Showing Up As Leaders - Even When We Are Tired.

Let’s talk about being tired.

Not the I stayed up too late watching ridiculously funny puppy reels. I mean the kind of tired that lives somewhere between your shoulder blades and your soul.

The kind where you’re running on caffeine, adrenaline, muscle memory, and the faint hope that tomorrow’s calendar will magically clear itself.

Leadership tired hits different. Because when you’re tired, you don’t get to just… stop.

• You still have humans.

• You still have decisions.

• You still have expectations.

• You still have a team looking at you like you have the answers, even on the days you can’t remember where you parked.

And yet…Here we are. Still showing up.

The Truth No One Puts on the Leadership Posters

Everyone loves to talk about leaders being visionary, resilient, confident, passionate. No one talks about leaders being tired. No one prints cute graphics that say:

• Lead boldly even when you want to take a nap on your desk. (Maybe I will make this a poster, what do you think?)

But maybe we should. Because being tired doesn’t make you broken. It makes you real.

It means you’re in the arena, carrying weight that matters.

Leadership isn’t hard because we’re doing it wrong. Leadership can be hard because it requires something of us - our attention, our energy, our ability to communicate when we’d rather retreat into silence.

Being tired isn’t a failure. It’s evidence.

The Three Kinds of Tired (and the Leadership Lessons Hiding in Each)

1. The Good Tired: This is the tired that says, “I gave something today.” You poured into a team member. You solved a problem that didn’t want to be solved. You navigated a conflict with more grace than you thought you had.

Leadership Lesson: Impact is heavy and beautiful at the same time.

2. The Emotional Tired: This is the tired that comes from carrying the emotional temperature of the room even when you didn’t set the thermostat. You’re reading faces, navigating tone shifts, catching the sighs no one else hears, and absorbing the unspoken stuff that leaders feel before anyone says a word.

Leadership Lesson: Emotional labor is still labor. Make space to reset or the weight starts leading you instead of the other way around.

3. The Everything Is Piling Up Tired: This is the tired where your keys disappear, your inbox mocks you, and you cry when the song Happy comes on by Pharrell Williams 😊.

Leadership Lesson: Your humanity is not an inconvenience to your leadership, it is the reason you lead with empathy.

The Real Leadership Skill: Staying Grounded When You’re Worn Out

When you’re tired, you see your defaults. Your reactions show up unfiltered. Your patience gets thinner. Your assumptions get louder.

But also? Your wisdom gets clearer. Because tired strips away the performance. Tired shows you what you actually value.

When I’m worn out, I remember:

• I don’t want to lead fast; I want to lead well.

• I want to honor the people I serve.

• I want to keep perspective… even when life is heavy.

• I want to be the leader who can say, “Yep, today was a lot,” and still stand tall tomorrow.

This is the kind of leadership people trust, the kind that’s real, grounded, and honest.

A Gentle Reminder for Leaders Who Are Tired

• You don’t need to fix everything today.

• You don’t need to have perfect energy.

• You don’t need to be superhuman.

Because leadership isn’t the absence of fatigue. Leadership is choosing to show up with intention, even when you’re tired.