When you have space, the rest of this email is here to offer a few simple systems you can use when it feels right.
Hi Reader
When the year has been this full, your calendar can say “manageable” while your nervous system quietly disagrees.
Perhaps it was when ...
Handover ran long.
Two staff called in sick.
Your inbox filled with “quick questions”.
A family waiting on the phone and
an incident from the other night that still feels unfinished.
On paper, the week looks fine.
Inside your body, it feels like too many tabs open and not enough bandwidth.
That is what I hear from managers and senior clinicians most often now.
The workload is one piece. The constant decisions, emotion, and “just one more thing” is the rest.
You do not need another big plan at this point in December.
You need a few small systems you can lean on when you are ready, whether that is in the last days before the break or in your first steady week back.
These are some of the small systems that have made those weeks feel different for leaders I work with. 📖 Read the full piece:
Mentoring Systems in Action, What Leaders Built in Six Weeks
👉 https://www.hyphaenetwork.com/latest-news-2/mentoring-systems-in-action
This email is the short version, plus a few extras that are not in the article.
What it feels like when tiny systems start working
One unit manager told me that before mentoring, every day felt like “trying to keep water in my hands”. By the time she got to supervision, she could not remember half of what had happened, only the feeling of being behind.
Six weeks in, she said this instead:
- “I know what mattered this week.”
- “The hard moments are on a list, not just in my head.”
- “I still feel pressure, but I know where it lives and what I am doing about it.”
On the floor, it looked like:
- Clearer starts.
People knew the one thing that mattered each shift, not ten competing priorities.
- Fewer surprise fires.
Small issues had somewhere to land before they blew up.
- Calmer handovers.
One page, three lines at the top, next steps visible.
Mentoring did not remove the pressure. It helped her name the mess, design small systems, and steady the week.
Three small systems to hold a heavy week
You do not have to start all three at once. Bookmark this and choose one when you next have even a little space.
1. The red flag board
Instead of asking “How is everyone going” in a general way, try one fast visual check.
Once a day, look at your roster or team list with three questions in mind.
- Who is on their third or fourth big shift in a row
- Who has had no protected thinking time this week
- Who is picking up emotional load on top of clinical load
Mark those names in whatever way works for you. Then act small. Swap one non essential task off their list. Move one thing, not everything.
You are not fixing the whole system.
You are quietly stopping someone from tipping over.
2. The one page “what matters” map
When everything is noisy, your brain will try to hold the entire week in your head. That is exhausting.
Take one sheet of paper and split it into three boxes.
- Today
- This week
- Next year
In “Today”, write the two things that actually protect people or keep the service safe. In “This week”, write the one improvement you still want to nudge before the week ends. In “Next year”, park everything else that keeps circling in your mind.
This is not a strategy document. It is permission to focus. You can bring this page to your first supervision or mentoring session in 2026 and say, “This is what has been sitting on my mental desk.”
3. The 15 minute peer reset
Find one peer who gets it. Not to debrief endlessly, but to reset.
Once in the next fortnight, or once you are back after the break, book 15 minutes. Each of you answers three questions.
- What went better than I expected
- What nearly tipped me over
- What I want to protect or change next quarter
No fixing. No PowerPoint. Just naming what the week asked of you and what you want to carry differently.
Leaders who do this regularly tell me it does not make the workload vanish, it makes it feel more human to hold.
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👉Try this: Choose one to hold in your week and let me know how it goes.
Read more: https://www.hyphaenetwork.com/latest-news-2/mentoring-systems-in-action
Why these systems matter for retention
From earlier mentoring work, I keep seeing the same pattern.
When leaders have:
- A way to see their week,
- A way to clear decision debt,
- A small circle to test their thinking,
they are more likely to stay, even in hard roles.
People rarely quit after one bad week.
They leave when too many weeks in a row feel:
- unclear,
- unsupported, or
- impossible to hold.
These systems help you turn effort into evidence, effort into progress, and progress into reasons to stay.
If you are responsible for workforce or reform
If you are a CEO, GM or executive in workforce, operations or clinical governance, you are already paying for leadership churn, whether you count it or not.
Two practical moves:
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Choose one system for one team
Share the article and invite one service or unit to run:
- the three line update,
- the Friday flow check, and
- a decision debt list
for one month. Ask what changed in their week, not just in their metrics.
- Wrap mentoring around your key managers
These systems stick faster when someone is walking alongside your leaders. That is where the Hyphae Mentoring Program sits, alongside your reforms, not on top of them.
Learn more about options for organisations:
👉https://www.hyphaenetwork.com/organisations
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Your reflection for this week
Take five minutes and ask yourself:
→ Which part of my week feels the most jagged, handover, decisions, or people issues
→ Which one small system would make that patch feel lighter if it worked well
If the honest answer is “I cannot do this on my own”, that is a signal to add structure and support, not a judgement on your capacity.
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Small systems. Real support. That is the work.
Warmly,
P.S. If you want help building these systems into your own role, the 2026 Hyphae Mentoring Program is designed for exactly that.
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Six months. Multiple conversations.
One mentor who understands your world.
Structured support for leaders who lead reform from the front and want to sustain it.
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👉 Learn more about the Hyphae Mentoring Program https://www.hyphaenetwork.com/mentee
👉 Become a Hyphae Mentor https://www.hyphaenetwork.com/mentor
Need Manager Approval?
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📄 Line Manager Briefing Note → Download Template