My heart was racing. The anxiety of bouncing between back-to-back thirty-minute meetings reminded me constantly that I was about to stumble and drop the ball. I was perpetually running late, flustered, juggling ten to-dos from the last meeting while desperately trying to focus on the next.

All day felt like a race. I scribbled frantic notes, deciphered them later in my notebook, and then painstakingly retyped them into digital form. Evenings were no better—after dinner with my husband and young boys, I plugged back into my laptop and chipped away at the mountain of work left to be done.

Weekends were a faint promise of rest—but I often felt too drained to enjoy them, weighed down by the guilt that I should be “catching up.” Gradually, work consumed my life. I answered 1 a.m. global calls, replied to 6 a.m. emails from bed, and watched my health, marriage, and motivation slowly decline as I operated full time from survival mode. Play and relaxation felt like distant memories from a time when I used to have a life.

Choosing a new direction

The turning point came when I made a really painful and difficult choice: I left that hard-won job, where I had earned a significant title and respect, for one with a smaller scope and healthier rhythm. It felt radical at the time—but it was exactly the reset I needed to start fresh.

Before I started the new job, I drew a hard line: no more working nights or weekends on a consistent basis in my corporate career. And for the past 15+ years, I haven’t.

So… how did I actually make that 180-degree change work?

Step One: Set Intentions Differently

I realized that to be the best leader, spouse, and mother I could be, I couldn’t show up with a tank running on empty.

So I set new intentions: I created nightly rhythms that prioritized recovery and a slower pace. I stopped saving rest for weekends only. I shared those boundaries with my team and encouraged them to define their own. It wasn’t just about me—it was about modeling a sustainable leadership life.

Anna Taylor has a wonderful quote: “You teach people how to treat you by deciding what you will and won’t accept.” Setting and sticking to clear boundaries was hard, but deeply rooted in my values—and with each passing week, I held boundaries with more conviction, allowing the team to both observe and emulate this for themselves.

Step Two: Align With Natural Rhythms

I began to pay attention to my body’s natural ebbs and flows. Science confirms what many of us intuitively sense: our biological clocks—or chronotypes—shape when we are most alert and creative, and when we need recovery.

In a Worthy to Lead podcast conversation I had in 2024 with science journalist, Lynne Peeples, we discussed how her book The Inner Clock: Living in Sync with Our Circadian Rhythms encourages leaders to:

“Figure out your own chronotype and when your power hours might be… Take a vacation, don’t set an alarm clock, and let your body fall into its natural rhythm. Then notice—when do I feel most alert? When do I have a pep in my step? Once you know that, you can begin to align those peak hours with your most important work.”

For me, that meant recognizing I was sharpest late morning to early afternoon. So I scheduled my most important work for those windows. I allowed slower Monday mornings and Friday afternoons to gently ramp up and wind down. After travel or heavy meeting days, I blocked meeting-free recovery days.

The result? Less fatigue and more resilience. I wasn’t fighting my own clock—I was empowering it.

Lynne also notes the impact for teams:

“If you let employees work according to their natural rhythms, they’ll be healthier, more productive, and take fewer sick days. Even small shifts—like scheduling team meetings at midday when everyone’s energy overlaps—can make a big difference.”

Considering your team’s energy patterns along with your own helps to optimize collective performance while respecting individual rhythms.

Step Three: Simplify and Empower Through Coaching

Finally, I radically simplified my priorities—not by doing less alone, but by coaching my team to do more strategically. Here’s how:

Clarify what only you can do. I examined every task and asked: Does this require my unique perspective and authority? If not, who would shine if given this opportunity? How might I prepare them to be ready for it? Pareto’s principle reminds us that 20% of actions generate 80% of results. I dialed in the focus on my 20% and continually recalibrated until I started seeing white space in my calendar where I could do strategic planning and think deeply.

Coach your team to fully own their work. Instead of assigning tasks step-by-step, I shifted to asking powerful questions, helping team members to think like leaders and solve problems independently. I’d express my intent (goal) and challenge them to think through solutions before giving my own. This increased their capability to come up with the right answers more often.

Redefine success as team impact, not solo output. I stopped equating my own busyness with effectiveness. The more capable my team became, the more energy I had to invest in meaningful leadership, and the stronger the overall team results became for the organization.

Over time, this approach freed me to focus on vision-setting, relationship-building, and high-level impact. I did less myself—but the organization achieved more.

Redesigning Energy and Time

Here’s the hard truth I learned: the burden of impossible expectations didn’t come just from my company—it also came from me. From the choices I let others make for me, standards I held myself to, and my beliefs about “time spent grinding” being the measure of success.

When I finally gave myself permission to design my time according to my energy and values, a light switch flipped for me. Leadership no longer meant working until I had nothing left to give. It meant working in a sustainable way so that I was consistently giving my best.

“Energy isn’t just fuel—it’s your leadership strategy. The way you design it shapes the way you lead.”
– Kristiana Corona

A Challenge for Leaders

Maybe you’re feeling a similar weight or exhaustion in your work and life. Imagine what might shift if you designed your leadership around energy—not depletion.

💡 What would happen if you became a role model for how to work in alignment with your energy?

Your answer just might be the most courageous leadership decision you make this year.

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Kristiana Corona, PCC, is an ICF-certified leadership coach and founder of Worthy to Lead. She guides leaders to redesign their leadership with curiosity, courage, and commitment. WorthytoLead.co