STRATEGIC REST | A REGENERATIVE LEADERSHIP FRAMEWORK FOR INTRAPRENEURS

Pavitra Raja
6 days ago
5 min read

Intrapreneurs work at the intersection of organizational priorities and systemic change. They carry the mandate to deliver on business goals while pushing for transformations that often challenge existing structures. This position demands sustained clarity, creativity and influence in environments where authority is partial and resistance is inevitable. Yet the very conditions that make intrapreneurial work possible can also deplete the people doing it. Without deliberate renewal, focus narrows, creativity slows and the connection to purpose can fade.

Regenerative leadership recognizes that no system can remain healthy if its leaders are running on empty. For intrapreneurs, renewal is not a luxury; it is a prerequisite for sustained impact. Strategic Rest is the framework I have developed and integrated into my practice to meet this need. It is based on a simple premise: recovery should be built into the structure of leadership, not left to personal discipline or chance.

This framework focuses on working in rhythms that sustain clarity, creativity, and resilience. It recognizes that lasting change takes time and that leaders must stay engaged without burnout, emphasizing three interrelated dimensions: mental, emotional, and physical rest.

Strategic Rest is the framework I have developed and integrated into my practice to meet this need. It is based on a simple premise: recovery should be built into the structure of leadership, not left to personal discipline or chance.

MENTAL REST

Mental rest creates space for perspective and discernment. Intrapreneurial work often demands rapid responses to multiple stakeholders, where urgent issues displace important ones. Studies have shown that knowledge workers lose nearly five working weeks a year, around 9% of total time, simply to reorient themselves when switching between tasks. For intrapreneurs, who must constantly navigate competing agendas, the cost is even higher. To counter this, I schedule time after each work day to practise Niksen — the Dutch word for doing nothing, idling, or engaging in an activity without purpose. Surprisingly, this practice has become one of the best ways to safeguard perspective, allowing patterns to surface and ideas to connect.

More recently, beginning a PhD has also created a rhythm of mental stretching and decompression, where structured research time opens up new ways of thinking about complex challenges. Both are forms of deliberate spaciousness, designed to protect the clarity intrapreneurs need to chart a course through complexity.

EMOTIONAL REST

Emotional rest addresses the invisible labour of holding relationships and mediating tensions, work that demands deep emotional engagement. For women of colour, that engagement often carries additional weight. I have been told more than once to “be the bigger person” in moments of conflict, reflecting an unspoken expectation to absorb tensions in order to maintain harmony.

McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace research shows that senior women leaders are about 60 percent more likely than their male peers to focus on emotional support and helping others navigate work-life challenges; work that is often invisible and unrewarded. Over time, these expectations erode patience and empathy unless deliberate practices of renewal are in place. To sustain myself, I create peer spaces where the emotional load can be shared and I surface hidden pressures so they can be addressed collectively. Emotional rest is about ensuring that engagement remains a source of strength rather than depletion.

McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace research shows that women senior leaders are about 60 percent more likely than their male peers to focus on emotional support and helping others navigate work-life challenges, work that is often invisible and unrewarded.

PHYSICAL REST

Physical rest is the base that supports all other forms of rest. The demands of intrapreneurial work such as extended hours, travel, disrupted routines, erode healthy habits and deplete energy reserves. The World Health Organization has estimated that long working hours contribute to over 745,000 deaths annually from stroke and heart disease, underscoring how physical strain is not just a personal issue but a systemic risk. Closer to leadership practice, the Center for Creative Leadership found that 88% of leaders identify work as their primary source of stress. For intrapreneurs, whose projects often run across years without formal mandate, sustaining physical energy is a strategic necessity. I schedule recovery time after travel and build in periods of lower intensity after major outputs. These choices reflect a commitment not only to my own health but to those who rely on me to lead with presence and consistency.

These dimensions are deeply interdependent. Restoring mental clarity supports emotional steadiness. Maintaining emotional balance reduces physical strain. Protecting physical vitality keeps the mind sharper and relationships stronger. Strategic Rest is not a set of isolated habits but a framework for sustaining the full range of capacities intrapreneurs draw on every day.

For intrapreneurs, whose projects often run across years without formal mandate, sustaining physical energy is a strategic necessity. I schedule recovery time after travel and build in periods of lower intensity after major outputs. These choices reflect a commitment not only to my own health but to those who rely on me to lead with presence and consistency.

INTRAPRENEUR LEADERSHIP LAB 2025

Last year, the League of Intrapreneurs’ Leadership Lab at Nova Business School in Portugal offered a rare opportunity to experience Strategic Rest collectively. Twenty changemakers from across sectors stepped away from daily demands into a space designed for reflection, deep conversation, and meaningful connection. The setting allowed ideas to unfold without performative pressure, relationships to deepen through honest exchange, and energy to be redirected rather than depleted.

One particular moment from the Leadership Lab brought Strategic Rest into sharp focus: the Case Clinics. Participants were invited to present a real, unresolved leadership challenge from their intrapreneurial work—not as a polished case study, but as a lived dilemma they were still navigating. The methodology required vulnerability, naming uncertainty, tension, and personal stake, while the group listened without interruption or premature advice. For many, this was unfamiliar and initially uncomfortable. Yet the discipline of the method created a rare sense of safety.

As intrapreneurs spoke honestly about where they felt stuck, exposed or conflicted, the emotional load of carrying these challenges alone visibly lifted. Insight emerged not through fixing, but through being witnessed and reframed by peers who understood the constraints of leading change from within. This was emotional rest in action: not disengagement from the work, but relief from the need to hold everything privately, allowing clarity and energy to return.

Intrapreneurs need spaces like this. Strategic Rest cannot depend solely on individual discipline; it also requires environments that make renewal possible. The Lab was one such environment, showing that regeneration can be built into the way we gather, learn and collaborate.

For those leading change from within, Strategic Rest is not an escape from the work but a way to sustain it. Protecting mental clarity, emotional steadiness and physical vitality ensures that intrapreneurs can remain engaged for as long as the work requires. More than a personal framework, Strategic Rest is a regenerative practice that intrapreneurs can carry into their organisations, making renewal part of the culture rather than the exception. When we create rhythms that protect energy and perspective (both individually and collectively) we ensure that intrapreneurship remains not only possible but transformative for the systems we serve.

Pavitra Raja is a systems strategist and lawyer advancing global cooperation. She leads Asia-Pacific partnerships at the World Economic Forum, founded CEOs for Nature, and has advised the UN and governments. Named among the Top 100 Women in Social Enterprise, she speaks internationally, writes on social innovation, and will publish her children’s book The Little Spark’s Journey in 2026.