As leaders, we work hard to drive our organization’s objectives and results. Relentless leadership can have a price if not kept in focus. As leaders, we are more aware of planning and goal setting for our business, but our attention to the big picture of our lives (work personal impact AND personal life) is harder to carve out time to think about. Every leader is going to be more effective if they take the time to be a balanced leader.

What does this mean? A balanced leader pays attention to all areas of their life. While it is a continual effort to manage the different aspects of a leader’s busy life, the art of balance is intentional and aware of giving time and attention to all areas. Each area does not need to have the same amount of attention, but it must have some.

In today’s busy, fast-paced and demanding world, even the best leaders have to work to stay in tune to indicators that let them know when they might be getting “out of balance”. There are signs that indicate a lack of balance or disengagement. If you want to stay a top performer, you have to be aware of your signs and work to maintain balance.

The art of maintaining balance is:

  1. It is not a quick fix (for exhausted, disengaged or overworked leaders).
  2. It is not an easy one-step action or solution (it is a process).
  3. It is not linear; it is a holistic concept.
  4. It is proven with executives and top professionals.

(reference: The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr)

To consider your balance you might look at a few areas of your life. For me, I usually find the 8 pie pieces to be a good life snapshot: Family, Friends, Faith, Finances, Fun, Your Environment, Health and Work. In the book The Power of Full Engagement, the authors break these into 4 areas that are spiritual, emotional, mental and physical.

Both breakdowns are valuable to look at. The first helps you to look at the different areas of your life. The second helps you to assess the impact your life is having on you. The areas mentioned in the first create positive or negative results in the second listing of areas.

Here are a few tips for honing the art of balance in your busy leader life.

1. Focus on one area at a time. Even if you do one area one month and one the next, pick one. You would not want to shift focuses more often than once a month. If you want to make progress, see change and get results, you need a month of effort to design, try, implement and create a new pattern before you shift your focus to something else.

2. Notice your energy. Your energy will help you assess if you are on or off track in an area. There might be areas that you really don’t feel like thinking about. This could be an area you really need to think about. If there was nothing wrong here, you would not be subconsciously avoiding it. You might be in (?) an area that you are really excited to think about and spend lots of time on, notice how this area might be consuming all your time and energy and getting you out of balance with the other areas OR it might be a “productive” way to avoid an area you would rather not think about.

3. Have a plan. Once you pick an area to focus on that is going to benefit your life balance, create a plan of action that you are going to do weekly and monthly to keep this area in your mind. If it were easy to give this area attention it would not be an area that you need to work on. If you are working in an area that is easy, double check and make sure that is the BEST area for you to focus on. I am not saying life has to be hard, I am just saying it is human nature to work on what we enjoy and avoid what we don’t (i.e. diet, workout, bad relationship, nagging spouse, annoying employee, finances, etc.)

Get more out of life, work and your team with BALANCE. You will be more successful, more productive and get better results in all areas when you take the time to do this.

Originally published at synergystrategies.com

Author(s)

  • Christy Geiger

    Executive & Leadership Coach

    Synergy Strategies

    Christy is an seasoned and certified Coach for executives/CXO, leaders, entrepreneurs and top performers with a truly refreshing and unique perspective. Since 2002, she has worked with over 1000 individuals to break through personal and business barriers to perform at their best. She is passionate about learning, challenging the status quo and helping her clients achieve their desired goals. With extensive background in human psychology, personality and strengths, Christy leads each of her clients to better understand themselves, their clients and their team to increase efficiency and productivity. Over the course of her career, Christy has helped her clients customize their approach to implement strategies which maximize personal strengths and styles, and to break through personal barriers and limitations to perform at their highest. With her approach, Christy has helped solopreneurs, business leaders, and CEO’s to grow start-up businesses or expand their organization into multi-million dollar companies. She has helped businesses and non-profits grow, developed leadership teams, and coached CEOs to leverage both their strengths and weaknesses to transform their leadership styles and that of their organizations. Whatever your goal is, Christy expands internal awareness and insight to break through personal barriers guiding individuals to reach new sales, marketing, or team production. Christy brings over 15 years of personal and professional experience to each of her clients. She has developed teams in the corporate world, earned a Master's degree in Psychology, and is certified in the use of the DISC personality system, Guerrilla Marketing approach and Rule the Room Financial system. Founded in her belief each person has God-given strengths and talents, she also works with those in career discovery, transition and advancement to better understand and leverage their gifts and skills to love their work and place in the world. She grew up in California but has lived on the East Coast (North Carolina), and in the Midwest (Minnesota) and now calls Texas (Austin) home with her husband and two children.