Leveraging Leadership
Are you ready to up your leadership game? Tune in to Leveraging Leadership, where Chiefs of Staff, executives, and business professionals find the tools, strategies, and insights they need to excel. Hosted by Emily Sander, a C-suite executive turned leadership coach, this podcast delivers practical and tactical takeaways every week.
Whether you're tackling tough conversations, fine-tuning your KPIs, or mastering delegation, this show offers new perspectives and actionable advice to help you feel confident and thrive in your role.
Each Monday, enjoy interviews with leaders from diverse fields—primarily business, but also from military, politics, and higher education. Every Wednesday, catch a solo episode where Emily shares concise, actionable insights on a specific topic you can apply immediately.
If you appreciate relatable, informal conversations that pack a punch with no fluff, you’re in the right place. While especially valuable for Chiefs of Staff and their Principals, the insights are useful for any leader aiming to grow.
Don’t miss your chance to advance as a leader.
Leveraging Leadership
Giving 100% of Your 70%: Leading on Days That Feel Blah
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
The episode tackles what to do when you feel a case of the "blahs" at work, making sure to distinguish it from burnout. Chief of Staff tips include taking a walk, stretching (like the doorway stretch), listening to motivational music or interviews (such as Kobe Bryant), and giving 100% of whatever energy you have that day. Emily Sander encourages self-awareness and having go-to strategies ready for those off days.
Get in touch with Emily:
Feeling the “blahs” at work? Get clear on your next move. Book a clarity call w/ Emily here.
Who Am I?
If we haven’t met before - Hi👋 I’m Emily, Chief of Staff turned Executive Leadership Coach. After a thrilling ride up the corporate ladder, I’m focusing on what I love - working with people to realize their professional and personal goals. Through my videos here on this channel, books, podcast guest spots, and newsletter, I share new ideas and practical and tactical tools to help you be more productive and build the career and life you want.
Time Stamps:
01:01 Blahs vs. Burnout: Make the Right Diagnosis First
02:01 Quick Reset Tactics: Walks, Stretching, and Movement
03:51 Give 100% of Your 70%: Showing Up Without the Guilt
04:32 Name It to Tame It: Remember the Blahs Are Temporary
05:12 Use External Energy: Music, Motivation, and a “Pump-Up” Playlist
06:31 Build Your Personal Playbook: Patterns, Experiments, and Leadership Self-Awareness
07:49 Wrap-Up + Sponsor Message
Welcome back to Leveraging Leadership, where we unpack the art of business leadership. I'm your host, Emily Sander, chief of staff to an executive leadership coach. This show is all about finding your points of greatest influence and leveraging them to better serve those around you.
Blahs vs. Burnout: Make the Right Diagnosis First
Quick Reset Tactics: Walks, Stretching, and Movement
Give 100% of Your 70%: Showing Up Without the Guilt
Name It to Tame It: Remember the Blahs Are Temporary
Use External Energy: Music, Motivation, and a “Pump-Up” Playlist
Build Your Personal Playbook: Patterns, Experiments, and Leadership Self-Awareness
Wrap-Up + Sponsor Message
emily-sander_2_02-18-2026_164149What do you do when you have a case of the blahs? Like, I'm not feeling this day. I'd rather kind of be somewhere. Is it the weekend yet? Oh, I'm just like, I'm not, I'm not into this. Okay, what do you do? So as chief of staff, you are going to have these days and you're going to have these times come up and knowing. What works for you in order to work with it and work through it is reassuring and can be a confidence boost and it can make you panic less or not panic at all when it's like, oh no, not, but I can't, I have to afford, this is gonna be horrible. This is gonna be a bad experience I have to plow through. So I wanna talk about that. The first thing to do is to distinguish this from burnout. Burnout something else. We're not talking about that. We're talking about the blah. So burnout's like, um, uh, I am, I'm frustrated, I'm irritable. I don't wanna be here. I have the case of theit. Just get me out of here. And, or sometimes it's a very muted countenance and disposition. Just very like, ugh, I just don't have the will. To do that tiny little task in front of me. It's right there. I know how to do it. I could do it. I just don't have the will to do that. That like, that's the burnout realm. So for this conversation, let's set that aside and uh, step one is distinguished. You're not dealing with burnout. Okay, set that aside. Now I'm having the case of the blahs. You are like, overall things are fine. I'm just having one of those days for whatever reason. Knowing how you process this and how this shows up for you and typically what helps you work with that move through that is good. So, for example, um, it could be, Hey, when this comes up, I go for a walk, preferably outside. Whether permitting or schedule permitting or whatever. Otherwise, I can maybe do a walk around the office or a walk around my house. If I work from home, maybe it's, I don't have room to walk per se, but I have a sequence of stretching that I can do and sometimes just literally moving. The blood through your body helps you get a little bit of the creative energy and some kind of pep in your step, no pun intended. but going for a walk, moving, stretching, breathing. I have one person I know who does the doorway stretch. So it's kind of when you, um, think of a frame of a door and then you put your hands and your forearms on the frame of the door