Ensure Work Life Balance

The mark of a good manager is commitment to the team. Managers that can guide and motivate a team have the ability to drive bigger efforts and achieve higher levels of impact - for longer - than an individual can. But only if your people don't burn out.

Which brings me to today's Monday Mantra: Ensure Work Life Balance.

With rare exception, every person I have ever hired or worked with has been willing to go above and beyond to ensure their job wasn't just done - it was done exceptionally. The idea of an 8 to 5 workday with an hour lunch does not exist for them. What matters is success, and when the needs of the organization rise, they rise up to meet that need.

The challenge for managers is to ensure that 'going beyond' does equate to continual weekend / evening work. If this happens, burn out occurs and you will see a decline in work quality, delivery time and morale (personal and team). More concerning, burn out can have personal tolls (divorce, health issues, etc.) that result in good people walking away. To get the most out of a team without losing them to burn out, you must monitor:

1. Path to Outcome: As a manager it easy to focus on the result of a project - forgetting the hard, often convoluted process needed to achieve that outcome. Your "5 minute project" may actually require 10 hours of work. Is that 10 hours necessary or a result of someone over-focusing on perfection vs. completion? You'll want to investigate.
2. Matrix Impact: Most projects are not done in isolation. They require collaboration with a matrix of other teams. To get the support of these teams, your staff will likely have to help them with their projects. And if your team is viewed as the subject matter experts, they may be called in to support a variety of efforts, increasing load.
3. Meetings: There are many reasons people meet: to build and align on strategy, to drive execution, to update on status, etc. All have value, but status meetings tend to eat more and more time - especially if execs are interested. More than ever, meeting overload is a major source of frustration (meetings all day, work all night).

All of these items add to the time your team spends driving success. If you are not aware of them, you may think individuals have spare cycles, when really they are operating in the red. But if you know about them, you can help staff prioritize, find shortcuts or have tough conversations with others teams about pitching in more, waiting for a deliverable OR doing their own work (I've had this conversation many times - don't passed over for promotion because you're too busy helping someone else get promoted).

But the most important thing you must do is monitor your team's emotional and personal health. That is truly the only way that you can make sure your team isn't overloaded or ignoring personal priorities that ensure they stay happy, healthy and working with you.

Have a great week and be the leader your people need you to be.