The Pause Before the Push
Every year around this time, I feel it — that collective tightening in the air.
Deadlines, report cards, holiday planning, year-end metrics, “one more meeting before break.”
It’s the season of the push — the final sprint before the finish line. And for leaders, that can feel like a moral imperative: keep going, keep holding it all together, keep proving your worth.
But what if leadership doesn’t always mean acceleration? What if the real skill is knowing when to pause?
The illusion of “finishing strong”
We love that phrase. It sounds noble. But in practice, “finish strong” often turns into finish frantic — a sprint powered by caffeine, guilt, and the quiet fear that resting means falling behind.
The truth is, most organizations don’t fall apart because someone took a breath. They fall apart because no one did.
When leaders refuse to rest, they model depletion as devotion. And that message ripples outward — through teams, families, classrooms, and communities.
The pause as strategy
Pausing isn’t weakness. It’s intelligence.
Great leaders step back not because they’re disengaged, but because they’re discerning. They know they can’t read the map if their face is pressed against it.
Taking a beat in early November — before the year-end push — lets you recalibrate:
What deserves your best energy this season?
What’s simply noise?
And what can wait until January without the world ending?
As Ron Heifetz wrote, leadership requires getting off the dance floor and onto the balcony. The pause is the balcony.
Modeling rest as leadership
When you take a breath, your people do too.
When you say, “We can slow down here,” others remember they’re allowed to be human.
One of my mentors used to say, “If you don’t take a pause, the pause will take you.”
I’ve lived that truth — in classrooms, boardrooms, and life transitions alike.
The pause always comes. The choice is whether it’s intentional or involuntary.
Before you launch into your to-do list, take five minutes to answer these:
What am I holding that isn’t mine to carry?
What can I set down, even briefly, to make space for peace?
What would “finishing gently” look like this year?
Then take one action to make that gentler version real — a canceled meeting, a shorter email, a genuine walk outside instead of another scroll break.
Because here’s the secret:
The pause isn’t the opposite of progress.
It’s the preparation for it.
Share in the comments: What does your pause look like this month? Or forward this to a fellow leader who needs permission to breathe.
