as part of the output itself.
Leaders who build cultures without rest may achieve speed, but they will not achieve sustainability.
In the end, this imperative is not about efficiency. It is about dignity. It is about designing workplaces where human beings – image bearers with bodies, minds, and souls – are invited into wholeness.
When leaders make space for renewal, they are not just protecting results. They are protecting the people they are called to serve.
Your employees will forget many policies and programs. But they will never forget how it felt to work under your leadership and whether that experience was draining or life-giving.
Leaders, rest is not a luxury. It is a necessity. Sabbath is not a clever tactic. It is a truth woven into creation itself.
Blessings to you, my friends!
==========
This Week’s Resource Recommendation:
"The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal"
- Jim Loehr & Tony Schwartz
From Amazon: We live in digital time. Our pace is rushed, rapid-fire, and relentless. Facing crushing workloads, we try to cram as much as possible into every day. We're wired up, but we're melting down. Time management is no longer a viable solution. As bestselling authors Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz demonstrate in this groundbreaking book, managing energy, not time, is the key to enduring high performance as well as to health, happiness, and life balance. The Power of Full Engagement is a highly practical, scientifically based approach to managing your energy more skillfully both on and off the job by laying out the key training principles and provides a powerful, step-by-step program that will help you to:
* Mobilize four key sources of energy
* Balance energy expenditure with intermittent energy renewal
* Expand capacity in the same systematic way that elite athletes do
* Create highly specific, positive energy management rituals to make lasting changes
Above all, this book provides a life-changing road map to becoming more fully engaged on and off the job, meaning physically energized, emotionally connected, mentally focused, and spiritually aligned.
MMS 25-36
I would love to send our Monday Morning Stretch directly to you via email and would consider it an honor to serve you in this way. To register, please take 30 seconds to give us permission to do so below.
