Leadership is a marathon, not a sprint: lessons on navigating change and building sustainable teams
Being an executive team coach helped me run my first marathon, and today I’m telling you the full story.
Over a year ago, I ran in the 10th edition of the Lisbon marathon. I didn’t have prior race experience, so it was both difficult and incredible.
The surprising thing is that I signed up for it just five weeks before the race day, so I didn’t have plenty of time to prepare. But I did my best.
The first thing was to search on Google for “How to train for a marathon in five weeks.” And well, I was a bit disappointed with the results: Don’t do it! It’s harmful and risky.
You need to have at least 3-6 months of consistent training to even think of trying. And the minimum of 10-12 weeks to prepare.
Although I wasn’t ready (according to what I read), I knew I would be able to finish the race. I like to do unexpected and crazy things, so I wanted to use those few weeks to prepare in the best way (and hope not to get injured).
And there I was on race day, after five weeks of training, nervous about finding my way and excited to listen to an audiobook that I brought to entertain myself. Despite it all, I showed up ready to cross the finish line with a smile on my face.
The first half went by very fast (and I also ran at a faster pace than I expected). But the difficult part came after reaching the 30 km mark. Physically, I reached my limit, but my mind managed to continue. And worst of all, I lost my headphones (and the chance to continue listening to my audiobook) because I was constantly splashing water on my head (did I mention it was an extremely hot day?).
No matter these setbacks, I knew I was going to make it, even if it would be a bit longer and less entertaining without my audiobook.
And after all of this, I crossed the finish line. Thirty minutes before I was expecting. And with that big smile on my face.
Reflecting on that day, I realize that I was prepared to run the race. Yes, even if I signed up and started preparing only 5 weeks before.
And you know why? Because I applied the same ‘tricks’ that I teach organizations about change processes and achieving their dream goals.
I was literally practicing what I preach.
And today I want to share with you the same principles of building sustainable teams that helped me run my first marathon. Because in the end, leadership is a marathon, not a sprint.
I first shared this story in the Fierce Up Newsletter — a monthly space where I explore leadership, sustainable team management, organizational change, and more. If you'd like thoughtful insights like this delivered to your inbox every last Friday of the month, subscribe here.
The change principles I teach my clients, and used to run my first marathon
What got me through those 42 km wasn’t willpower alone, but mindset and method as well. As an Executive Team Coach, I apply the same principles that support successful change implementation, rooted in systems thinking. The same ones I leaned on while working with my clients. And they made all the difference!
Here are the exact lessons that helped me move forward, even when it got hard.
1. Know your starting point
I knew I wasn’t in a good starting point: no prior experience, and only five weeks ahead, so I managed to do everything I could to effectively fill my “marathon essentials”: the right shoes, clothes, water, a rigorous training schedule, and learning from experts.
Knowing where you are right now is crucial, even if it’s not where you wish you were. Being honest with yourself and acknowledging your current reality is the first step to success.
What is truly happening in your team right now?
What’s being ignored, avoided, or postponed?
What resources and talents are currently underused?
2. Get clear on the dream and the reality
This one’s tricky for me. I’m a big dreamer — I naturally think in bold, ambitious visions. But I’ve learned the importance of pairing that high dream with a grounded view of what’s truly possible right now.
Realistic goals don’t mean dreaming smaller — they mean being honest about the starting point and the path ahead.
Are you holding both the vision and the reality in your leadership?
Are your goals aligned with your team’s actual capacity, not just your hopes?
3. Plan strategically, with your people in mind
Your plan should be grounded in both experience and self-awareness. For example, I knew I could commit to four training sessions per week for those five weeks, but I also knew I couldn’t sustain that for 10 weeks or do it a month earlier or later.
Yet, in organizations, we often plan as if people have the same energy level five days a week, every week. But humans aren’t machines—we can’t expect them to operate like one.
What do your people’s energy and capacity look like across a typical week, month, or season?
What internal patterns (time off, burnout, energy dips) are you seeing — and are you planning with them in mind?
How does your team’s current pace align with sustainable, people-centered work?
4. Build a supportive environment
Having a strong support system made all the difference. The people who truly support you, who believe in your vision without you having to convince them, are invaluable.
