Self-Care Is a Leadership Strategy, Not a Reward
Leadership demands clarity, creativity, and stamina. Yet too many women leaders treat their own wellbeing as something they earn after the work is finished.
That mindset is costly.
According to the 2025 Women in the Workplace report by McKinsey and LeanIn, 60% of senior-level women report feeling frequently burned out, compared with 50% of their male peers. This is not simply a difficult quarter. It reflects a structural challenge that requires a more sustainable approach to performance.
Self-care is not a reward for completing your to-do list. It creates the internal conditions for sound decisions, innovative thinking, and long-term impact.
Stop Treating Self-Care as an Afterthought
In her Chief article, “Self-Care Is the Birthplace of Innovation,” Belinda Pruyne argues that self-care begins with self-awareness: the ability to understand your internal states, needs, values, and patterns clearly enough to make intentional choices.
This distinction matters.
Research cited by Pruyne finds that 95% of people believe they are self-aware, while only 10–15% actually are. Tasha Eurich’s research also shows that a lack of self-awareness can significantly undermine team success.
A separate study from Green Peak Partners and Cornell University, involving 72 senior executives, finds that self-awareness is the strongest predictor of executive success: outperforming technical expertise, drive, and ambition.
Not strategy alone. Not relentless effort. Knowing yourself.
Protect the Conditions Innovation Needs
Depletion narrows your aperture.
When you are running on fumes, you default to familiar solutions, manage risk instead of embracing possibility, and lead from fear rather than vision. You may continue performing, but your thinking becomes reactive and constrained.
Innovation requires space. It needs curiosity, reflection, emotional regulation, and the capacity to see beyond what has always been done.
Think of self-care as the operating system behind your leadership. When the system is overloaded, even excellent strategy struggles to function. When you restore capacity, you create room for better questions, bolder ideas, and more adaptive decisions.
Use the All About You Wellness Wheel
Pruyne’s All About You Wellness Wheel offers a practical, judgment-free self-audit. Rate each area from 1 to 10:
- Physical health: energy, movement, sleep, and nourishment
- Emotional wellbeing: processing feelings instead of pushing through them
- Intellectual stimulation: learning and challenges that energize you
- Spiritual grounding: meaning, purpose, or connection beyond your role
- Community and belonging: relationships where people know more than your title
- Purpose and impact: work that reflects your values
- Rest and recovery: genuine restoration rather than “performing resilience”
- Joy and pleasure: activities you pursue simply because they delight you
Do not turn this into another performance review. Notice the pattern. Where are you thriving? Where are you depleted? What have you postponed so long that “later” has become “never”?
Your answers reveal where your leadership capacity needs investment.
Replace Judgment with Curiosity
The most actionable practice is also one of the simplest: replace self-judgment with curiosity.
When you notice frustration, avoidance, or exhaustion, pause before criticizing yourself. Ask:
- “What is this telling me?”
- “What do I need right now?”
- “What value of mine is not being honored?”
Judgment closes the loop. Curiosity opens it.
This practice helps you identify whether you need a boundary, a conversation, delegation, recovery, support, or a change in direction. You do not need to solve everything in the moment. Start by listening.
Make Sustainable Leadership Your Strategy
Your strengths are not separate from your wellbeing. They flourish when you have the capacity to use them intentionally.
Through executive and career coaching, I empower leaders to connect strengths, purpose, and sustainable performance so they can do their best work without sacrificing their best life. Organizations can also explore my Healthy and Productive Workplace Playbooks to make wellbeing part of the broader culture: not just an individual responsibility.
Self-care is not stepping away from leadership.
It is how you remain capable of leading with clarity, courage, creativity, and staying power.
Source and attribution: This post synthesizes “Self-Care Is the Birthplace of Innovation” by Belinda Pruyne, published by Chief Research findings are attributed to the sources cited by Pruyne.
If you want to create a culture where peak performance also honors employee wellbeing, I’d love to be part of that transformation.
#SustainableLeadership #WomenInLeadership #BurnoutPrevention #ExecutiveCoaching #WorkplaceWellbeing #Innovation Mindset #CarolineDowdHiggins #keynoteSpeaker
