If you are a leader, you are probably struggling to navigate through these difficult times. Living by yourself or with your family, you have probably struggled with having your work inside your home entirely, for 24 hours, with no break.
Your office, your team, your problems have moved into your own house. Except for the fact that they are all now multiplied in unimaginable proportions.
Your work is not the same, you spend hours attending or leading virtual meetings.
Even if you used to work from home, each of us have been placed in an entirely different situation.
Leadership During Crisis. The Strength Through Boundaries and Balance
Being in one environment day and night can be detrimental to our wellbeing, as can the lack of clear boundaries between personal and professional life when you must experience both at the same time.
The lack of healthy boundaries between work and personal life has become a trigger of anxiety to many non-anxious people and it has reached children, executives, housewives, artists, students and even pets.
A good way to find balance during these unchartered waters is to build a healthy barrier between your work and your personal life, especially when they coexist in the same physical space.
It’s not easy when you have no time to have lunch with your family because you have back to back meetings. Meetings to mitigate crisis, meetings to help people, clients, partners.
However, if you leave your own family behind, your own people, something will fall apart. As a leader, you can sense that neglect. Ultimately, you are letting yourself down.
With all this massive amount of worrisome, and new measures to take, decisions to make, lack of social interaction, it is clear that coming back to the classic long forgotten habit to cherish small things in life is the new air we need to breath.
Separating time to yourself and your family during the day is not much to ask, it’s simply a small trade-off to balance this heartless work/life equation.
Show Leadership Qualities by Being Present
Great leaders have the capacity to listen and be present.
Being present can be as simple as:
- Having a lunch with your cellphone off,
- Enjoying the food you’re eating,
- Being face-to-face with your family,
- Talking and actually listen…
A few times a day, during your hectic schedule, these are good ways to find some healthy balance between personal and professional life.
Of course, it is perfectly natural to be nervous or worried about what is yet to come. Being human is one of the qualities of a good leader as well.
When feelings and thoughts come to your mind, those that can take you away from being present, simply acknowledge them, and refocus on your present moment, your moment with your family.
If you feel that this does not help you enough, remind yourself that life happens now. Each moment lived, happens only once.
This normally supports me greatly to stay present, to stablish what is a real priority and what is a distractor. Hopefully, this will help you too.
These simple ancient medicines called ‘living a quality life with your family’ are the boost you and we all need to have a heart, to thrive and evolve, to manage the anxiety and grief that these times evoke.
Wishing delightful moments,
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