I woke up the other day with a pretty bad stye. My eye had been bothering me for a day or so, and by Wednesday I had a “pretty clear vision” of what had developed (there are so many great eye jokes to make, by the way).
Because of my calendar, I spent the next two days basically “working through it” and not taking care of myself as I should have.
Which meant that the stye didn’t get any better.
So, yesterday, I began to apply warm compresses, and the impact of the stye is slowing going away. If you’ve had them, they tend to be more of an annoyance than anything else, and they need time to clear up. The key is to make sure you take care of them.
In all cases, we need to take care of ourselves, and encourage others to do the same, when physical or emotional obstacles come up. The best moves a leader can make at these times is to model the importance of rest and care (which I didn’t do a good job of this time around), and make sure we put ourselves in the shoes of others so that we remember what it is like to go through the pain/challenges that others are experiencing.
Care is all about understanding, and providing as much support as people need. That means that we aren’t overbearing or absent. Instead, we are present when people want us to be and we give them space when they need it. Reading people’s emotions and their needs is key to leading as best we can.
So, “eye” hope to use the “vision” provided by my recent illness, and do a better job leading through the “lens” of taking care of myself when needed.
And, I hope to make some better jokes, from time-to-time.