Archive for the ‘Work/Life Balance’ Category

Live your legacy

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

In an age of unemployment and downsizing, many people are thanking their lucky stars that they have a job at all, even if it’s more busy and stressful than ever. Few people have the luxury of wondering, Is this job helping me to fulfill my purpose in life?

The unexpected death of a colleague can cause us to examine how we’re spending our lives. We ponder our mortality and envision the legacy we hope to leave for the future. Our conclusion is that the most important thing you can do is live your legacy every day. That is, don’t wait until tomorrow to live your values and focus your energies on your life’s purpose. Start with these questions:

What would people say about you at your funeral? If your life ended today, how would you be eulogized? Is it something you’d be proud to hear?

Are your actions and decisions today consistent with how you’d like to be remembered? Not only do you follow the defined rules, but how do you respond in the gray areas – when the ethical boundaries are not as well-defined? As Albert Camus said, “Integrity has no need of rules.”

Are you happy now, or waiting to be happy when…?” The Center for Creative Leadership’s article titled Your Leadership Mojo: Wisdom from Marshall Goldsmith explores the advice that your 95-year-old self might give to you today. Goldsmith’s friend actually asked elderly people who were approaching death to reflect on what is truly important in life. The number one theme that emerged was be happy now. Don’t wait for that big promotion or retirement. Don’t get so caught up in the rat race that you don’t notice the sun is shining today.

Are people your priority? The Leadership Mojo article points out that when the end of life approaches, it isn’t our co-workers who hang out at the hospital. It’s our friends and family, if we’re lucky enough to have both. And doing things today to nurture relationship with people isn’t just important to ensure that you have hospital visitors. It’s the right thing to do, and your 95-year-old-self would tell you so.

Are you accomplishing something meaningful? It can be easy to amass a collection of accomplishments or life experiences, but if they don’t fulfill some aspect of your life’s purpose, they won’t matter much to you in the end. And if you accomplished them at the expense of others, you may not have those hospital visitors after all.

One thing is certain. We’ll all come to the end of our mortal lives. We hope it doesn’t happen soon. George Carlin used to say, “I’m always relieved when someone is delivering a eulogy and I realize I’m listening to it.” The good news is that if you live your values today, your legacy will take care of itself.

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Posted in Change, Courage, Emotional Intelligence, Judgment, Leadership, Uncategorized, Work/Life Balance | 3 Comments »

More, better, faster: Over-accelerating the pace of work

Monday, May 17th, 2010

The Harvard Business Review recently produced two articles related to the frantic pace of work that appears to be the “new normal.” The Acceleration Trap by Heike Bruch and Jochen I. Menges and The Productivity Myth by Tony Schwartz illustrate a growing problem. The ever-accelerating push for higher productivity, 24-hour accessibility, rapid-fire systems change and increasing complexity combine to produce employees who may appear to be unmotivated and listless. In reality, they’re sleep-deprived, strangers at home and less productive with every passing hour.

What can leaders do if they suspect their organization is over-accelerated? Break the cycle by facing these realities:

Acceleration is a problem with dire consequences. Over-taxed employees can’t maintain quality and safety indefinitely. A constantly frantic pace means that employees are continually shifting from one urgent priority to another, so they lack time to recharge. It may seem like your people are getting more done, when in reality they’re just putting in more hours.

You can break free. The Acceleration Trap gives many examples of companies that stopped the madness. Tough decisions and vigilance are required. It can be easy to fall back into old habits of saying yes when you should be saying no, so put measures in place to monitor decision-making, priorities and work load.

It’s not just about making your people happy. It’s about their brains operating properly. Tony Schwarz talks about how working at full throttle all the time your “prefrontal cortex shuts down in fight or flight, your perspective narrows, and your primitive instincts take over.” Think about the quality of decision-making that happens on an adrenalin high!

Your organization can still thrive. You might feel that you’re sacrificing productivity if you slow things down. Wrong. More work isn’t better. The right work is better, and everything else is just a distraction.

Working insane hours seems to be equated with commitment and drive – and the more crazy the hours, the more motivated (and promotable) you think you are. As The Productivity Myth blog post points out, it’s time for people to be measured not by how many hours they work, but by the results they deliver.

In the immortal words of Dilbert, “In Japan, employees occasionally work themselves to death. It’s called Karoshi. I don’t want that to happen to anybody in my department. The trick is to take a break as soon as you see a bright light or hear dead relatives beckon.”

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Posted in Supervision, Work/Life Balance, performance | 2 Comments »

Can you really get away from it all?

Thursday, July 16th, 2009

beach1Has the recession claimed another victim – the vacation (or as Humanergy’s Aussie/Brit contingent says, “holiday”)? The American Management Association’s newsletter recently featured an article by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., titled, “Recession Vacation: Have Fun but Stay Connected.”

The basic message of the article is to take that vacation, but stay connected via cell phone, pda, computer, fax or whatever it takes to show that you’re still committed and in the game.

This is probably good advice, but there’s a caution there too. There is a risk that we’ll default to “job protection mode” and never take a break. Do we really want people who haven’t taken time to recharge in years making critical decisions for our organizations?

Maybe the recession does mean we need to rethink the way we get away from it all. We’re not talking about a month, or even a week of disconnection. (And no subterfuge, such as allegedly “hiking the Appalachian trail!”)

How can you refuel and recharge, while making sure that you keep the work fires burning?

  • Plan. What types of situations do you need to be involved with, and what can be handled by others? Are you to be contacted only if A, B and C happen? Make it explicit.
  • Make sure people know how best to contact you. There are very few places in the world where you cannot be reached. Make sure that you are accessible in case of emergencies (or other scenarios covered in the plan).
  • Do the right stuff. Do you need to relax on the beach, or would a more active vacation give you an energy boost? Do you need to go far away, or does long-distance travel wear you out? Do you want to be alone or spend time with significant others?
  • Don’t be accessible 24/7. Honestly, the world won’t come to an end. Your employees may even surprise you with their ingenuity and innovation in your absence.
  • Go. Plan a day, a weekend or some amount of time that gives you space.

Still don’t think you need a break? Take it from the Mayo Clinic. The impact of simply “living to work” on your health, productivity and relationships is well-documented.

So take that holiday, keep in touch when you need to, and enjoy some uninterrupted time. Trust your employees to live without you for a while.

If you can’t count on your people to step up to the plate, then you have some work to do before you can take time off. Step one of that work involves  introspection. Are your people unable to cope without you, or are you unable to let go?

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