Protect your own steadiness

Why this rule exists

Everything else in this book assumes a manager with enough reserves to stay calm, listen, and absorb other people's stress, and those reserves are finite. A depleted manager gets sharp, reactive, and unpredictable, and the whole team feels it, because you are the emotional weather. Tending to your own steadiness isn't self-indulgence; it's basic maintenance of the instrument your team depends on. You cannot pour calm into others from an empty cup. The manager who neglects themselves eventually fails the people they were trying to protect.