In today’s high-pressure environments, leaders are often expected to be perpetually available, juggling numerous responsibilities without pause. However, the critical lesson that’s frequently overlooked is the necessity of taking breaks. Stepping away from work isn’t just about rest; it’s about recharging your mental and emotional batteries, allowing you to return to your role with renewed energy, clearer vision, and a stronger sense of purpose. This episode emphasizes why leaders should embrace the power of taking breaks and how it can lead to enhanced productivity and better decision-making.
Understanding the importance of self-care from a leadership perspective can transform how leaders approach their roles. By taking the time to rejuvenate, leaders can foster a healthier work environment, set positive examples for their teams, and ultimately drive more sustainable success. This episode integrates real-world examples and actionable insights on mastering the delicate balance between work and rest to achieve peak performance.
Timestamped Overview
[00:00:00] Introduction to Taking Breaks for Leadership Effectiveness: The host sets the stage by highlighting the necessity of taking breaks for any leader.
[00:02:19] Dual Roles: Discussion on balancing professional and personal commitments, using Scott’s role in the Canadian Army and his podcast as an example.
[00:03:08] Recharging Through Family Time: Insights into how spending time with family and taking vacations can recharge a leader’s energy.
[00:05:33] Rejuvenated for 2025: Covering the benefits of returning to work after a break, ready to tackle new challenges.
[00:06:32] The Importance of Delegation and Systems: Tips for setting up systems that allow leaders to take breaks without disrupting their operations.
[00:08:40] Preparing for the Return to Work: Strategies for getting ahead of tasks and maintaining respect for your team’s time while you’re on a break.
[00:09:33] The Art of Delayed Email Delivery: A practical tip on scheduling emails for better team management.
[00:12:11] Making Meaningful Connections: Emphasizing the importance of reconnecting with your team on a personal level after returning from a break.
[00:13:22] Final Thoughts on Leadership and Breaks: The overall importance of rejuvenation for effective leadership and what’s to come in future episodes.
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Scott McCarthy
Transcript
The following is an AI generated transcript which should be used for reference purposes only. It has not been verified or edited to reflect what was actually said in the podcast episode.
Scott McCarthy [00:00:00]:
It’s been a while. I’ve been away again. I know. But actually, it’s always for a good reason, and I’m going to dive into where I’ve been, why it was for a good cause, and really from leadership standpoint, why it matters to be away. Alright. You’re ready for this, folks? Let’s do it. Welcome 1. Welcome all to the Peak Performance Leadership Podcast, a weekly podcast series dedicated to helping you hit peak performance across the three domains of leadership.
Scott McCarthy [00:00:46]:
Those being leading yourself, leading your team, and leading your organization. This podcast couples my 20 years of military experience as a senior Canadian army officer with world class guests bringing you the most complete podcast of leadership going. And for more, feel free to check out our website at movingforwardleadership.com. And with that, let’s get to the show. Hey. Hey. Hey. Yes.
Scott McCarthy [00:01:23]:
It is your chief leadership officer, Scott McCarthy, and thanks for tuning in folks to the Peak Performance Leadership Podcast. And then I’m gonna follow-up with a thanks to the listeners out there who have sent me DMs and emails saying, hey, Scott. It’s been a minute since you’ve published an episode. Actually, it’s been over a month. What the heck? So you don’t want to kick off coming back. Why don’t I just talk about that and talk about it from a leadership standpoint? So that’s what we’re diving into today and why reality is is why sometimes taking a break is a good thing, and we need it as leaders. Alright? So let’s let’s set this up first off. Okay? The first thing you need to understand is if you’re listening to the show, like, this is not my day job.
Scott McCarthy [00:02:19]:
Okay? God, I would love it to be. It would be my life so much simpler. But once I figured a way to make enough money to do this day in day out and heck, if you wanna sponsor me, let me know. But moral story is it’s not my day job. I do this in my spare time. And if you’re new to the show and you haven’t been following along a lot lately, then you probably don’t know is I actually serve in the Canadian Army. And on top of that, I run as the commanding officer, the country’s largest supply depot currently. So think of me as the CEO of a major distribution center.
