Tag Archive for: productivity

Design a Quitting Plan: Opportunity Cost is Real in Your Career

Nicki Gilmour
Stop doing things at work that don’t work. Heard this before?

Has anyone told you to quit unproductive habits, or even quit your job? Well, today we are going to talk about not quitting.  At least, when you shouldn’t.

How many of us quit at the wrong time? When the going gets tough? The other side of the coin is that so many more do not quit something when we should ( job, project, partner, habit etc.) to do something better that we do not know exists yet.

Beyond being a coach and keeping my knowledge up to par, I love reading good personal and professional development books. I can be found having a little peace away from the madding crowd on the floor of a Barnes and Noble in summer months when work is less crazy. Air conditioning an added bonus. Recently, I picked up Seth Godin’s “the dip: a little book that teaches you when to quit (and when to stick)” and it resonated deeply for this column and the career advice I offer. Seth has a great blog too and this book is based on this blog “The four curves of want and get.”

Basically, the dip, according to Seth, is the moment we want to quit in the hard bit. This means when we feel exhausted or frustrated in our career, working out, or trying to learn new skills generally. Sometimes, things get hard, setbacks happen. No new news there, but why this book is a good and quick read (but gender bias in his examples at every turn in the book with implicit assumptions around the best being portrayed as a man continually is my only critique of an otherwise fabulous read), is that it compels you to think about why you quit when you do.

What is worth pushing through to the other side?

This little gem of a book talks about what criteria can be created to give yourself the permission to quit for the right reasons and at the right time. Invaluable.

Why is it that some of us don’t quit when we should?  When there is a dead end or a cliff that ultimately creates a downfall or loss for us in some way?

It got me thinking about so many of the people I coach.

It is my opinion that we are all in a state of quitting, we just do not know it. Much like Steven Covey’s identified habit of ‘begin with the end in mind’ in his book “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, success often comes with an exit strategy or a desired outcome.

We might be at the start of the curve and full of enthusiasm. But, over time it is inevitable that we are fighting entropy, boredom or irrelevance unless we find new ways to do things. We should know our mission and our end goal but change the product, tactic, approach where necessary, quit those things, but not the stuff that makes us great and makes us happy.

Seth Godin agrees, “The best quitters are those who decide to quit in advance, not because of panic or momentary dip. When you are being asked to settle for less, compromise or drop out, your desire to quit should be at its lowest. If it’s the easiest time to give up that is not the time to give up. “

He continues, “Strategic quitting is a conscious decision you make based on the choices that are available to you. If you realize you are at a dead end compared to what you could be investing in, quitting is not a reasonable choice, it’s a smart one.”

You should quit when you are facing a cliff or a dead end. Forget pride, sunken costs, quit when you know you can do better or be better or have more of what you want.

What is the bigger picture?

So, the message here is don’t quit your job if there is still value to you in the firm or industry, quit the way you do your job or quit the team or manager or even the firm. But, know what you want and need to know what you have to do to get it.

Need help figuring this all out? Work with a career coach – schedule a free exploratory chat to see if coaching is for you with Nicki Gilmour here.

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Managing your Emotions at Work for Maximum Productivity

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You take a coffee or healthy snack, start a friendly conversation with a colleague, listen to your favorite music, watch some funny YouTube stuff (but don’t go overboard), visit your favorite site, rearrange or make up your working place, make a list of places to visit or movies to watch.

Emotions at workThese are great mood busters that will help you in critical situations. When the initial fire is coped, you need to sit down and analyze the case, identify the source of distress, and how you can overcome it.

Sometimes it is hard to keep up a good performance at the workplace. The burden of responsibilities, tight deadlines, a never satisfied boss, unfriendly customers, and co-workers, can turn your work into hell. Everyone may face similar situations, but not everyone knows how to avoid negative emotions.

The ability to control your feelings is no less important than well-honed professional skills. Negative feelings like frustration, anxiety, anger or distress may undermine your reputation, hinder working productivity or even lead to burnout. Nonetheless, there is a solution of how to deal with emotions to maximize productivity.

Below, you will find four elements to consider that will help you deal with your emotions and maximize your productivity:
Self Control

Research and surveys have shown that negative emotions are quite common in the workplace. The pressure of constant duties gradually degrades our mental and physical stability, which may result in a lack of emotional control. Eventually, problems may demotivate or strike the working efficiency, and people give up to negative emotions.