When I decided to run the marathon, I shared my plan only with a select few: those who would respond with an enthusiastic “How amazing!” rather than questioning whether I was crazy. The skeptics? I told them afterward.
Who genuinely fuels your motivation — and who drains it?
Do your people believe in your vision, or do they need to be convinced?
5. Know your why
What’s the purpose behind what you’re doing?
For an individual goal (like running a marathon), it’s personal. I did it for a nice t-shirt and to listen to an audiobook for a few hours without being disturbed by my family and kids. (And yes, also to tick it off my dream list)
The same goes for teams and organizations: the why needs to be crystal clear and well-communicated. And by communicating, I don’t just mean crafting the perfect message—I mean making sure your people actually hear it and understand it.
Don’t just implement changes. Make sure your team understands why they’re happening — and that the reasons resonate.
Does the purpose behind this change feel meaningful to your team, or just to you?
Have you created space for people to question, reflect, and connect with the why?
From the Track to the Team: 6 Principles for Leading with Endurance and Heart
Beyond change, there’s sustainability.
That’s the core of our work at Fierce Up: helping teams shift perspectives and behaviours, and stay strong, aligned, and human while doing so. And as an Executive Team Coach and author of the workbook “The Leadership Reset: Practical Tools to Move from Stagnation to Growth”, I have a unique way to address it.
I have seen firsthand how systemic coaching principles, combined with a holistic and human-centered perspective on the organization, are essential for developing resilient leadership and sustainable teams.
So here, I am sharing six principles that helped me cross the finish line, drawn from real-world work with teams.
1. Rest
In endurance sports, it’s essential to slow down before a big event, whether through reducing physical load, increasing sleep, or pausing training altogether. It’s a performance requirement.
Before my marathon, I didn’t run for a week. I didn’t exercise. I rested so deeply that I was bursting with energy on the start line.
In organizations, we often run people into the ground, working at full speed until burnout, hoping for breakthroughs in depleted states.
But high performance comes from fully rested minds, not exhaustion. Rest recalibrates our attention, mood, immunity, and decision-making—critical assets to start any work.
Do your teams have built-in recovery points, or are they struggling to “reach the finish line”?
Is rest only acceptable after crisis mode, or seen as strategic preparation?
What would it look like to plan for rest just like you plan for output?
Rest is a powerful resource. It creates space for creativity to flow, enhances problem-solving capacity, supports better decision-making, and fosters a culture of sustainability within teams.
In our workbook, The Leadership Reset: Practical Tools to Move from Stagnation to Growth, we explore the importance of rest in greater depth and share practical ways to integrate it into your team or organization.
Feel free to access The Leadership Reset and discover how it can help you shift from stagnation to sustainable growth.
2. Invest in the resources that sustain performance
This is a big and complex topic, and each of the resources is a topic on its own.
For a marathon, the resources are: quality sleep, tailored nutrition and hydration, cross-training, stretching, the right clothing (not just shoes!), and mindset work, to name a few (the marathon essentials I mentioned before).
For organizations, this looks a bit different, depending on the type of projects they’re building or the targets they are aiming for. But a key mistake I notice? They often overlook which resources are available and where investments are crucial.
They are undernourished for months and don’t notice it: poor tooling, rushed onboarding, unrealistic timelines, zero skill development.
Expecting results without investment is like expecting to cross the finish line without water, energy gels, sleep, or a proper pair of shoes.
And by investment, we’re not just talking about salaries, gym memberships, coaching apps, or “fruit Thursdays”—though those certainly have their place.
We mean the deeper, structural commitments:
Flexible working hours.
No overtime as the norm.
Fewer, more intentional meetings.
Real development opportunities that align with personal goals.
Tangible changes after surveys.
Regular recognition of progress and wins.
These are the kinds of investments that sustain energy, motivation, and performance over the long run.
Where is your team under-resourced, and what are the consequences showing up as?
Are investments being made proactively or reactively?
What are the hidden “fuel” sources your team needs more of? Clarity? Trust? Time?
3. Manage your resources (they’re not limitless)
Resources are not limitless. But most of the time, people tend to forget about this.
Managing our resources comes with planning and flexibility. For me, using my marathon example, I didn’t schedule a long run and a swim on the same day or a demanding training session after a bad night’s sleep.
After all, I am not a robot. None of us is.
