Episode 48
Leader, Lead Thyself with Jack Groppel
May 20, 2021
Self-care is absolutely essential for everyone, and top leaders tend to be the most likely to let recovery time slip away in their demanding lives. Jack Groppel, author of The Corporate Athlete and professor at Judson University, explains why leaders set the tone for the whole culture by prioritizing their own needs. From co-founding the human performance institute at Johnson & Johnson to summitting Mt. Kilimanjaro with his 12-year-old son, Jack shares from his deep knowledge about how leaders can inspire their people by meeting their own needs first.
You can connect with Jack on LinkedIn.
Leader, Lead Thyself: Key takeaways from episode 48
Jack’s book, The Corporate Athlete, offers a lot to unpack, but the core message is that you can take the principles that help elite athletes to excel and apply them to whatever you want to accomplish in your own life. The book’s advice is timeless, and Diana highly recommends reading it.
Tackling big challenges in life, whether that’s climbing a mountain or overcoming anything you’re struggling through, will equip you to take on bigger challenges in the future.
Stress is something we all need in life. It’s chronic stress with no relief that will eventually break you. Your ability to recover is your resilience, and it’s up to you to find even small ways throughout every day to give yourself a break from the barrage of stress.
Good self-care is often a function of time and priority management. By creating a structure that prioritizes the people and things that matter most, you free yourself from chronic stress because you’re giving yourself that space for recovery.
Just as purpose was a foreign concept in business 20+ years ago, Jack predicts that self-love and agape love will be the next big areas of focus for leaders. Self-love can feel antithetical to our go-go-go culture, but making that decision to love yourself before you pour into others enables you to do so much more. This will require setting boundaries and prioritizing self-care. In so doing, you can model important behaviors for those you lead and end up creating an environment where people can thrive.
Additional resources mentioned in the episode
Recommended Reading to learn more from Jack Groppel
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