Once upon a time, in the near, near land of reality, I had a client named Brandon. He was motivated, intelligent, and wholly committed to the success of his company. But he had poor time management skills and was even worse at establishing personal and professional separation boundaries in his life. This made Brandon a frustrated, stressed, and grumpy man.
In my book, Serve Up, Coach Down, I spend some time discussing why Brandon’s inept time management skills made both his professional and thus personal life unnecessarily harder. However, in today’s blog, I want to borrow from his experience to show why it’s important to separate the personal and professional to truly succeed in life. Let’s get into it!
The Separation Conundrum
As many of us return to office after a year plus from working at home, our outlook on work and personal life have somewhat changed. Leaders are more concerned than ever about how our employees prioritize their work and personal demands. As a leader in the middle, you are also tasked to strike a balance between improving production, profits, and performance, while maintaining a high level of morale. But let me share something important outright,
“The issue [itself] is the search for personal and professional balance. As there are no definitive parameters for measuring balance, the real goal should be personal and professional separation.”
Nathan Jamail, Author and Keynote Speaker
What does this mean? Well, In the search for striking this delicate balance, a leader must first understand why separation is key, and understand the consequences when personal and professional lives overlap.
The Separation Priority
Technology these days allows us to do some pretty amazing things. It’s revolutionized how we do business by allowing us to stay more plugged in but that presents its own challenges. Whether we are back in the office or are have switched to a remote working model, there is a need for professionals to leave their work in a separate time and space.
By taking calls and responding to emails from our smartphones outside of normal business hours, we are perpetuating poor professional separation. After all, there are only so many hours in a day, so this comes at the sacrifice of our personal and family life.
When you are at a family dinner or your kids’ events but are still answering those work emails, you are missing out. You see, by doing two things at once, you’re only giving 50 percent of yourself to each activity (or less). When your personal and professional lives overlap in this manner, both suffer. The only thing to do is to make separating both a priority.
Avoiding the Anti-separation Rabbit Hole
Bringing Home Life to Work
Problems beget more problems, so failure to separate can lead to your house of cards crumbling. When we take our problems to work, we get distracted and are prone to make more mistakes on the job. This has a negative cost on the organization and can detract from the overall effectiveness of other employees. After all, time is money and the time spent fixing these mistakes represents dollars lost.
“When a person is at work they need to be at work, no matter their family dynamics or problems—they must learn to leave them at home. The one thing that can make any family problem even more difficult is for that person to lose their job because their personal issues are affecting their performance.”
Nathan Jamail, Author and Keynote Speaker
Bringing Work Home
On the flipside, bringing work issues and distractions home introduces outside problems to your familial space. This can cause serious issues within your home as you will be more prone to take out your issues on your family. This is a no-win situation for all.
“When a person is home with their family, they need to be present. Leave your phone and your uniform or suit jacket at the door. Just like the company that pays that employee deserves that employee’s very best, their families deserve their very best too.”
Nathan Jamail, Author and Keynote Speaker
I want you to have it all. I want you to have the love of your family and allowing them to bask in the fruits of your hard earned labor. And I want you to have a productive, professional and successful work life too. At the end of the day, the key to this is to separate your professional and personal life.
I’ve spent over 20 years coaching executives and their companies on how to find that separation sweet point. Check out my books, Serve Up and Coach Down, and The Leadership Playbook, for more helpful tips on how to avoid being a Brandon.
