The Relaxed Leader (TRL) saves lives!
An extensive leadership survey published in early 2021 found that 60% of leaders reported they feel “used up” at the end of the workday. Not surprisingly, feeling this way is a strong indicator of burnout. And it doesn’t help that almost half of those leaders believed they would need to change companies or organizations in order to advance in their careers, which simply adds to their overall stress!
A little stress is healthy because it pushes us outside our comfort zones and can help us learn and grow. However, the American Psychological Association has linked chronic stress to several leading causes of death:
Accidents
Cancer
Cirrhosis of the liver
Heart disease
Lung ailments
Suicide
If you’d like to learn the strategies, tactics, and habits needed to relax and lead, then TRL just might be what you need! Can you figure it out on your own? Absolutely… but there is a downside to consider when choosing the do-it-yourself approach.
Learning “leadership skills” can ADD to your overall stress!
Search for “leadership” on Google and there are 3.1 billion results. Narrow your search to “leadership development” and there are still over 1 billion hits. Go even narrower, searching for “leadership development programs” and you’re down to a manageable 777 million choices. Check out the top link (after the ads) and you’ll find a 5-day online program… that costs almost $8,000! Holy shit!
First of all, if you have that kind of money to drop on a 5-day online course, then you probably wouldn’t be reading this.
Second, you can certainly receive a ton of knowledge during an intensive 5-day program, but it’s going to take a lot of time to turn all that knowledge into actual skills - and you’re going to be on your own when it comes to that. Drop thousands on a training course and you better have something to show for it, so your stress level will go up even more.
On the other hand, you can start sifting through the millions of search results, looking for the right knowledge that can be turned into the leadership skills you need the most. It’s free – except for the hours and hours you’ll spend reading through countless articles and blog posts. Oh, and then you need to figure out what to actually implement, how to implement it, and in what order.
In other words: stress, stress, and more stress.
Why not RELAX and lead?
What I’ve discovered is that being a relaxed leader is a great choice for many people. A relaxed leader is not a lazy leader who just kicks back and doesn’t stress because he doesn’t really care. A relaxed leader isn’t the same as a Laissez-faire leader, who doesn’t give much instruction or guidance and basically lets the team members take the lead.
A relaxed leader has a systematic approach to leadership that focuses on setting priorities, creating and empowering team members, and leveraging specific gifts and talents. The building blocks of becoming a relaxed leader can be remembered using the acronym RELAX:
REVIEW/REFLECT: Keep an eye on your priorities and the effectiveness of your current activities.
EMPOWER: Develop team members who understand priorities and achieve results without constant oversight.
LEVERAGE: Take advantage of day-to-day situations when effective, focused leadership can dramatically impact team performance and multiply results.
AMPLIFY: Promote team members and their ideas, celebrate wins, and have a strong communications plan.
X-FACTOR: Identify that “special something” only YOU can bring to the team… and BRING IT!
Who you are and why you should subscribe
TRL is aimed at early- to mid-career folks who (1) are in leadership positions (or want to be leaders), and (2) are ready to learn how to be incredibly successful without burning out.
New content is sporadically, so subscribing will ensure everything new shows up in your inbox. Posts vary in length, but there are some typical article types:
Masterclass: A longer, deep-dive “explainer” article that often kicks-off a multi-article theme.
Workbench: Practical skills and how to use them.
Story-Time: Real world experiences to help explain key concepts (or sometimes what NOT to do).
Miscellaneous: Words of wisdom, mentor minutes, the occasional real world rant, and whatever else I feel inspired to share with you.
This newsletter is going to be most useful if you’re willing to do some work. It’s not intended for a passive readership – it’s intended for people who are ready to do the work and level up their leadership skills. My hope is to support leaders who are striving to be effective catalysts for, and drivers of, positive change in the world today!
Who I am and why I write TRL
I’m Brandon Jubar, and I’ve spent over 40 years working in the private, non-profit, and public sectors, and I’m passionate about driving positive change. I want to share what I’ve learned with up-and-coming leaders – particularly those with values similar to mine. To be clear, I am NOT a proponent of the authoritarian styles of leadership, and I don’t believe leadership automatically comes with a position on the org chart.
Why listen to me? Well, there are a few reasons…
I have a bookshelf full of awards including two Stevies, a Gears of Government award, and I was selected as one of the Fed100 for 2021 (the most impactful people in Federal Government IT).
I’m driving massive improvements in an area that had gotten no traction in over 20 years. I’m changing hearts and minds – shifting the culture in an organization with over 18,000 employees – and I’m doing it with a team of 8 people.
One recent training I’ve given (to a few thousand people) was lauded as “the best course this development program has ever offered!”
I’ve presented to hundreds of government and non-profit leaders. I’m being asked to collaborate with multiple organizations. Invitations to speak at meetings, conferences, and events continue coming in because people want to hear more of what I have to say.
(Besides, I’m a good guy with a great sense of humor… and I write well.)
My success didn’t happen by accident. It happened because I was able to effectively implement what I’ve discovered over more than three decades of learning, trying, and often failing. I’ve taken my lumps, rode the ups and downs, and figured out how to succeed.
Most of what I’ve learned didn’t come from my early successes, which were often a combination of fast talking and dumb luck. Most of what I’ve learned has come from understanding my failures – from dissecting and reflecting on all of my many set-backs – and then experimenting again and again.
Through TRL, I want to share some of what I’ve learned. I want to provide others with ideas gleaned from years of trial-and-error. And I would especially like to find a way to help young people become leaders wherever they are. There is so much work to do that we need to make sure we don’t burn out our young, up-and-coming leaders.
We need effective, relaxed leaders at all levels and in all sectors. It’s how the richest nation in history can also be the best nation – a nation that cares for all its citizens and all of its global neighbors around the world.
I want to help create an entire generation of relaxed leaders who are ready to roll-up their sleeves and get to work in a healthy, balanced way.
Are you ready to join me? Then tap that “subscribe” button and let’s start leveling up your leadership skills today!