Scott McCarthy [00:03:08]:
That’s what I’m doing. On top of that, I’m doing that out of Montreal, Quebec, which is phenomenal for me personally as a Montreal Canadian hockey fan. Let me tell you, The downside of it is my family is still back in the Kingston, Ontario region, which is about, depending on traffic, between 2 and a half and 3 hours down the road. So Mondays to Thursdays, I’m up here. Fridays, I work from home, and then I spend the weekend with my family. So what does that mean? What does that matter? Well, from basically a month ago till this week, I was home. And I decided that, you know what, I just needed a break, break from and and not necessarily like a hard break, but just a break from the podcast, a break from pitching the Leader Growth Mastermind, doing webinars, and writing articles. I just needed a break.
Scott McCarthy [00:04:14]:
I needed a break because it’s a lot. Right? You got my day job, which is extremely demanding. And then I’m constantly at nighttime trying to provide great value and content to you. So I was like, you know what? It is time to just take a break, and that’s what I did. So I took a break for a month. Actually, just over a month actually. But let me tell you the biggest thing The biggest thing is is that I come back just rejuvenated, and I had a 3 week vacation. Okay.
Scott McCarthy [00:04:53]:
So this is this episode is going to kind of merge between day job and night job, as I refer to it. So, you know, profession versus and passion. How about that? That actually sounds much better. We’ll go with that. So, I had a 3 week vacation from my profession as well. And I just spent time with the family, spent time with the kiddos, of course, did some work on my house because we’ve moved into a newer house this year. So there were a few projects that needed slash I wanted to get done. So I did those 2, and let me tell you the effect.
Scott McCarthy [00:05:33]:
The effect has been fantastic. I’m just you know what? I’m rejuvenated. I am rested. I am ready to tackle 2025 for both professionally and passion. We’re getting after it this year folks, and I want can’t wait to take you along with me for the ride. And that’s the great thing about vacation time, and I don’t know why so many leaders out there have such a hard time just winding down, shutting down, and don’t get me wrong, I get it for you entrepreneurs out there, like, it is your business. It’s your baby. But you also need to set up systems that enable you to do so, and that means bringing some extra people in or simply letting your clients know you’re not available for the period, much as what I did with my one to 1 coaching clients.
Scott McCarthy [00:06:32]:
Sorry, folks. Unavailable at this time, and that’s exactly what I did. Okay? And I just slowly just shut down shop, and you can do it too. Okay? So you come back, and now I have vision again. I have clarity, and most importantly, I have the energy and drive to go after. Because when we’re going hard, hard, hard, hard, hard, which so many of us as leaders do, we get exhausted. It’s tiring, this gig. It’s exhausting.
Scott McCarthy [00:07:10]:
Leadership is tough. Making decisions all day, questioning yourself whether or not they’re the right ones, trying to decide which way to go, dealing with situations, it is tough. Hence, why taking some time relaxing is so important. So that is why you need to, from time to time, unplug, unwind. And you know what? Maybe it doesn’t need to be a month or 3 weeks as in my case? And the reality is I did not need that much time neither, but I wanted to, from a passion standpoint, maximize, my time with my family so not take up the time I had with them, and use it for this moving forward leadership and peak performance leadership, but rather, you know, spend it with them. From a professional standpoint is, well, Christmas time in the Canadian Army, we basically shut down, and 3 weeks is pretty much the holiday period. So not much I can do there per se. But as I prepared to come back, there was a couple things which I did, which you might wanna think about if you’re on a break for a while.
