My number one challenge is increasing my consistency as a leader. When I was writing software, it was OK/anticipated to "crunch" sometimes. In these scenarios, I'd overwork myself, but, in exchange, a lot of code would get written and the project would come in on-time. My personality/emotional state would suffer a bit from it, but then I'd take some time to recoup/prevent burn-out and all is good.

Now, I feel like the game is played differently. Good leaders are healthy and consistent because that provides a psychological safe space for others to work within. A good leader keeps themselves available enough to act as a shield for their reports. That takes energy. If one fails to budget energy effectively, or generally lacks energy, the veil will become pierced and reports become disenchanted with their leader. Rebuilding that trust costs more energy than it did to lose it - which sparks a vicious cycle.

This has been a pretty tough mental shift for me. My default response whenever a problem gets tough is to "gear down," settle in for a long-haul, and push myself to carry us to the finish line. That's no longer the way to succeed.