Navigating the Human Element: Strategies for Sustainable Leadership

Your team is not an infinite resource. Neither are you.

In this episode of Leadership With a Twist, Heather McGonigal and Barbara Schindler dig into the human element of leadership, the people, the time, and the knowledge that actually get the work done. They name why “this isn’t sustainable” has become background noise in so many businesses instead of a call to action, and what happens when teams keep sustaining the unsustainable for months at a time.

Heather and Barbara walk through a real coaching conversation about urgency versus emergency, why entrepreneurial teams running lean absorb so much of that pressure, and why slowing down is often the smartest move when your plate is overflowing. They lay out a practical approach to pausing as a team, naming the new normal honestly, and building a collaborative path forward instead of waiting to be rescued.

Key Takeaways

• Your team’s time, knowledge, and energy are limited resources. Plan around that reality instead of the wishlist version of your team.
• “This isn’t sustainable” is a signal, not a complaint. If you keep hearing it and nothing changes, you have a process problem, not a people problem.
• Urgency and emergency are not the same thing. Most overwhelmed teams have stopped telling the difference.
• Nobody understands your day to day better than you do, so nobody else is coming to name what is happening for you.
• A collaborative think tank conversation, with rest first, gives your team clarity that constant juggling never will.

Action Steps

1. Identify one task you have been holding “temporarily” for more than a month. Name it out loud to your team this week.
2. Before your next planning meeting, ask each team member to bring three potential solutions, not just the problem.
3. Use the Decision-Making Matrix to sort what is actually urgent from what only feels urgent because you are tired. DOWNLOAD THE DECISION MAKING MATRIX HERE
4. Schedule real time off for your team this month. Rest before you reassess, not instead of it.

Questions to Reflect On

• What have I been carrying for months that I labeled “temporary”?
• Where am I confusing urgency with emergency right now?
• Am I waiting for someone else to fix this, or am I willing to name it and bring solutions forward

Want to talk through sustainable leadership and the human element for your team? Book a complimentary coffee chat with Heather and Barbara:
https://www.empoweringleadershipteams.com/coffeechat

About the Hosts: Coach Heather and Coach Barbara are the lead Executive Coaches of Empowering Leadership Teams. They specialize in helping entrepreneurial businesses and their teams meet the moment and become the most empowered they can be to work together and achieve optimal results. With deep expertise in leadership development, team dynamics, and navigating organizational transition, they bring practical, actionable wisdom to leaders facing the challenges of today's rapidly changing business environment.

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