Welcome to STANDOUT From The Crowd.
I'm Darine, and if you are anything like me, you have probably been through a few unexpected twists on your journey.
My plan A was to be a diplomat, but life had other plans, leading me to become an impact entrepreneur and champion for women's leadership.
Sometimes life has a funny way of throwing us curveballs, right?
I have always wondered, why fit in when you were born to stand out?
In this podcast, I sit down with remarkable women leaders who have embraced their unique path, defied expectations, and created lasting impact.
We dive into their stories, explore their mindset, their resilience, and the strategies that help them succeed even when life throws stones in their path.
Whether it's insights on personal growth, strategies to amplify your visibility, or tips to boost your well-being and overall productivity, you will find the inspiration you need to unlock your full potential.
Tune in for conversations that will empower you to stand out in your career, in your life, and in everything that you do.
Because listen, here, we don't just follow the crowd. We STANDOUT.
Welcome back!
This is episode 102, the next and last one of our Summer Reset series.
In the previous episodes, we talked about pausing, reflecting, and we honestly looked at what this year has taught us so far. But today, we are talking about what happens after the pause.
We are talking about the return, or in other words, back to work mode.
Here is the truth. How you return from your pause, your summer vacation, will determine whether all that reflection actually transforms into your leadership or if it was just wishful thinking.
There is one thing that I have never heard someone talking about: most returns from vacation fail.
Why? Because we underestimate the pull of old patterns.
In fact, research from Deloitte shows that over 70% of professionals abandon their reset intentions within the first three weeks of returning to work.
The meetings, the overflowing inbox, the deadlines, they all conspire to drag us back into autopilot.
Ambitious women leaders are especially at risk because when you carry so much for your teams, your families, and your communities, the temptation to prove yourself and your productivity is huge.
And there is a paradox here.
We pause during summer to recharge, but the second we return to work, we sprint.
Who can relate?
The same Deloitte study showed that 72% of professionals return from time off only to feel burned out within fourteen days—within days of your vacation.
This is insane.
Why? Because they rush back into the exact same habits that drained them in the first place. When you return rushed, your brain stays in survival mode, reactive, not creative.
Rooted leadership, on the other hand, activates your prefrontal cortex, the part responsible for clarity, vision, and innovation.
This is what is needed from you.
But there is a strategy to help you cope with this dilemma, this paradox situation. This strategy is called the bridging week.
Think of it as a soft landing.
Instead of diving into back-to-back meetings, use your first week back to transition gradually.
Block one no-meeting day.
Spend one hour revisiting your reflection notes. You know, the notes that you took during summer when you were pausing, reflecting in order to realign yourself with your goal and with the way you do things—you know, with your leadership, with your workflow, etcetera.
Oftentimes, we think about a lot of things when we pause, but then as we rush back into work mode, we forget most of it.
So take time to review your notes so you don't forget all the work that you have done on yourself, all the reflection that you have done throughout summer.
Prioritize to your team, not ten, because it's going to burn you out, it's going to burn your team out.
This strategy matters because behavioral research shows that it takes twenty-one days to embed a new habit, but only three days of old patterns to undo it.
See where the challenge is?
So the bridging week ensures that the clarity you gained during your reset actually survives reentry.
Actually, there is a science behind all of this. Have you heard about the term "sustainable ambition"?
Studies from Stanford University show that ambition without recovery decreases long-term performance by 35%.
Meanwhile, leaders who integrate reflection and micro habits see increases in creativity, problem-solving, and decision-making by up to 31%.
This is the entire purpose of this summer reset series: to help you pause so you can come back to work stronger, more aligned with your energy.
And this last episode is really for you to return back to work without burning yourself out and that you stick to your objectives of well-being and sustainable leadership.
The objective is not to shrink your goal, but to pursue it in a way that doesn't cost your health, your relationship, or happiness.
Because success without sustainability is not success at all.
Success at the cost of your well-being, success at the cost of your health is not success at all.
It doesn't mean returning to work rooted. It's not about rituals or adding new practices.
We covered that in the previous episodes. It's about holding on to the clarity you gained during your pause and refusing to let it be swallowed by the noise.
Rooted returns look like saying no to opportunities that don't match your mid-year clarity.
This one is a big one. It’s also about learning that your well-being fuels your performance, not your exhaustion.
And allowing yourself to be seen differently as a leader who values depth over speed. It's about protecting the wisdom you earned in the summer pause.
Now I want to leave you with one question.
When your people, your team members, see you stepping back into your leadership role this quarter, what do you want them to notice that is different?
Not about working harder, not about moving faster, but being more rooted, more aligned, and simply more you.
So what does it look like, and what do you want them to notice that is different?
I would like to end this episode with a mantra that I believe is powerful.
“Reflection gives you wisdom. Returning with intention gives you power.”
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review. Your feedback helps us to grow and bring more valuable content.
Until next time, bye.