In teams, we often forget we’re managing humans, not machines. We overload calendars, ignore energy dips, and overlook context: sick kids (or other family members), poor sleep, grief, seasonal changes, and other life events.
Building sustainable teams means respecting human rhythms and planning capacity, not just by availability, but by energy.
Is your planning based on what people can do or what they should carry?
How does your team accommodate fluctuations—bad days, heavy weeks, external stress?
What’s your strategy for preserving and regenerating (not just using) team capacity?
4. Prepare for when things get hard (because they will, sometimes)
Having a plan for moments of stagnation or when things get difficult is the most important thing we can do to secure our success.
Smart runners plan for it: energy gels, playlist cues, mental mantras, and elevation strategies.
In my case, I had a prevention strategy and a “hitting the wall” strategy. In the first case, I planned to monitoring my heart rate, not going over a defined limit at each stage of the race, and having an energy gel every 25-30 minutes; in the second case, when my legs wanted to stop, I planned a 20-second walk followed by a 5-minute running (I ended up doing four cycles of this).
Without these plans in mind, I’d probably stop or walk until the end, because the idea would not appear at the moment of exhaustion.
They may seem like obvious solutions, but not when we are in survival mode. It takes rest and energy to think about them.
The same applies to teams. If they have their conflict protocol or pre-deadline protocol, they have a real chance to execute this plan instead of reacting impulsively due to fatigue and stress. Because in those moments, we tend to rely on survival, not logic or creativity.
But most organizations postpone this, resisting the idea of failure until it’s at their doorstep. And the cost of that avoidance? Panic, poor decisions, and preventable setbacks.
Having a “crisis playbook” (technical, operational, emotional) saves time, trust, and momentum. A plan built ahead of time is what makes intentional action possible when it matters most.
What’s your team’s plan for when the unexpected hits?
Are your people equipped and empowered to act under pressure, or frozen by a lack of clarity?
What early warning signs do you track to prevent hitting the wall too hard?
5. Practice what you want to perform
Running isn’t just about running. I had to be mentally resilient, do outfit testing, pacing, and learn from scratch.
The same is true in organizations: your values, rituals, and processes must be practiced to be effective.
Teams that only “talk” about feedback culture, agility, or psychological safety but don’t regularly practice these things under safe conditions won’t be able to perform them when the pressure is high. Practice builds readiness and trust.
“Practice what you preach”. I’m sure you’ll be surprised by the magic it does.
Which habits does your team say they value, but do not consistently practice? Like rest, for instance. Do you take time to clear your mind before another sprint? To let creativity flow? Do you encourage your team to take seasonal breaks?
What’s your feedback loop for improving the way you work, not just the work itself?
6. Support and purpose are your true endurance fuel
Knowing that I had a support system made a real difference between reaching the end line or stopping at the 30 km mark.
The same applies in organizations: sustainable teams don’t run on metrics alone. They run on meaning.
My support system was my kids, husband, my friends, and a firm “why” guiding me.
For organizations, it may look like building safety nets, accountability buddies, and having celebration rituals.
When we know we’re not alone and we’re moving toward something that matters, we can do hard things.
Does your team know what they’re moving toward—and why it matters?
Where does support show up in your culture, especially in hard moments?
What emotional or social fuel do your people need more of right now?
Prioritize your internal operating system
So, these were the principles that helped me run my first marathon, from the preparation to the finish line.
But here’s what I want you to take away: I didn’t start from scratch.
Yes, I only had five weeks to train, but the reality is that I was already getting ready long before I signed up.
Rest, nutrition, hydration, mental resilience, strategic planning… they were already part of my daily routine. That was my invisible advantage: my marathon essentials were already there.
I was able to run 42 km because I already had a strong foundation. The same goes with organizations: when they are healthy, they can overcome any challenges and also go and try innovative ideas that will bring them ahead of the competition.
Change is not a last-minute sprint. It’s a marathon whose foundations need to be built in the long run.
Building a sustainable team through a holistic and human-centered leadership is a marathon – one that needs time to prepare and experience.
So, invest in your people. Make sure they have the essentials in place: purpose, rest, and the right resources.
Because when a challenge arises, the teams who’ve built good habits aren’t caught off guard. They’re already at the starting line.