Your Baseline Matters: Leadership on the Hard Days
Your Baseline Matters: Leadership on the Hard Days
I used to believe grit only showed up on my best days.
You know—the days when everything clicks, energy is high, and momentum feels easy.
But real life taught me something much more humbling:
We don’t rise to the level of our goals; we sink to the level of our habits.
Your baseline matters.
When the energy dips, when the fires start popping, when things feel heavy—what’s the least you’ll still do to serve your people and propel the mission?
For leaders, I’ve narrowed it down to three non-negotiables. These are the minimums I’ve committed to, even on the hardest days:
Consistent cadence.
Reach out. Follow up. Check in.
Even if your voice cracks from exhaustion. Silence breeds stories; steady touchpoints build trust.Transparent communication.
Name what’s hard. Share what’s next. Invite ideas.
Teams can handle bad news. What they can’t handle is guessing.Work ethic that outlives the feeling.
Hustle may have a PR problem, but compound effort never goes out of style.
Before the beach trips and passive income posts, every “overnight success” logged miles nobody photographed.
I’ll never forget listing the fixer nobody wanted.
My commission barely covered gas money, and I was terrified I’d fail the sellers.
But reps build resilience.
That ugly little house became my MBA in client care.
It was proof that deliberate practice beats perfect conditions every time.
So, here’s the question I’m asking you (and myself):
What’s the bare-minimum routine you’ll honor on your worst day?
Set that floor now. Future-you—and your team—will thank you when the storms roll in.
Because leadership isn’t about showing up when it’s easy.
It’s about showing up especially when it’s not.
That’s where leadership earns its stripes.
If this resonated with you, pass it along to someone who’s leading through the messy middle. These are the conversations we don’t have enough.