Magic Monday: Freed Up For What?
Words of Manic Monday by The Bangles and modified by Susan Shaner. Musician: Dan Brodax.
Where can you find the magic at work today?
One of my clients had the goal this year of freeing herself up so she could be out in the community more – the face of her brand. She has worked with her team in the last few months to enhance their capability so she could be doing more strategic work.
While her team isn’t completely where she wants them to be yet, she has realized some more choice about her time. She was recently asked to take a leadership role in a community-based nonprofit organization. She declined. I asked her why? Didn’t this fit in with the goals you espoused a few months ago? Isn’t your plan working the way you anticipated?
A deeper, not articulated goal surfaced. She wanted to spend more time with her young son and this would require a lot of her evening time. So, while it met the strategic goal of being out in the community – it not only surfaced another goal but identified a way to further clarify her original goal – to be out in the community during the day versus evening, whenever possible. In addition, it identified the need to get clearer about work life integration (versus work life balance) goals.
Balance is a relative thing for everyone, and these days the lines between work and personal life is blurred. When and where you do work is more fluid and dynamic than ever before. It’s a more relevant question to ask how work and life fit together in the context of one’s definition of success.
In addition, my client was feeling that her team didn’t need her as much, which was a little unsettling for her. In what ways will they now need her? How will she continue to add value for them? I left her with these reflection questions until we meet again.
This week’s reflection: As you look to free up your time, what are you freeing your time up FOR? How will you know when you have gotten enough time freed up? As you develop your team’s capability, in what ways will your value-add to them change? In what ways will your team still need you?