← Becker Business
Becker Business
Recharging Your Batteries for Sustainable Leadership with Liz Hutson of EGH, LLC 12-19-25
00:07:20
Loading summary
Transcript12 lines
- [00:00]
A
Hello and welcome to the Becker Private Equity and the Becker Business Podcast. My name is Chanel Bunger. Today I'm excited to speak with regular guest Liz Hudson, principal consultant and owner, EGH llc, who joins us today to discuss the topic of the importance of recharging your batteries. Liz, thank you as always for joining me.
- [00:18]
B
Thanks, Chanel. It's always great to talk with you.
- [00:21]
A
Perfect. Well, can you get us started by briefly introducing yourself to listeners who may not be acquainted with you yet?
- [00:27]
B
Absolutely, yeah. Chanel, I'm Liz Hudson and I'm the founder and principal consultant of EGH, llc. And we are an organization that is focused on health care products and services consulting and we focus primarily on private equity space that's been us. And actually in five days we'll be celebrating our 14 year anniversary.
- [00:51]
A
Well, congratulations on that. And now jumping into the topic. Why is it so important to intentionally recharge our batteries? Especially in a culture that constantly rewards speed, output and busyness?
- [01:04]
B
Yeah, it's true. We, we live in a go, go, go culture. And oftentimes it feels like our worth, our very worth, is measured by output. How much we produce, how fast we move, how many balls we keep up in the air. And while that breakneck speed that we keep can be really exciting and even fun sometimes, there's certainly a cost. And so today I would like to talk about why recharging our batteries isn't just a nice to have self care, a luxury, if you will. It's actually an essential leadership strategy. And it's important because when our energy is depleted, we're at our worst. Right? We make poor decisions, we have shorter fuses, we tend to handle tough conversations badly just because we're spread so thin. Right. We're not thinking clearly. And here's the irony of the whole thing is that when things feel the most urgent and the most chaotic and the most out of control, rest is usually the first thing that we sacrifice. But here's the thing, we can't go hard again. We can't go in it and do that hard work, go, go, go, high production, high speed kind of thing until the energy is replenished. So that recharge, refocus really brings clarity and direction. And so that's why that's really important for us. And it's particularly important here at the end of the year.
- [02:36]
A
Got it. Got it. And now that we know why it's important, how can people practically build rest and renewal into their lives?
- [02:43]
B
Yeah, this is hard to do, especially with folks that are moving so fast and we want to go when we want to produce. It's hard to really think through how to do this. And I get this question a lot because I do speak on this topic. Quite a lot of building in rest and recovery, Liz. But when am I going to find the time? So I'm going to give three ideas here to walk through this. The first one is to really just build in boundaries and space for recovery. So that's just got to be something that we acknowledge and say this is something that's important. We're going to build the boundaries into it. So what does that mean? It doesn't have to mean a long vacation, although sometimes it can mean that, but it doesn't have to. What it does mean, though, is creating intentional space into your day, into your week, and put that time on the calendar, whether it's a half hour, hour, something like that on your calendar, guard that time, protect that time, just the same way that you would protect that time for a high stakes presentation or, or an executive meeting. Because the thing is, it is high stakes and your leadership and your ability to produce depends on your ability to really recharge and be present again. The first thing is building in boundaries for that space and recovery. The second thing is a really hard word to incorporate into our vocabulary. I know I had a really hard time inserting this into my vocabulary and that word is no. And again, it does not roll off the tongue easily, particularly for me. But I think what I saw and as I started to make this more of a practice is that every time I say yes to something without thinking about it, just reacting and saying, of course I'll beat, of course I'll do that. Every yes that I say is actually a no to something else. So the things that are on my clear agenda, the things that are really going to move the needle every time I say yes to something that's not on that, it's no to, that's on my focus agenda. And every yes is going to cost energy. So strategically saying no isn't. Isn't being difficult. Like you're not trying to be difficult to other people. It's just about protecting what matters the most in your life and in your leadership and to your legacy, really. Right. So the first one again is building in boundaries and space. The second thing is incorporating that word no into your vocabulary. And the third thing, and it's why I wanted to talk about this here in December, towards the end of the year, is using the end of the year very intentionally for this sort of thing is perfect. Right It's a powerful pause point. It's a very natural opportunity to look back, rest, reflect, ask yourself things like what went well, what could have gone better? And importantly, where am I headed next as a leader, as a family member, as a child, as a parent, as a friend? Right. Where am I headed next? And, you know, when I think about all of that, you know, why it's important, how do we do it? I think really rest isn't quitting. It's not, you know, something that we're doing that is a luxury or something that makes us less than, it's refueling. And I believe that the leaders who do this well, and I see this a lot, right, I see the best of the best leaders, the ones who do this well, they don't just perform better. They're able to navigate the hardest situations with clarity, with confidence, with steadiness. They're the ones that people want to follow. They're the ones that, when you look back at their life, when you look back at their legacy, you're just like, wow, how did that happen? And I really believe that has to do with intentional recharge, refocus, and this ability to lean into that energy that was built up for taking time out.
- [06:38]
A
Perfect. Thank you so much for walking us through that, Liz. Is there anything else that listeners should know?
- [06:43]
B
No. I would just say here in the last couple weeks, finish strong, but carve out time, particularly at this time of the year, to take some time, take some time for yourself, take some time with family and with friends and really just enjoy that season so that you come into the fresh new year with a lot of energy and focus and you're able to just hit it hard and be strong in the next year.
- [07:06]
A
Absolutely. Well, Liz, I want to thank you once again and as always for joining me today and sharing your insights on the Becker Private Equity and the Becker Business podcast. Thank you so much.
- [07:15]
B
Thanks, Chanel. Great to talk with you.