It’s budgeting season, the end of the year is in sight, and everyone is pushing to finish strong. My calendar is a wall of Teams calls, and somewhere between reviewing numbers and planning for next year, someone on my team will inevitably pause and say, “Kam, you’re doing so much.” They say it kindly, with the look you’d give a friend trying to carry six bags of groceries up the stairs in one trip. They aren’t wrong, and there are days this time of year when the pressure feels like it’s coming from every direction at once.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been writing about the weight we carry as leaders, putting the right people in the right seats, and having a great partner who helps you carry the load. All of that has made a real difference, and I’ve worked hard to enable our leaders to make decisions on their own so that fewer of them need to come to me. The biggest change, though, happened in my own head.
There’s a saying I’ve come to love, that pressure is a privilege, and I’ve finally started to see my work that way. I’ve stopped wishing for fewer things to land on my plate. I now see the things that do arrive as a blessing, because they mean I’m in a position to help make change for our people, our clients, and our community.
My dear friend John Maxwell shared that at some point he stopped asking God to make his assignment lighter and started asking Him to make his shoulders wider. That line has stayed with me, because it shifts the focus from the weight itself to the person carrying it. He tied it to the idea that to whom much is given, much is required, where the first “much” represents the blessings we’ve received and the second represents the responsibility of leading others.
Wider shoulders don’t mean carrying everything, though, especially in a season like this one. The question I keep asking myself between calls is simple: where does my team need me most right now? Some days that means rolling up my sleeves on a sales call, and other days it means stepping back so a leader can own a decision and grow from it. Balancing the load well starts with knowing which of those moments you’re in.
This is also the time of year when some team members will ask for a lighter load, and as leaders, we have to listen carefully. Sometimes the right answer is to rebalance the work, because no one does their best thinking while running on empty. Other times, the better gift is helping them see what they’re capable of carrying, and standing beside them while their own shoulders get a little wider.
Purpose plays a big role in how heavy any of this feels. A burden without a dream behind it turns into drudgery very quickly, but when I remember why the weight is there, the same load feels completely different. I think about the 900 families who rely on ITBD, the clients who count on us, and the year ahead that all of this planning is building toward. I won’t pretend every day of the fourth quarter feels joyful (some days absolutely call for an extra cookie 😊), but carrying the weight with purpose makes even the long days worth it.
If you’re feeling the end-of-year pressure right now, resist the urge to resent it or to ask for a lighter load, and ask instead what would make your shoulders wider. As we close out this year and start building the next one, wider shoulders are exactly what I’m asking for. Those shoulders are needed for myself and for every leader standing beside me, because the weight we carry into the new year is the clearest sign that what we’re building truly matters.