and you step through it and you stretch your chest out because a lot of us work at computers, so we're hunched over. This is the opposite movement of that. But that stretch is something that they can do and they're like, Ugh, I'm not feeling it. And usually they're. Neck is sore and they're holding kind of some stress in their shoulders. And just doing that stretch a couple times, like stepping through the doorway and pressing your hands and forearms on the doorframe and stepping this way, it just kind of gets them loosened up and like, okay, now I can, now I can get back in the game. it could be that. You are thirsty or hungry, or you have been working nonstop back to back to back for four hours and it's like, yeah, your brain's like, Hey, I just need a little bit of a break, and then we can come back in and get in the game. it could be you didn't sleep or you're super stressed or your kids stayed up the last night and kept you up for whatever reason. And so sometimes it's knowing, Hey, I know, I know what's causing this case of the blah, and I know that. It's not a realistic expectation for me to be at a hundred percent today. Maybe I'm at 70%. Okay, your task that day, your goal that day is to give a hundred percent of the 70%. So it's not like a hall pass. It's like, let me just like whatever, blow this day off, like everyone around me can just like deal with my being tired and being stressed out. No, no, no. You still have to show up your best and recognize that today's best might be different than yesterday's or tomorrow's best. So, and that's not permission to just like, okay, well today is like a 30% day, so people just have to deal with it. It's no, no, no. Like be self-aware. Still be the very best you can. It's, it's, it's that mentality, it's that notion, but also recognizing, Hey, I'm human and here's where I'm at today, and give a hundred percent of the 70%. Um, it could be that just recognizing this. Almost naming it like, Hey, I'm kind of getting a case of the blogs right now, and knowing that it's temporary. These things come up, these things pass. You've probably had'em before, and then they pass and you get engaged again. Or a new project happens or you get some rest, or you go on vacation or you have dinner with friends and it's just like, okay, you kind of spark to life and and work and things like that. So just knowing, all right, yeah, this is happening and these things happen, and that's okay. And these things are temporary, so we'll just. Put one foot in front of the other and keep going here. That could be a very real answer for a lot of people. It could be, um, uh, listening to music. I had a, I had this one client who said, Emily, whenever I get a case of the blahs, I have like this sad, critical voice in my head. And I'm like, okay, like, what would you need instead? And she's like, I'd need like happy, enthusiastic voices in my head. And I'm like, okay. Like what would they say? And we kind of talked about that and I was like, well, you know, there are. Happy, enthusiastic, motivating, encouraging voices that can literally be placed in your head. Meaning like headphones, uh, AirPods or headphones or whatever. And there's videos on YouTube for motivational speaking. There's, a music soundtrack that can get you pumped up. And she was like, oh my gosh. So she made a track and she had like some set songs in it. And then I remember one of the. The tracks that she found it was Kobe Bryant giving an interview and it was kind of a, uh, they had a soundtrack to the interview and different like excerpts and music in that. But that interview, that excerpt of the interview got her pumped up and like, okay, like now I can come back. Like if I have sad, critical voices in my head. I play these songs, I play this interview excerpt with Kobe Bryant, and then that kind of fuels me up. So knowing what tends to work for you in those situations can be super helpful. It can cut down on the time of kind of like, oh, like angst and like hemming and hawing and, oh, just push through. No, no, no. I actually should have taken a break. Figuring out like what your go-to strategies are And also sometimes it's different and you can know the differences. So different meaning. Like, uh, a caregiver or a parent knows a baby's cry and there's different cries, like, uh, they're hungry or they need to be changed, or they need to be held. All those different cries you might figure out, okay, it's like, it's kind of like this kind of blah day, or it's kinda like this. Kind of figuring out. I tend to have like these two or three things come up and they don't happen, happen often. Maybe they're like twice a year or once a quarter or whatever, and these things just happen. And knowing what helps you through and just maybe doing a little bit of forethought like, oh yeah, no, that does, that does happen and here's what tends to work. Or like, I'm not sure what works. Let me try something. Let me try something next time it happens. And, uh, do a little bit of experimentation. But part of that is being a strong leader. Part of that is self-awareness and knowing how to put yourself in best position to lead. And we're, we're not at a hundred percent all the time. That's just part of being human. So the mature senior strategic leader would say, okay, in these situations, what tends to help and have your go-to options teed up for yourself. So have a think about that. Hopefully that helps you in this next week or beyond, and I'll catch you next week on leveraging leadership.
This episode is brought to you by Next Level Coaching. If you or anyone you know would like to learn more about executive leadership coaching, please visit www.next level Coach.