Leaders have always struggled with work-life balance. They are pulled in different directions, never have enough time and deal with a demanding workload, on top of responsibilities at home. And now, leaders are more overwhelmed than ever. They feel as if they are failing at both work and life.
If your energy is depleted, it is impossible to lead others with impact and influence. For years, we’ve talked about managing work and home life as a balancing act, but since the pandemic, the lines between our work and home lives have blurred. I even shared ways you can train your brain to separate the two when working from home.
It’s tempting to think about separating work and home into neat boxes, each with its own space, but the truth is, life is messy, work can be chaotic and trying to rigidly separate the two is inevitably going to add frustration. That is why it is essential to bring flexibility to your life, both at work and at home.
When you approach your life with a flexible lens, you’ll be able to think outside those compartmental boxes, which will create less stress for you. You will feel more in control, you will be more effective and you will be able to problem-solve better. Your capacity to pivot to adjust to circumstances is always a net positive.
From One Circus Act To Another
If you think of work-life balance as a circus tightrope performer, carefully treading a narrow rope in midair while maintaining balance, then work-life integration would be like a skilled juggler, seamlessly incorporating various elements into a dynamic performance, effortlessly transitioning between tasks to keep everything in motion.
Instead of workers maintaining a strict 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. schedule with a mandate not to take work home, we see more workers choosing how, when and where they are most productive. Flexibility remains the top advantage of remote work in recent studies. In Buffer’s State of Remote Work 2023, 22% of survey respondents highlighted flexibility in how they allocate their time as the primary benefit of remote work, 19% valued the freedom to choose their place of residence and 13% appreciated the ability to select their work location.
Primary Prioritization
I would encourage all leaders to thoughtfully, perhaps even rigorously, prioritize every element of their life. Understand what is important and how to fit it in, reorganize so it stays prioritized and change things up when the current model no longer serves you. I tell my executive coaching clients that it is important to learn to cull what is not important in your life, but this is hard. For example, I know you attend meetings that are not necessary. These are great opportunities to have your direct reports attend and summarize. Not only are you giving them more responsibility, but you are also helping them learn what is important and what is not important.
I got this lesson in my first semester of graduate school. I had not been a student in 20 years, and I took a full-time course load. I was a good student: I took outlined notes on all the class lectures, I did the reading and took outlined notes, I studied for exams, I wrote the papers and I even read (and outlined!) the suggested readings. I was completely overwhelmed at the end of the first semester. Every waking moment of every day was spent studying, reading, outlining and prepping. It got to be so much that I considered dropping out.
I spoke to my favorite professor, and she was incredulous that I was feeling this way since I was at the top of my class. I went through the litany of what I was doing, and she could not believe it. She said, “Of course, that’s not sustainable!” The professor told me that no one reads the suggested reading material, and most people do not even read the required reading, much less outline it! She said that professors purposely overload you with too much reading because they want you to learn what is most important so you can prioritize and be effective with your time.
How To Model Flexibility For Your Employees
I approached graduate school with the utmost rigidity, and it did not work. The same is true for business. Offering flexibility to your employees is a sign of trust, and trust is a well-established route to productivity. If you provide a flexible work environment, you trust that your employees will complete their work until they give you a reason not to trust them.
As a leader, you must model the behavior you want from your employees. If you are preaching flexibility but are responding to work emails 24/7, your employees may think the same behavior is expected of them. When you integrate work and life, you can make work a priority when it should be but also have time with your family. Personal and professional duties can overlap, but only when it makes sense.
The key areas for leaders in modeling flexibility are impeccable accountability, knowing how to manage your time and managing your expectations so people are clear on what you expect from them and what they can expect from you. Communication is key, as this is where the breakdowns happen. Employees must communicate their needs and companies must establish clear and transparent policies that reflect accountability and expectations.
By setting expectations that honor both work and personal responsibilities, organizations can cultivate a healthier and more productive work environment characterized by reduced stress, enhanced efficiency and a high-performing team that exhibits resiliency and motivation.
Pay It Forward
The lesson I learned in grad school was game-changing. It helped me recalibrate, reprioritize and manage the expectations I had of myself. The result was a “lightening of the load,” which I have carried into my career. I hope you are inspired to re-evaluate your situation in a way that makes a measurable difference in your work-life integration.
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This article was originally published on Forbes.com as a Forbes Coaches Council post.