Leaders need hobbies.

Thoughts on resilience and our relationship to work.

I recently went down a bit of a rabbit hole learning about the health benefits of hobbies - one NIH study in particular laid out the mental, physical, and social  benefits of having leisure time activities or hobbies. The findings suggest that having a hobby (or a few hobbies) can increase our resilience, help us navigate stressful situations, decrease depression and anxiety, and boost our sense of well-being and fulfillment. Emerging from my research rabbit hole, the message I want to share with you is this: Leaders need hobbies. 

Resilience. Leisure time activities or hobbies increase our resilience. Resilience is absolutely vital for leaders. As leaders we often bear an increased burden of stress, responsibility, and ownership. We might also face more exposure or visibility into uncertainty and change, given our positions in the organization. To consistently show up ready to serve those we lead, we need to be resilient - not be perfect, but able to bounce back from challenge, change, or failure in a constructive and solutions oriented way. It may seem counterintuitive or even selfish, but spending time doing a hobby can actually help us be better leaders at work. Something to try: If you have a hobby - plan out the next two instances in which you will practice or do that hobby. Mark it on your calendar, protect it, be present while you do it. If you don’t currently have a hobby - what is one activity you have been curious about trying? Plan when you will try it. Mark it on your calendar, protect it, be present while you do it.  

Multidimensionality. When our sole focus is work, our relationship to work can shift in problematic ways. In my work with coaching clients I notice this phenomenon crop up often. When we allow work to become our primary or sole source of key drivers like affirmation, stimulation, connection, or learning we can lose important perspective. For example, if work is our sole focus, work challenges can become existential and all consuming, work relationship dynamics can keep us up at night, we may conflate our personal worthiness with our performance at work, or we might consistently choose work over other things in our lives we have named as our top priorities. Hobbies provide an essential element of multidimensionality for leaders. A source of energy, engagement, learning, and joy outside of work broadens our human experience, supports us in relating to work in the way we want to, gives us perspective and distance, and reminds us of the place work holds in our lives.  Something to try: Take a few minutes and reflect in writing in response to the following prompts: What are the key sources of motivation and meaning in your life? What is your current relationship to work? What is your ideal relationship to work? What is one thing you can do to move closer to that ideal?

Healthy outlet. When work monopolizes our lives, we create a closed loop with no healthy outlet to process or metabolize our stress and no source from which to replenish our energy. As an extreme example, during a year-long deployment to Iraq, my sole focus seven days a week was our unit’s mission, and rightly so. I experienced no real separation between duty time and personal time, carried a loaded weapon at all times, and wore a uniform constantly. Toward the end of the year, I noticed increased irritability, decreased patience, and a diminished sense of who I was outside of my rank and leadership role. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to lead soldiers in combat and to serve alongside inspiring individuals in such a challenging environment. I share these observations not as a complaint but as an illustrative example. While not many leaders will experience this extreme level of immersion, it highlights the importance of having healthy outlets—hobbies, pastimes, or other processing conduits outside of work where we can release, metabolize, disconnect, and re-energize ourselves.

One-dimensionality is a hazard leaders need to be mindful of. We are much more resilient, stable, healthy, and better able to serve those we lead when we have sources of energy, joy, connection, and meaning outside of work. I hope this gives you some new ideas about how to resource yourself as a leader through a pastime or hobby.

Onward,

Emily

About this newsletter: A Human Endeavor is a newsletter that I write about leadership - it is imperfect. For me, it is an exercise in reflection, clarification, sharing, learning, growing, and being of service to others.

If you are interested in exploring 1:1 Leadership Coaching with me or a leadership development workshop for your team - I’d love to chat with you. Please reach out to me at emily@osomar.com or you can use this link to find some time.