The Leadership Weight You Don’t Have to Carry
At a recent resilience workshop for nonprofit leaders, I closed with the question, “What can you give yourself permission to let go?”
Some shared the desire to release specific responsibilities:
A board role at another organization
Tech and software management
Grant writing
My over-packed calendar
But most ran deeper:
Trying to do it all
Overthinking
The pursuit of perfection
Super high expectations of myself
Saying yes to everything
The need to be everything to everyone
Worrying about what other people think
Not trusting my team
Holding on to outdated ways of working
Believing I’m not good enough
These responses reflect the mental and emotional burdens so many nonprofit leaders quietly carry, often without realizing how much they’re getting in the way of clarity, impact, and well-being.
Weightless, watercolor by Ian Mutton
Sure, we can keep saying yes. We can keep adding more appointments to our calendars, more responsibilities to our plates, and more pressure on our shoulders to somehow hold it all together.
We don’t need anyone’s permission to keep adding. Most of us are already experts at that.
But, too often, we have it backwards. While we’re focused on adding more, we’re just crowding our headspace, draining our energy, and making it harder to sustain our best work.
It’s ironic, because the word “focus” implies prioritization. It implies less, not more.
If I could shout three things from the rooftops to leaders, they would be: You can’t do it all. You can’t be good at everything. But you can lighten the pressure of what’s weighing you down.
This requires permission—from you, to you. Permission to stop carrying what isn’t yours to hold. Permission to say no. Permission to stay centered on your organization’s priorities. Permission to lead in a way that’s sustainable, not exhausting.
That’s why we created our new Grounded Growth Assessment—a reflective tool to help leaders pinpoint where they’re feeling the heaviest weight right now—and where to focus first to lighten the load.
If you’re carrying more than one person can really hold, this is a good way to identify what you can finally set down.