TIP #2 – Lead With Care Not Exhaustion

Dear aspiring change-maker, future and current social entrepreneurs

Tip no2: Lead with care, not exhaustion

When creating a social enterprise or working for a purpose driven business, there is a lot to do and little time to rest.

In a company, there is always more money to make. In a social enterprise, there is always that one additional person you could reach and help if only you work a little harder.

At Micro Rainbow, the social enterprise I founded, we support LGBTQI people fleeing persecution. It is not uncommon to receive a call late on a Friday afternoon—from someone who is suddenly street homeless, desperate for a safe place to sleep, or from a terrified person detained in an immigration centre, fearing for their safety. These are just two of the countless heartbreaking situations we encounter.

In these moments, we face an impossible choice:

• Do we step in and help?
• Do we stay late at the office, or do we go home to rest?
• Can we sit down for dinner with our loved ones, knowing that someone will be sleeping on the streets because we didn’t act?

The weight of these decisions is relentless. In social entrepreneurship, the work doesn’t end when the office closes—but neither does the need to protect our own well-being.

It is a tough balance to achieve. In my case, I did not really want or feel the need to rest; my passion and determination were (and still are) so strong that I felt I could keep going and going. I also felt I had to be the strong one to help others.
 
At the beginning of the life of a social enterprise, there are many pressures on our time:

• from financial responsibilities (how will we pay salaries in three months’ time?!)
• to managing teams (there is more to do than people who can do it)
• to building a strong foundation that can propel the social enterprise forward (long meetings with lawyers, accountants, HR professionals…).

However, in my experience, an emotionally intelligent and well resourced social entrepreneur and leader is much more effective and ultimately successful.
 
It took me more than 10 years to learn that.

During that time and with the help of my incredible team, we did build a successful social enterprise that attracted multi-million pounds of social investment. But it came at a cost.

My focus on “doing, doing, and doing” as opposed to “being” damaged my well-being, both physical and mental. Burnout affects us in different ways. For me, it manifested as body pain and chronic fatigue. I am on the path to recovery. It is a lengthy process where I need to create more time for “being” and less for “doing”. Working 12 hours a day really only gets you so far!
 
Based on my experience, my invitation to you, change-makers, fellow and aspiring social entrepreneurs, is to:

• establish self-care practices early on:
  • Lunch walks?
  • Drinking less?
  • Using that yoga class that your partner got you for Christmas?;
• keep practising them. It takes time to fully believe we are worth the rest and care and to change habits as a results;
• challenge your limiting beliefs:
  • Why am I resisting taking time off work to go for a walk?
  • What am I numbing with a couple of martinis before dinner?
  • What is stopping me from saying “no” to late nights at work?

The temptation (as it was for me) might be to neglect your well-being because there is so much to do, so many people to help. If you are young, like I was, you may feel invincible and have the stamina and physical strength to work endless hours. However, your body will remember every time you neglected to take care of it, and eventually it will stop serving you. 
 
Prioritising our well-being does not detract from the cause. On the contrary, it brings something very valuable to the cause and the social enterprise movement: a social entrepreneur who is more in tune with their instincts, more effective in achieving their social impact, and better equipped at staying positive and applying a coaching mindset. It also helps us role model leaders who lead with self-care and not exhaustion: by practising this leadership style, we give permission to our colleagues and peers to also look after themselves.

Ultimately, working nonstop isn’t sustainable, and self-care is essential for long-term impact especially when working for a cause which requires a whole village of emotions.

With my very best wishes for your purpose driven career

Sebastian

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@sebastianrocca @buildasocialenterprise