Oxygen for Leadership: Caring for Yourself to Care for Others

Every airline safety briefing begins includes the same instruction: “Secure your oxygen mask before assisting others.”

It’s not a metaphor on the plane. It’s survival. Without oxygen, you can’t help anyone else.

And yet, in leadership, this truth is often forgotten. We pour our time, energy, and care into others, while quietly neglecting ourselves. The result? Leaders running on empty — trying to help without the oxygen they need to sustain it.

The Cost of Neglecting Your Own Oxygen

Leadership is a privilege, but it comes with weight. Leaders are expected to be steady in uncertainty, empathetic under pressure, and decisive in complexity.

But when self-care is the first thing sacrificed, the costs ripple outward. A depleted leader is:

• Less clear-minded — decision-making narrows under stress.

• Less empathetic — fatigue dulls our ability to truly listen.

• Less resilient — energy reserves run out faster, and so does patience.

The point is simple: when leaders neglect their own care, it doesn’t only affect them. It affects everyone around them.

Your Oxygen Fuels Their Resilience

Leadership isn’t just about personal stamina. It’s about modelling balance and resilience for others. Research consistently shows that leaders set the tone for workplace culture — and that how leaders manage stress and wellbeing directly influences team behaviours.

For example, a 2021 Deloitte study on workplace wellbeing found that when leaders role-model healthy behaviours, employees are 55% more engaged and 42% more likely to stay with their organisation.¹ In other words, how you look after yourself isn’t just personal — it’s organisational.

When you protect your own wellbeing, you give your team permission to do the same. You show that:

• Rest is not weakness — it’s a source of renewal.

• Reflection is not indulgence — it sharpens perspective and decision-making.

• Support-seeking is not failure — it’s an act of responsible leadership.

Your oxygen fuels their resilience. By caring for yourself, you strengthen the collective capacity of your team — their ability to adapt, recover, and thrive alongside you.

¹ Deloitte Insights, The Workforce Well-being Imperative, 2021.

Practical Ways to Breathe as a Leader

Caring for yourself doesn’t need to mean big lifestyle shifts. It’s about embedding small, intentional practices into your leadership rhythm:

1. Ask Yourself First Each week,

   pause and ask: Am I OK? Be honest. Awareness is the first step to change.

2. Protect Reflective Time Block one piece of your calendar as non-negotiable. Use it for thinking, walking, or simply slowing down.

3. Model Support-Seeking Share when you’ve leaned on a mentor, coach, or peer. By doing so, you show strength and encourage others to do the same.

These actions may look small, but they deliver oxygen where it matters most.

Breathe First, Then Lead

This R U OK? Day 2025, let’s expand the conversation. Continue asking others if they are OK — but also have the courage to pause and ask yourself the same question.

Leadership is not about running on empty. It is not about sacrificing yourself in silence to hold up everyone else. True leadership is about sustainability — fuelling yourself so you can continue to support, inspire, and guide those around you.

Think of your oxygen as the practices that keep you centred: reflection, rest, connection, and support. These aren’t luxuries. They are the very things that allow you to lead with clarity, empathy, and strength.

When leaders breathe first, they model what balance looks like. They show their teams that care is not just given outwardly — it is also invested inwardly. And in doing so, they create cultures where resilience, trust, and wellbeing can thrive.

So today, ask the question outwardly. But also, ask it inwardly. And remember:

Breathe first, then lead.