Leading a Team During Perimenopause: Staying Effective When Symptoms Are Unpredictable
Managing a team during perimenopause is challenging but achievable. Strategies for staying an effective, fair, and present leader when symptoms affect you daily.
The leadership challenge that perimenopause creates
Leading a team during perimenopause is a challenge that very few leadership development programmes acknowledge. The skills that make a good leader, consistency, emotional regulation, clear communication, decisive thinking, are all affected in different ways by the hormonal shifts of perimenopause. Irritability, brain fog, anxiety, and fatigue do not disappear because you have direct reports and responsibilities. They show up in team meetings, performance conversations, and the daily micro-decisions of management. Understanding that your perimenopause symptoms can affect your leadership behaviour is not a reason to feel inadequate. It is the starting point for managing both more effectively.
Emotional regulation and the irritability problem
Increased irritability is one of the most common and least discussed perimenopause symptoms in workplace contexts. For team managers, it can manifest as shorter responses to questions, visible frustration in meetings, or an emotional reaction to a situation that, on a better day, would not have landed that way. Awareness is the first protective layer. If you notice your irritability is higher than usual, building a small buffer before significant interactions helps. Taking a two-minute walk before a difficult conversation, or pausing for 30 seconds before responding to an email that has landed badly, reduces the chance of a response you will need to walk back later. If you have a trusted colleague or coach, being honest with them about what you are navigating gives you an external check on your own behaviour.
Making good decisions when brain fog is present
Leaders are expected to make decisions, often quickly, and often with incomplete information. Brain fog does not make that impossible, but it makes it riskier to do in the wrong conditions. Schedule your most important decisions for the time of day when your cognition is sharpest, typically morning for most women in perimenopause. For significant decisions, write out the options and your reasoning rather than holding everything in working memory. Reading your own notes on a decision slows the process in a useful way, catching gaps that brain fog might otherwise miss. Delay decisions that do not need to be made today. Not every leadership situation is a genuine emergency, and a choice made clearly tomorrow is nearly always better than one made hazily right now.
Consistency as a leadership quality during unpredictable symptom weeks
Teams notice inconsistency in their manager's mood and communication style, even when they do not comment on it directly. The most protective thing you can do during a difficult symptom week is maintain consistent structures: holding your regular one-to-ones, keeping your communication channels open, and following through on commitments. If you are having a particularly bad day, it is better to reduce your interactions slightly, delegating a meeting to a deputy or postponing a non-urgent discussion, than to show up and visibly struggle. Brief, honest communication protects relationships better than absence without explanation. Telling a team member 'I am not at full capacity today but will get back to you by end of tomorrow' is professional leadership, not weakness.
Disclosure: what to tell your team and what to keep private
Whether to disclose perimenopause to your team is a personal decision that depends on your workplace culture, your relationship with your team, and what you feel comfortable sharing. Many women find that some level of disclosure reduces the tension created when their team can see something is different but does not know why. Disclosure does not have to be detailed. Saying 'I am going through a health transition at the moment that sometimes affects my energy levels' is enough information for a team to stop personalising your quieter days. Some women are more open, and find that naming perimenopause directly reduces stigma in their team and models the kind of honest health conversation their organisation needs. Both approaches are valid.
Using systems and delegation to maintain team effectiveness
Good management during perimenopause requires leaning more deliberately on systems and people than you might have before symptoms began. If you have been the kind of manager who holds information in your head rather than writing things down, perimenopause is the moment to change that. Shared project management tools, clear documented processes, and written rather than verbal instructions protect your team from the effects of your brain fog on days when it is worst. Delegation is not a sign that you cannot cope. It is the mark of a leader who knows what their team is capable of. Identifying the team members who can run a meeting or lead a project in your absence and actively developing that capacity serves your team and your leadership simultaneously.
Getting support as a leader managing your own symptoms
Leaders are often the last to ask for support, because the role carries an expectation of self-sufficiency that perimenopause directly challenges. Finding that support matters. A GP or gynaecologist can discuss whether HRT or other treatments could reduce the symptom severity affecting your daily function. A coach with experience of women in leadership transitions can help you manage the confidence and identity questions perimenopause raises alongside the practical ones. Using PeriPlan to track your symptom patterns gives you data about when your worst days tend to cluster, which allows you to plan your most demanding leadership responsibilities around them. You are not managing your team less well by managing your own health. You are managing it more sustainably.
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