Tweet

Leadership Insight: The Balanced Leader

Guest post by: Tim Schneider

Article Overview: Workaholics need not apply. Throughout the late seventies, the Charlie Sheen Wall Street eighties, and even through a good part of the nineties, work ethic was defined as living at work, living work and committing every waking moment to work. To be a boss, you had to commit your life to the organization and outwork your peers and potential competitors for promotion.

Leadership Insight: The Balanced Leader

Workaholics need not apply.

Throughout the late seventies, the Charlie Sheen Wall Street eighties, and even through a good part of the nineties, work ethic was defined as living at work, living work and committing every waking moment to work. To be a boss, you had to commit your life to the organization and outwork your peers and potential competitors for promotion.

The repercussions of this approach have been seen and felt in the decades after this phenomenon. Leaders that are workaholics are very difficult to work for and with. Leaders that are workaholics are more likely to snap at team members, lash out harshly and say things to team members that they should not say. Leaders that are workaholics adjudge others unfairly based on their working hours and commitment; and thus perpetuate the cycle of workaholics within an organization. Leaders that are workaholics will have less satisfied team members, greater turnover within their team and burn out those around them; including themselves.

Successful organizations are now looking much deeper into the lives and interests of leadership position candidates to insure that they are hiring and promoting whole people. People with outside interests and support mechanisms that are not and will not become workaholics. The widespread use of social media such as FaceBook, Twitter and LinkedIn has made this query much easier for companies interested in the life balance of leaders. People now provide regular digital updates and pictures of their interests, hobbies and families for the entire world to see.

Traditionally, work life balance was described as a triangular model with a day carved into sleeping, working and personal time blocks of eight hours each. This very simplistic approach was easy to visualize on a daily basis and one could even set an alarm clock for the three life elements. Unfortunately, this model is too simple for a modern leader and does not account for complexities within a leadership role or even the complexity of life in the year 2011.

The first dynamic of an effective work life balance is to acknowledge that every day in the life of a leader is different and every day has unique challenges to effort and time commitment. No leader can automatically stand up after eight hours of work and excuse himself or herself and leave for the sake of perfect balance. It just doesn’t work that way. Some days need ten focused hours. Some weeks need you to come in and work on Saturday. Some days need you to take your laptop home. It isn’t just a neat and clean eight hours.

To account for this, leaders must look at a typical week and not a typical day. Taking a weeklong look will provide more opportunities to achieve balance as compare to the rigid alarm clock mode of carving up a day. This approach also takes into consideration the changing dynamics of time for a typical leader. Mondays may be twelve hour days at work while Tuesdays and Thursdays are very quiet. Saturdays may have some catch up time once a month but typically are free within an average week. Whatever your dynamic, a weekly approach will allow you to achieve greater degrees of balance.

The other difference with this look at balance will be what you need to balance. It is not just about sleep and play, although those become sub-sections of greater balance elements. The effective leader needs to achieve balance between intellectual, emotional and physical life elements. Leaders use all three of those elements at work in almost equal measure. Although a leader may not leave their office more than a few times a day, there is a physical toll from the lack of physical movement within work. Other leaders are constantly on the move and on their feet, this too has a physical impact that needs to be recharged.

To achieve balance, leaders should embrace these strategies for recharging each of the three critical life elements:

Intellectual

1. Read. Even fiction or “fun” books will stimulate your brain and help you recover spent intellectual energy.

2. Learn. On a weekly basis, challenge yourself to learn something new. For some leaders, the best way to do this is to commit to a class or college program that forces the scheduling.

3. Stimulate Thinking. Some activities to stimulate your brain functions include crossword puzzles, Sudoku, word searches and challenging hobbies (i.e. history, assembling complex models) are good for the brain.

Emotional

The emotional side of any person is harder to recharge than other elements and it is rare that a leader recognizes the need to give their emotions a boost. The emotional side is also very closely connected to the physical side of any person and there is cause and effect between emotional and physical elements.

1. Help Others. Nothing can provide the boost of emotional energy like helping others. Become a regular volunteer in your community, a key organization (not a professional organization), local youth sports or your church. Participate fully, roll up your sleeves and get dirty. Go on a bi-annual trip to build homes. Stop writing checks and help other people.

2. Network Professionally. Join and participate in professional groups that will include your peer levels and competitors. This networking is a great source of empathy and you will learn quickly that your concerns and challenges are more broadly shared than you ever thought. This professional empathy is an important emotional charger.

3. Friends, Relatives and Pets. Have them. Keep them and utilize the emotional power of laughing with family members, friends (from outside your working environment) and scratching the belly of your mutt. Leadership should be a lonely proposition at work but not outside of work. Most highly successful leaders maintain a robust group of friends that have nothing to do with their business dealings.

4. Catch Up. Use some time on Saturdays and Sundays to pay bills, run errands, stock up on groceries and get your hair cut. Trying to pile that stuff in on weekdays rarely works well and causes more stress than relief.

5. Skin Thickness. Work on your resilience and stop taking every little slight or perceived slight so personally. Chances are it isn’t about you anyway but about a work product or something else in which you participated. Grow your skin.

