If you had one unlimited resource, what would it be? If you’re anything like the leaders I talk with, it’s time. This is especially true for those who struggle to raise their leadership bar.
As I wrote in previous posts, you’ll raise your leadership bar when you find clarity, focus and intentionality. The fourth step is balancing work and life. This is sometimes easier said than done.
Our culture has brainwashed us into believing that our occupations determine our identities, and our productivity indicates our value. Breaking this unfortunate mindset is a struggle for most leaders. Technology facilitates this myth.
Leaders can be accessed virtually everywhere, whether they are on company property or not. As Peter Bergman rightly observes in In Leading with Emotional Courage: How to Have Hard Conversations, Create Accountability, and Inspire Action on Your Most Important Work (Wiley, 2018), the workplace is now everywhere. The boundaries between work and personal life are blurred.
The smartest leaders understand that their role at work is important, but not all-defining. It is not the basis of their self-worth. Family, friends, activities and personal growth fuel joy, provide satisfaction and help them to engage in all that they do with optimism and effectiveness. The key is not necessarily dividing their lives into work and non-work time, but finding a way to balance them such that they complement each other.
Raise Your Leadership Bar with Work-Life Balance
Reduce the in-office demand and open up more non-work time with time management techniques. Establish a routine that helps you cover more bases in less time using the resources and staff available to you. Think ahead, anticipate demands and plan for multiple situations. This can reduce your stress and let you be fresher for the office and at home.
Similarly, more joy at home allows you to be more positive and fruitful at work. The most well-rounded leaders have found ways to enrich their relationships and activities at home, bringing more pleasure to life. Your family deserves more from you than what’s left over from what your employer takes. Many leaders have found that a richer work life is built on a foundation of a richer personal life.
Save your sanity and energy and bring a fresh approach to each day. If you balance the aspects of your life, you’ll have a more fulfilling identity and a richer purpose. These are the best paths to becoming all you can be as a leader.
What do you think? What are you doing to raise your leadership bar? How do you balance work and life? I’d love to hear from you. You can call me at 561-582-6060, let’s talk. And as always, I can be reached here, or on LinkedIn.
