Are You Swimming Against the Current? What I Realized & Changed.

One of the things that have been top of mind for me is how and where I use my energy. A while back I found myself feeling quite fatigued, and so I spent some time reflecting on it. Here's what I came up with, and why I think it applies to most leaders right now.

The Adrenal Slump and the Cost of Constant Activity

Carl Sanders Edwards once spoke at one of Jumpshift's "Morning Tea with Mark" sessions about the adrenal slump. As somebody who likes to be busy and feel useful and involved, I found myself spending a lot of energy doing "activity". Whether that be attending meetings, reaching out to people for coaching and mentoring, or simply trying to find a way around whatever the current obstacle happened to be. As a result, I was feeling some fatigue creeping in.

Whilst I have been making some great progress, it hasn't all gone well. As someone who has nearly always been able to push through just about any challenge through sheer force of will, I have had to approach things a little differently. The good news is, I've been able to bottle that "difference" into something which hopefully connects with others too.

The River Model: Four States of Being

I put a model together a couple of years ago when I was coaching overseas. It talks about four different states of being, measured on two axes. Our existence is like us being in a fast-flowing river. The axes are our effort versus our sense of control toward our goals.

I reflected that I had been spending an awful lot of energy swimming against the current. And the current, at certain points in any leader's journey, is in the midst of a flash flood, with an inevitable extra volume and pressure that even the strongest swimmer might find challenging.

After a number of conversations with clients and other mentors about what was a struggle right now, I concluded it was utterly okay to just float for a short while.

Floating: Letting Go of Control

Floating allows us to be swept along with the current and recover some energy. The critical piece for me was giving up a sense of control about where I was headed, whilst the current was too much to resist. Floating requires us to accept and be comfortable that we are going to be going in the same direction as everyone else for a bit, and that we are not in control.

The danger, of course, is that we are floating down a river with no visibility of what's ahead, and so when a submerged hazard, a rapid or a dangerous waterfall appears, it can come as a surprise. So whilst floating, we need to still be thinking.

Treading Water: Regaining Control

We then want to gradually move from floating to treading water. Treading water is us being back in more control, with our head up, looking around, making a plan for a future swim, and then setting off swimming against the current when the moment is right.

After the Rapids, You Are Somewhere New

This is worth sitting with. A river only flows in one direction, downstream. Calmer water doesn't mean you're back where you started before the rapids. You are further downstream, surrounded by a different landscape. The belief that things will simply revert to how they were is, in my experience, a fallacy. What follows a period of intense pressure is not a return to normal. It is a new set of conditions that requires fresh thinking.

Why This Model Matters for Leaders

It struck me that this model is one I should be sharing more widely, to help other leaders put themselves into one of the four quadrants and consider the positive and negative consequences of their current situation.

The secret of success in any new landscape will be the result of great choices and actions made now, not frantic activity. My belief is that constantly swimming against the current will not lead to success.

Your Team Is in the River Too

It is easy, when you are focused on your own energy and direction, to forget that every person on your team is navigating the same current. Some have been exhilarated by the challenge. Others have been terrified. Some have swallowed water and need immediate assistance. Like a good white water rafting coach, you want to check in and make sure everyone made it through unscathed before you push hard again.

Team members who have been grinding through high intensity and stress, adjusting to new circumstances while managing all manner of personal pressures, are not simply ready to sprint the moment calmer water appears. Some will be so tired that they are effectively drowning and simply need support to get back to positive action.

Good leaders hold space for the emotional strain employees have experienced alongside the commercial pressures on the business, whether that is in a group setting or one on one. Ask your team members to reflect on what they have experienced. It gives both you and them greater insight into their level of resilience or fragility before you push back into delivery. Run that reflection as a structured conversation and give your team the questions in advance. My current reflection and one to one templates sit in the free resources library, including four simple questions to sharpen your one on ones.

The Hidden Costs of Ignoring the Transition

There will be some team members who fear walking back into full pace and hearing their leader say, in effect, "You've had a break, let's just get back into it, we've got time to make up for." The words might not land exactly like that, but the imagined implication, and the sense that their effort has been overlooked, sits high on their anxiety radar.

These figures from Perceptive are worth paying attention to. Well-being is affected by how leaders respond during and after periods of intense pressure.

• Almost a quarter of employees believe their employer hasn't done enough to support them.
• Just under half hold a changed perspective of their employer. Of this group, two thirds feel more positive while the remainder are less favourable.
• Over a third of employed New Zealanders are either considering a career change or are unsure whether they will stay with their current employer.
• Of those who are definitely changing their career, three out of five are not confident they will be able to make the transition.

With one in three employees considering a career change, this may also be the moment for leaders to examine how their business might adapt to allow aspirational people to migrate their careers and stay. CEB figures put the cost of replacing an employee at between 140 and 260% of their salary, so retaining people by letting them work more flexibly on things they care about makes commercial sense.

Leading Through a VUCA Environment

In employees' minds, they may be experiencing what I'd call Ultra-VUCA: an extreme version of Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity. The often quoted, often misused phrase "VUCA" suggests that everything is in chaos and that we and our teams have little power to do anything about it strategically, that we are only reactive. That is not the case. There are two axes in the VUCA model.

1. How well we can predict the results of our activities.
2. How much we know about the situation we are facing.

Even when we don't know much and can't predict much, we can still lead proactively. The key is to be honest with your team about what you know and what you don't, and to keep making decisions rather than waiting for certainty that may not arrive.

New Dynamics That Demand Attention

As conditions shift and teams reconfigure, a new set of practical challenges tends to emerge that leaders underestimate.

Blended and Mixed-State Teams

When some people are working in a shared space and others are not, you create a new dynamic of mixed-state teams. How do you conduct a meeting when half the people are in the room and half aren't? Inevitably those physically present can read the room and interact more readily. Those not present may struggle to get their viewpoints across or offer interjection at opportune moments. This requires strong communication and an inclusive organisational culture.

The Risk of Proximity Bias

Leaders who default to solving problems with whoever is physically closest risk excluding the very people whose perspective matters most. There will be occasions where the people in the room are simply not the right people. Those not in the room may feel deliberately isolated from proceedings, intentionally or not. Being conscious of this bias is not a soft consideration. It is a practical one with direct consequences for decision quality and team cohesion.

Those Who Cannot Return

Some team members may not be able to return to a shared space at all, due to childcare responsibilities or other personal circumstances. These people can end up feeling left out or, worse, quietly disadvantaged as everyone else settles back in. Leaders must actively work against that drift.

Autonomy and the Desire for a New Way of Working

Others may have genuinely thrived with greater autonomy and will find it difficult if old management styles are simply reapplied. Their eyes have been opened to a different way of working. If that is not acknowledged, you risk losing some of your most capable people to organisations that will accommodate it.

Knowing When Resistance Is Draining You

While swimming against the current is sometimes framed as a form of individuality or determination, it is important to recognise when that resistance is simply draining your resources without moving you forward. True originality and strategic thinking require energy. Constant struggle without strategy consumes it.

Embracing your autonomy as a leader doesn't mean taking unnecessary risks or engaging in endless opposition to circumstances you cannot control. It means reading the river accurately, choosing your moments, and leading your team with enough in reserve to matter when it counts.