S5 E17 - Redefining Public Health Leadership: The Rested Leader

In this episode, I'm back on the Region 4 Public Health Training Center's Leading Public Health podcast for part two of our series on redefining public health leadership. We're talking about rest as resistance and why modeling rest for your team is essential.

The system many of us work in runs on our exhaustion. Exhausted people comply.

They can't think strategically or innovate; they just survive. So when you rest, you're saying your humanity matters more than the urgency.

I've been the exhausted leader who made poor decisions because I was too tired to think, so I'm speaking from experience. We also unpack why rest gets overlooked: the guilt, the myth that our worth equals our productivity, and the fear that everything will fall apart if we step away. (Spoiler: it won't.) Your team is watching.

You're either modeling sustainability or self-destruction. What does resting out loud look like? ✨ Block rest on your calendar like a board meeting ✨ Use your PTO and respect your team's time off ✨ Start meetings with five minutes of quiet ✨ Add "respond when it works for you" to your email signature ✨ Track team well-being as a KPI You can't individual-effort your way out of systemic exhaustion.

Rest has to be built into our structures. Rest is your weapon.

If we rest together, we rebuild together. Key Points from This Episode: Rest as a form of resistance against systemic exhaustion [02:01 to 11:03] The impact of leadership well-being on team health [18:57 to 25:50] Practical strategies for integrating rest into work culture [29:35 to 36:33] The societal and systemic barriers to rest in public health [12:03 to 18:20] The importance of modeling and organizational support for rest [37:45 to 45:03] Rest as a tool for strategic decision-making and resilience [22:11 to 25:50] If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and leave a review!

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