GUEST POST BY Wendy Jenkins OAM, READY RESILIENCE
Ready Resilience helps organisations thrive during times of change and challenge, using practical neuroscience-based resilience tools that have been proven to offer in-the-moment solutions and long-lasting results. Learn actionable tips you can apply right away in Ready Resilience Founder Wendy Jenkins’ articles, written exclusively for the TEMi community.
Unleashing the Power of Neuroleadership: Switching Off
This year, Wendy Jenkins OAM, Founder of Ready Resilience, will continue to focus her insightful TEMI monthly articles on ‘Neuroleadership’, offering science-based actionable tips you can apply right away.
As the calendar year winds down, many teams reach December running on adrenaline, trying to finish projects, wrap up reviews, and prepare for the next cycle. Yet from a neuroscience perspective, this is exactly when the brain most needs recovery.
Our prefrontal cortex, the part responsible for focus, decision making, and empathy, tires just like a muscle. When overused, it leads to mental fatigue, emotional reactivity, and reduced creativity. Taking genuine breaks is not indulgence; it is a biological requirement for restoring clarity, motivation, and emotional balance.
Neuroleadership research shows that downtime activates the Default Mode Network, the brain’s reflective system that integrates memories, processes emotions, and generates fresh ideas. When employees step away from structured work, their brains shift from “doing” to “connecting” mode. This is where insight, perspective, and renewed energy emerge.
Leaders set the tone.
If the team sees emails flying on Christmas Eve or Slack messages pinging during the break, the brain’s threat system stays alert, blocking the very rest recovery needs. Instead:
- Model boundaries. Use delayed sends or out of office messages that normalise disconnection.
- Celebrate effort, not just outcomes. Acknowledge the energy, persistence, and teamwork it took to reach year’s end — even a five-minute reflection can trigger dopamine and a sense of closure.
- Clarify expectations. Tell people explicitly it is okay (and encouraged) not to check in. Certainty reduces anxiety and helps the nervous system relax.
- Encourage meaningful breaks. Simple actions like walking, connecting with loved ones, or positive daydreaming replenish serotonin and oxytocin, the chemistry of calm and connection.
When teams come back recharged, their brains operate in higher trust, higher innovation states. They solve problems faster, listen better, and collaborate with greater empathy.
This holiday season, remember: your team’s biggest competitive advantage next year may come not from how hard they finish, but from how well they rest.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Wendy Jenkins is the founder of Ready Resilience, Co-Founder of the Lungitude Foundation, certified Neuroplastician, Speaker and Lung Transplant Survivor. Ready Resilience helps organisations thrive during times of change and challenge, using practical neuroscience-based resilience tools that have been proven to offer in the-moment solutions and long-lasting results.
Having been told she had two years to live over eighteen years ago, Wendy is passionate about empowering people to transform their perspective on life’s challenges through dynamic masterclasses, workshops, and certified resilience training. To learn how Wendy can support and inspire you at your next conference, leadership event, or personal development session, please email we***@*************ce.com or visit www.readyresilience.com.
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