Hippie CEO Life #80 - Secure Your Own Mask First

A behind the scenes view of building a more humanistic company.

“In the event of a sudden drop in pressure, an oxygen mask will drop from above. Secure your own mask first before assisting others.”

When we choose to be more empathetic leaders. When we choose to build our businesses and our teams around seeing people not as inanimate parts of a machine but as humans. When we reject toxic machiavellian business strategies for more humanistic ones, we often tend to put ourselves last.

In fact, there is a really popular quote from Simon Sinek that says, “When it matters, leaders choose to eat last.”

And while the sentiment from Mr. Sinek, regarding great leaders, is true, there is a very important nuance that needs to be addressed.

When you are a caring leader, that is constantly putting yourself last, deprioritizing your own mental and physical wellbeing, you will quickly get to a place where you are mentally and physically no longer able to lead.

Then what?

In the traditional business world, stepping away from “doing work” to focus on self-care, things like personal growth, mental health, and physical wellbeing are often viewed as something you do on your own personal time, not company time. “When you are at work, you work.”

But i would argue that self-care not only is part of work, it’s actually the most important part of work - that is unless you view yourself and others simply as inanimate parts of a machine that are quickly replaced as soon as they breakdown.

As a leader, putting your own mask on first is not a selfish act, it’s actually an act of great love and care for the people you lead.

✌🏼💛