Scott McCarthy [00:08:40]:
And the first one is is that I recognized, okay, I needed to get ahead of my emails, and I’ll tell you why in the next thing. Okay? And it’ll come clear in a minute. I wanna go ahead in my email. See, a lot of my team was already back on, on the ground at work before me. So my inbox, of course, was popping up. So I decided to take a little bit of time and I went ahead and dove into my inbox and, you know, of course, I was replying to emails and stuff, but this was on a Sunday evening. And boundaries are important and people’s family time is important. And the last thing I wanted to do was have people’s work phones go off with email notifications and ping, you know, email, email, and it’d be for me.
Scott McCarthy [00:09:33]:
So here’s a quick little tip for you. If you find yourself, you know, in a similar situation where you’re working longer hours than your team, then if you use Outlook or even Gmail, Gmail does this does a scheduling function, and Outlook has delayed delivery function. Use that to have the emails delivered to your team when they are actually at the office, and that enables you to go ahead and work your crazy hours for whatever reason that you may be doing so, but it also, more importantly, keeps them from getting notified until, you know, they show up. Alright. Now if you’re, like, going through and you’re pounding, like, 50 emails and you’re scheduling them, okay, think about it ahead of time. If there’s one super important email that you’re sending to your team or a member and you want them to take action on that one immediately, then you don’t want to lump it in with the 50 others that you’re scheduling slash delay delivery. So quick tidbit for you is to do that one first. Let’s say the workday starts at 8, you have that one show up at 8.
Scott McCarthy [00:10:57]:
And then the remainder you have show up at 8:30 or 9 o’clock, what have you. But you put a gap between them so that your team or your member sees that one, sees that this one is important, and actions that immediately. And you can even go so far say, hey. I’ll be sending you more, but I want you to not worry about those right now. This is the most important thing. So why was I doing this in the first place? Like I just talked about how I wanted to spend time with my family and not really dive into work while I was home, but, you know, it did take an hour to go through email. And the reason is this, when I showed up Monday, I did not want to simply go into work and start working. Instead, I took basically the day, honestly, and went and walked around and saw my team and said happy New Year to them and talked to them like they’re human beings and heard the stories of their vacations and their Christmases with their family and friends.
Scott McCarthy [00:12:11]:
That’s what you want to do as a leader when you’ve been away for a while. Why? Because you want to make that deep connection with them. You want to look at them and treat them like human beings and not simply surfs who are going around doing whatever it is you need them to do. So why check to email Sunday so that I knew the most important things that needed my answering were answered, delivered within a time that was respectful to my team and their and their lives, and that and then enabled me to get ahead, get out, walk around the floor, and check out check-in with the rest of the team. So think about it when you go on holidays next time. Take some time, rejuvenate that mind, that body, that soul, and let me tell you, you will be ready to roll. With that, ladies and gentlemen, that is it for this episode. Don’t fret.
Scott McCarthy [00:13:22]:
More interview shows, more leadership lessons from my military experience are coming along with so much more. And if you’re ready for more, stand by. The Leader Growth Mastermind will reopen its stores in the near future. Can’t wait, and can’t wait to see you there. Till next time. Remember as always, lead, dump boss. Take care now. And that’s a wrap for this episode, ladies and gentlemen.
Scott McCarthy [00:14:01]:
Thank you for listening. Thank you for supporting the Peak Performance Leadership Podcast. But you know what you could do to truly support the podcast, and know that’s not leaving a rating and review, it’s simply helping a friend, and that is helping a friend by sharing this episode with them if you think this would resonate with them and help them elevate their performance level, whether that’s within themselves, their teams, or their organization. So do that, help me, help a friend win win all around, and hey, you look like a great friend at the same time. So just hit that little share button on your app, and then feel free to fire this episode to anyone that you feel would benefit from it. Finally, there’s always more. There’s always more lessons around being the highest performing leader that you can possibly be. Whether that’s for yourself, your team, or your organization.
Scott McCarthy [00:15:00]:
So why don’t you subscribe? Subscribe to the show via moving forward viewership.comforward/subscribe. And until next time, lead. Don’t boss. Subscribe. Until next time, lead, don’t boss, and thanks for coming out. Take care now.