Do you keep adding items to your work “plate” that have no business being there? Do you struggle to find time to reflect, strategize, and plan?

You’re probably overfunctioning.

The great news is that when you become aware of this pattern, you’ll free up time and energy for the key tasks that only you, the leader, can do.

I recently came across an excellent discussion of overfunctioning in the book Rebecoming, by clinical psychologist Dr. Merry C. Lin, PhD. The book itself isn’t leadership-focused, but in a chapter called “High-Functioning or Over-Functioning”, Lin describes how she, in her role as executive director and supervising psychologist at a large clinic, overfunctioned to exhaustion.

Lin defines........

© Psychology Today