How can we create white space or margin in our lives and within our teams?

1. Self Assessment — You need to first understand what are you involved in and where is your energy is going.

2. Remove — After taking a thorough inventory of what you’re involved in and where your energy is going, you’ll need to end the things that are not contributing to the overall portrait of your life. This is by far the hardest step. One resource that could be helpful in this is a book called Necessary Endings by Dr. Henry Cloud.

3. Balance What Remains — Once you have the elements that contribute to the overall portrait of your life, it’s time to establish hierarchy and the proper levels of support that you need keep these elements in proper tension.

Once you’ve created white space or margin, here are some main takeaways to help you live in that space.

Ask Yourself: What Fills Your Tank - Whatever space you create for rest is meant to serve you. Therefore whatever you do to rest, you should leave the activity replenished physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Having Trouble Finding What Fills Your Tank? One great way to ask a close friend or loved one this question — When have you seen me most at peace? This will can help you pinpoint moments and activities that were personally restorative.

Leadership & Team Exercises

Below are some exercises for teams and leaders to put into practice what you’re reading and listening to.

• Teams — Collectively assess what has been serving your teams in previous seasons that may not be serving them now.

• Leaders — Determines what you need in your life to protect the margin/white space you’ve created.

I love the way that Amelia and Dogaki describe these three elements in their book - Burnout, how to complete the stress cycle”, they describe emotional exhaustion as carrying too much for too long, depersonalization as a lack of empathy and connection in what you do, and a decreased sense of accomplishment as a diminished ability to discern the value in what you do. 

If any of those symptoms resonate with you, and if you’ve experienced these symptoms for a prolonged period of time, you are experiencing burnout. What can we do about it?

Understanding how to receive feedback is just as critical as understanding how to give feedback. In this episode, we’ll recap some of the essentials for giving feedback, and give you some of the actionable steps you need to take to prepare to receive feedback.

The clarity that you can receive from healthy feedback can help you hit the targets you’re aiming for. While feedback often gets a bad wrap, it’s an essential part of a healthy team and a necessary component in the life of a healthy leader. In this episode, we’ll give you three things you need to create a healthy feedback loop.