Why Everyone Feels So Exhausted Right Now

Speaker A: Welcome to leading today with Dr. Lisa Bagby. I'm Dr. Lisa Bagby, and today I want to talk to you about some things that have been on my mind quite a lot lately. I, uh, want to start with a question, though. When was the last time you felt truly safe enough to trust? Not physically safe, but emotionally safe. Safe enough to believe people mean what they say, and safe enough to believe leaders are acting with integrity. Safe enough to believe your community still cares about one another. Because if we're honest, many of us are carrying, I believe, a level of exhaustion that we can't quite explain. We see it in our workplaces. We see it in our communities. We see it in ourselves. And I believe much of it stems from one thing. The human cost of poor leadership. Today we're talking about what happens when chaos becomes normal and what it does to people. Something that might make all of us a little uncomfortable, but not because it's political, not because it's controversial, but because somewhere deep inside, most of us already know it's true. Look around. Look at our workplaces. Look at our communities, our families. Look at our country. There is a heaviness that seems to follow us everywhere. There are moments of hope, moments when we genuinely believe things can get better. But there is also this dark cloud that seems to linger overhead. And I don't think that cloud is coming from where most people think it is. I think it comes from leadership, or more accurately, the absence of it. This is a human connection crisis caused by. By leadership failures. And leadership matters more than most people realize, because leadership is never contained to a boardroom. It never stays inside government buildings, and it never remains inside organizations. Leadership spills. It spills into families. It spills into communities. It spills into culture, and it eventually spills into the hearts and minds of people. When leadership is healthy, people flourish. When leadership is toxic, people suffer. When leadership is chaotic, people lose their footing. And that's what I think we're seeing right now. Not just in one place, but everywhere. We are living in a time where many people feel uncertain. Uncertainty itself isn't the problem. Human beings can tolerate uncertainty. We've always faced uncertainty. But what we struggle with is prolonged uncertainty without direction, prolonged uncertainty without stability, prolonged uncertainty without trust. Research consistently shows that when people experience chronic uncertainty, stress responses increase. Trust decreases. Anxiety rises. People become more guarded, more suspicious, more fearful, more disconnected. Think about that for a moment. When people don't know what comes next, they stop focusing on growth and start focusing on survival. And survival changes people. It narrows our thinking. It shortens our patience. It reduces our empathy. It makes us retreat into ourselves. We stop asking, how can I help? And we start asking, how do I protect myself? And that shift has consequences. Because toxic leadership doesn't just create organizational problems, it creates human problems. People become exhausted, disengaged, cynical, distrustful. Not overnight, but gradually, almost invisibly. One disappointment at a time, one contradiction at a time, one act of selfishness at a time. And eventually people stop believing. Not just in leaders, but in each other. And that's when the real damage begins. The damage isn't simply bad decisions. The damage is what happens to people. People begin asking questions they never used to ask. Can I trust my neighbor? Do people actually care? Am I really seen? Am I really valued? Do I belong here? Can community still exist? These questions are not signs of weakness. They're signs that people are searching for safety, for connection, for something solid to stand on. Because human beings were never designed to thrive in perpetual chaos. Our nervous systems were not built for it. Our relationships were not built for it. Our communities were not built for it. And when chaos becomes normal, hypervigilance becomes normal too. People begin scanning for threats instead of opportunities. Protecting instead of connecting, defending instead of understanding. The result is a society that slowly becomes disconnected from itself. And disconnected people don't and can't build strong communities. Disconnected people don't create trust. They don't create belonging. They simply survive. But here's the good news. Leadership can also heal the same way. Poor leadership creates ripple effects. Healthy leadership creates ripple effects. Authentic leadership creates trust. Transformational leadership creates purpose. And servant leadership creates connection. The leaders that Peter Northhouse writes about, they don't lead by fear. They don't lead by confusion. They don't lead by division. They lead by creating clarity. They lead by creating hope and by creating meaning. And perhaps most importantly is they remind people that they matter, that they belong, that they have value, and they're part of something larger than themselves. The world doesn't need more loud leaders. The world needs more healing leaders. People who tell the truth, People who create stability, people who build bridges, People who help others feel, feel seen. People who remind us that our shared humanity is bigger than our differences. And here's where this conversation becomes personal for me. Because it's easy to point to politicians. It's easy to point to CEOs. It's easy to point at someone else's leadership. But you know what? Leadership starts with us. Individually, every one of us. The way we show up, the way we speak, the way we listen, the way we treat People who disagree with us, the way we create belonging, the way we choose courage over comfort. Every one of us is creating a ripple. The question is, what kind? Because whether we realize it or not, we are all shaping the emotional climate around us. We are either contributing to fear, or we are contributing to hope. Contributing to division, or contributing to connection, contributing to chaos, or, uh, contributing to healing. And right now, I think the world desperately needs healing. So my challenge to you today is simple. Wake up, pay attention. Recognize what poor leadership is doing to people. Recognize what it's doing to communities, what it's doing to relationships, and then make a conscious decision not to contribute to it. Be the leader who creates calm, the leader who creates trust. Become the leader who creates belonging. Because if enough of us choose to do that, the ripple effect will be greater than the chaos ever was. And maybe that's how we begin finding our way back to each other. Leadership isn't a title. It's an impact. It's how people feel after they've interacted with you. In a world right now that feels increasingly divided, uncertain, and disconnected. Each of us has a choice. We can contribute to chaos, or we can become the source of clarity, trust, and connection. The world just doesn't need more noise. It needs more leaders who remind people they matter. Thank you for joining me on leading today. Until next time, lead with intention, lead with courage, and be a leader who helps someone believe in people again.