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Act: Achieve your purpose.
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Lives in the Balance
Bob Ryan, About Purpose, Inc. ©2003
A good friend of mine sent me an e-mail recently commenting on an article he had read about General Tommy Franks in the St. Paul Pioneer Press. The article says that Gen. Franks has risen to the top of his profession as a four-star general. Yet he seems to have maintained a well-balanced life and allowed plenty of time for his family. His daughter stated that Gen. Franks worked very efficiently, got his work done, did not make busy work, and when he was home he was home.
Let me quote my friend’s thoughts on the article. “How many guys in his profession worked 80+ hours a week, sacrificed their family life, and never made it to Colonel? Yet here's a guy who got his work done, made plenty of time for his family, and rose to four-star general. I see this same thing with friends and relatives working for large corporations. Many seem to put in endless ‘face time’, and I doubt very seriously whether most of them will ever make vice president. The article on Gen. Franks puts into context a philosophy I have held for a long time. At the risk of boasting, I have in recent years found it quite possible to generate annual billings well within the top tier of my profession (nationally), yet I do not feel compelled to work tireless hours. Sometimes the midnight oil must be burned, but that is not the norm. I tell my employees to work hard and efficiently for the 8 to 9 hours they’re here, and then go home and forget it. Maybe this would be good topic for your newsletter someday.”
I believe it is a timely and important topic. Too many entrepreneurs today are actually proud of the fact that they work 60-80 hour weeks. I know this won’t make me very popular with some of you, but if you are working those hours for more than a short season – to accomplish a specific objective – then you are lacking good management and leadership skills. There is a lot at stake here and lives hang in the balance. Your life, to be sure, but you are also risking the lives of your family and your employees.
Good leadership requires balance. If the leader is off balance, you can expect to see all those around the leader teetering as well. Here are some of the symptoms and effects of a life out of balance. See if you want your business or your life to be characterized by these:
Lack of clear direction – The unbalanced life may be busy, even frenetic. But observers rarely see where you are going or why you doing what you do. The result is decreased confidence in your leadership; increased anxiety about the health of the organization; and a ripple-down effect that multiplies stress among your employees and family.
Ineffectiveness – If you’ve been working extremely long hours for a long time, and you’ve got very little to show for it, then you are ineffective. Effectiveness is defined as doing the right things, while efficiency is defined as doing things right. No matter how hard you work and how good you are at it, if it isn’t producing the desired results, you are doing the wrong things. And if you aren’t doing the right things, who is? Probably no one, leaving your company victimized by the winds of change and vagaries of the economy.
Burnout – Everyone knows that if you drive a car too fast, too long in a low gear, you’ll burn up the transmission. Picture yourself as the largest in a set of gears. As you move one-eighth of a rotation, the next gear moves one quarter, and the next one-half, etc. If you move too quickly, those around you cannot possibly keep the pace. The person at the top must take measured, purposeful steps so that the people in the organization can drive their processes efficiently and not burn themselves out. In a previous article I reported on The Human Equation, Putting People First by Jeffrey Pfeffer, and his research that showed conclusively that layoffs have the opposite effect on costs and productivity than what we intend. So if you think you’re doing more with less, you aren’t. (See the Book Report for the full report.)
Cognitive dissonance – This is two dollar phrase for the most serious effect of all the above. It is when our actions no longer align with our values and beliefs, resulting in loss of self-esteem and outright demoralization. It can happen to you personally, and it can spread through your family and company. You’ve seen it in others – and probably shook your head and thought, “What were they thinking?” Take a close look at yourself. If you are burning the candle at both ends, you are probably violating some of your closest held beliefs and short changing the people and things you value the most.
If these symptoms describe your life, you must act decisively and immediately to change. First on your action list is to do a careful examination of your life and what’s really important to you. Once you see the collision course you have placed yourself on, you can pick any or all of the following remedies to get your life back in balance.
- Join a peer accountability group that will hold your feet to the fire around what you identify as your values and goals. (The Alternative Board TAB is an excellent resource – call me about it.)
- Brush off that old personality profile you filled out during some training a while ago, or take another one. Learn to value the natural style with which you approach life and capitalize on your natural strengths while avoiding overusing them.
- Take a time management course. Listen to an audiotape of Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Read the book, Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives by Richard Swenson.
- Take on a professional coach who can help you identify and change self-destructive activities.
General Tommy Franks, my friend, and numerous others have found that success is not measured merely in hours on the job. It is not an overstatement to say that lives are threatened by your being out of balance. Make a decision today to change your life.
Though I never use this newsletter to advertise, I believe it is important to tell you that About Purpose, Inc. can be a vital resource in any of the remedies listed above. I value you and truly want you to succeed and prosper. Whether you let me help or not, please, take action today. E-mail or call me at 612-965-2253.