Physical

The easiest part of a balanced leader to manage is also the most often neglected. You and the container that you live within is so critical to your leadership success. Maintaining the energy to operate and the energy to execute your ideas is managing your physical balance.

1. Nap. Like we all learned in kindergarten, naps have great value. Use some time on the weekend to take a good long nap or two. Trying to sleep in generally does not work (we are creatures of habit) but squeezing in a couple of naps can achieve rest balance not found during the work week.

2. Play. Recreation is different from the rigidity of exercise but yet often has exercise elements. Play golf, baseball, tennis, hike or whatever. Just play something. Good for the body and your emotional composition.

3. Exercise. Regularly scheduled exercise is an important dynamic of recharging your physical being. It does not have to be one hour in the gym everyday to be effective. It can be as simple as walking three nights a week. Just get moving and make it an unyielding part of your week.

4. Intake. Like any other engine, your body will perform only as well as what you put into the fuel tank. Your diet is important. Overuse of caffeinated beverages (see sales volume for energy drinks and Starbucks over the past decade) have adverse effects. You don’t have to abandon animal flesh and eat clover but you do have to pay attention to what you shovel in and at what volume. Don’t eat at your desk and don’t skip meals. Eat well and recharge.

Related Articles
  INVENTORIES CAN BE MANAGE BUT PEOPLE SHOULD BE LEAD.
  Are You a Thought Leader
  Eight Essential Qualities of Passionate, Powerful and Proven Leaders, According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach
  Eliminating the Fear of Failure
  The Art of Influencing and Empowering Others
  The Zen of Leadership
  Effective Leadership - What is the secret?
  BE A LEADER - MANAGER
  Leadership Essentials
  The Essence of True Leadership
  Does content curation have a role in thought leadership?
  Count more than the money
  What Does Leadership Mean
  Real leadership means others are influenced in remarkable ways
  Balanced scorecard as a leadership tool
  What Is The Meaning Of Leadership?
  What is Leadership
  Leadership Acumen
  How To Become A Leader.
  The Art of Leadership: Part One

Article Tags: leadership, life balance, management, stress



Related Forum Posts
Re: Business Women Peer Mentoring Spotlight - Hi Everyone, Gosh, I REALLY appreciate your concrete feedback. This was far more than I expected and I'm glad you said what you thought straight out. Each of you have shared something of value and I want to take some more time to think and really go over what each of you have said. However, I can see there are some things I need to change right away. What an interesting point about a NEW program perhaps making people think they are guinea pigs! This is NOT what I want to convey! It's funny how we can see some things so clearly in others while not always seeing it for ourselves! I must admit there are a few things I've been meaning to change (like my bio which is very outdated). Obviously, these things need to be higher on my priority list. You caught me like the plumber who puts his clients first and doesn't get around to fixing his own tap! As far as my target market, I do feel quite strongly about working with Women Leaders and doing Leadership Coaching with them. It's non-negotiable in my books. In my Executive Coaching training, the terms "Leaders" and "Executives" are interchangable. To me, an Executive is a Leader and so is the Business Woman or Entrepreneur who is CEO of her own business. I love working with decision makers! What I did learn is that I need to avoid opening up the Leadership term beyond what I described above. I'm also wondering if there is a misunderstanding with the general public as to what Leadership Coaching really is. Leadership Coaching is all about developing your leadership skills, both as a people manager and in more effectively running and growing the business. There is ALWAYS room for growth in some way. As well, sometimes, we just need a sounding board to clarify what our next BEST step is. In fact, if a woman thinks she has nothing to work on, then we aren't a good Client/Coach fit anyway. How can she grow if she doesn't see the value of expressing ALL of the great ability within her? How can her company grow if she doesn't see the value of strategic planning for the next best level? Thanks again to you all! I will go back to my website and really question whether I am conveying the right message. I got more than I bargained for in this Spotlight... you generously offered way more than I was asking. I think we could be on to something great for the Forum. Now it's time to let someone else have the spotlight. It would be great if everyone took a turn! In gratitude, Tami
Re: My 200 post - Well GT, You done it again, The Leader and now you have 1003 post, wow. Michelle and Trent, you are a winners too. WTG friends, you are an inspiration.
Re: 3 Ways I Used Twitter To Grow My Business This Week - Hi Olivia, It seems you are working in the area of leadership area. Is Leadership = Learning? I am looking for some good books on strategy? Which one do you recommend? Thanks, Robert
Blank text field might be better - Hi TheAnonymousMan, I like your idea! I'm assuming it would be similar to the status feature on Facebook where it might say "Kevin is ... " So I think having a blank text field in the profile box (and even "Leader" boxes on the left and top side of the forums if possible) might be more fun than just choosing from pre-set options from a drop down menu:D
Re: LEADERS - Nice post, i like the Doers and the listeners comments from my handbook 8.5 HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOW ABOUT LEADERSHIP? Planning Problem Solving Vision Innovation Leadership Emotional Intelligence Delegation Communication Self-Development Relationship Building Commercial Financial skills Personal Energy Ethics Transparency Even there I see that we are missing "PASSION"


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

How to Write Your Articles for Better SEO

Selling What Sizzles vs. Delivering Real Value

Coaching Tip: Identify Your Core Values

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.