True Hospitality Starts with Yourself

The demands of this time of year can often be a major source of stress for both leaders and teams. As we juggle seasonal problem-solving with strategic planning for the upcoming year, maintaining team engagement requires thoughtful, hospitable leadership. This means anticipating individual needs, communicating clear expectations, and inspiring a positive vision for the future. 

This is a tall order. Let’s make sure we’re ready. 

To prevent overwhelm and ensure we aren’t operating from a place of stressed reactivity, before attempting to take on complex challenges and take care of others, let's turn our hospitality efforts inward towards our own well-being. 

Here's our recipe for Optimism and Hospitable Responsiveness:

I. Sleep. Our daily foundation. Struggling with getting enough sleep? Instead of stressing about going to bed early, we can flip the script and try waking up at the same time every day. This gives us a consistent starting place to build from. 

2. Stillness. Our source of reflective awareness. Before the news, before social media, before we allow anyone or anything else to influence us, let’s take time to pause, reflect, and think for ourselves. Strategic insights on what matters most and planful intentions often emerge here. 

3. Fuel. Our intentional intake supplies our minds and bodies. What we eat matters. What we drink matters. What we read and watch matters. Be intentional. Skewing our information and nutritional intake towards the positive makes it easier to cultivate the defiant optimism we need. 

4. Flow. Our way of connecting with presence to stoke joy and optimism. Exercise, paint, write, bake cookies, let’s do whatever we can to feel connected, remind ourselves what it's all for and recenter our perspective.