Here’s my beef! Helping your team with the art of strategic pausing

Here’s my beef! Helping your team with the art of strategic pausing

We live in times when careers take unpredictable turns, and executive careers are not exception.

I have found F&L challenging and insightful over some years and will soon talk about “managing your team in the changing times” in a special online session for other Members. 

In the meantime, the uncertainty of the moment might keep you and your team longing for more control.  They might think that changing jobs would open new perspectives and give more stability. But grass isn’t greener on the other side, and the ideal of a sustainable executive career – the career aligned with the employee’s values, taking place in a supportive and constructive business environment – is fading everywhere with the booming “radical business optimization” trends and “polycrisis” reality.

What can you do to improve their and your working life and retain leadership composure?

Here’s my beef:

– Make sure to fully integrate the most recent developments into their and your lives. Let’s say your organization went through a transformation and your team, which used to be all in the same place, now is located across various regions and time zones. And you can’t travel regularly to sit face-to-face with them due to budget restrictions. Answer a few questions: “How do they feel?  Did you have a chance to make a conscious effort to change your management style? Have you adjusted the idea of your managerial and personal accountability? Are you – or they – building a cathedral where a presentable tent will do? Are you exhibiting presence where it matters?” If leaders find their jobs to be exhausting now, there’s no reason to think that a new job will be kinder; instead, we can all be kind and considerate to ourselves while optimizing our current positioning.

– Build a flexible professional identity – as flexible as you and they only can. A majority of corporate executives find comfort in hiding behind their company brand and working titles. Don’t let this outlook limit perspective. It can be useful to start seeing professional activities as a portfolio rather than a predestination. Don’t forget that a network based on corporate titles is fickle and greedy. Choose relevance of their and your professional identity over status, and be flexible and strategic about it.

– Check hormonal status and adjust routine to physical needs. Long gone are the times when executives came close to their retirement age feeling sprite and energetic. The physical and emotional demands of a corporate job today takes the toll on our health way before retirement, and hormonal health is the first to suffer. Not liking the mirror reflection, not sleeping well, seeing emotional reactions out of control are clean signs.  Encourage an extensive checkup and following doctors’ advice. Taking ownership of one’s health is a huge global trend and it pays hundredfold.

These are just a few things but start practising them responsibly, and our teams’ performance & satisfaction in current roles can positively surprise us with new perspectives!

Elena Kharlamova
August 2026