The majority of people are used to suppressing their feelings, but psychologists suggest that the better option is to learn to control your emotions. Constant restrain or denial of emotional issues does not solve the initial problem, and when negative emotions gradually pile up, it may eventually lead to a nervous breakdown or burnout.

So, how do you stop negative emotions at the initial stage? The most common way is to pause if you feel that negative emotions or frustration overwhelms you. It’s great if you have the possibility to take a short break and evaluate the situation from different perspectives.

Try to realize the primary cause that has put you out of balance. For example, if a client or your boss is late to the meeting, the worst option is getting annoyed. Instead, it is better to accept the situation and use this time for relaxation, to get a jump on the next task or answer a quick email.

Emotions Are Necessary For Work

Of course, we are not robots. It’s human nature to experience emotions. In some cases, feelings are necessary for work. Empathy, positivity, and politeness are highly important in the workplace, especially in the service field. However, while positive emotions are preferable, negative feelings should be put aside.. Excess emotionality may cause misunderstandings and problems even in simple situations. For example, aggression is a surefire way to lose customers and ruin a company’s reputation. Employees that directly communicate with customers create the overall impression of the organization. Besides, negative emotions may worsen the atmosphere in the team and demotivate your colleagues. The workplace is an interconnected ecosystem, where the emotional sustainability and welfare of each employee depend on everyone.

Short Pause

Sometimes it is hard to preserve a healthy working atmosphere, especially when people don’t know how to effectively cope with their emotions. Some choose to withdraw from social activity and limit communication, while others prefer to take the anger out on colleagues which is a self-destructive way, as it damages social connections and team unity. The good news is that there are plenty of positive methods that you can use to control your emotions. In this respect, relaxation and distraction are the best friends of each overwhelmed worker. Sometimes you need a short pause. Distract yourself from your task for a moment to gain perspective. Or take a longer break as today more and more companies offer wellness activities and understand the importance of mental and physical health.

Find A Golden Mean

The next step is to learn how to prevent negative emotions. Avoid any sources of anxiety. For example, organize your time to do all tasks on time and stop the rush. Set achievable goals to bypass frustration. It is also necessary to improve your mindset. Be respectful and courteous to your colleagues and clients. Treat every person as you’d treat yourself, or better still how you would like to be treated, and you will avoid accumulation of negativity right on the spot. Finally, it is essential to find a balance between those things that you enjoy, and those that take you out of the comfort zone. It’s necessary for your self-development and performance.

All of us face bad days and black lines: high working load, miscommunication, or personal issues. But we shouldn’t allow them to control our social and professional life. Of course, emotions make us human beings, but we need to use them wisely so that they do not destroy our lives. Try to avoid focusing on negative feelings and prevent excessive expression. Relax when you need it, analyze the problematic situation, listen to other people, and find a golden mean of your working performance. That will definitely help in both dealing with negative emotions and maximizing your productivity.

About the Author

Matthew Finnighan is a professional content writer. He writes for various blogs about higher education, entertainment, and social media. He aims to supply quality and unique content on the basis of human need. He is happy to share experience in writing, education, and self-development in his publications. If you are interested in his writing, you can find Matthew on Twitter or Facebook.

The opinions and views expressed by guest contributors are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of theglasshammer.com

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Why Less Is More: Advice for Female Overachievers Everywhere

Women-Cheering-featured

By Aimee Hansen

With the recent International Women’s Day 2019 mantra being #Balanceforbetter, we have proof that giving less of yourself at work could be the best move for you and your career.

Being overly conscientious and accommodating in your work approach – which women are far more likely to be – may diffuse your energy and impact, without helping you advance in the office.

Overcoming the compulsion to overwork is about more than being mentally strategic and discerning with the work you do, though changing behaviors can change beliefs. The hardest part of choosing not to do too much may be riding through the emotional discomfort of not being as overly conscientious as you’re used to.

As girls and women, we’ve come to believe we have to work very hard not even to get ahead, but just to stay safe.

What did we really learn as girls at school?

“What if those same habits that propel girls to the top of their class — their hyper-conscientiousness about schoolwork — also hold them back in the work force?” writes Dr. Lisa Damour in the New York Times.

At school age, girls have the edge on performance and they also work harder, have greater discipline and perform better. Damour finds that girls are more likely to grind away and to leave as little as possible room for error. Anecdotally, it’s observed that boys are more likely to up their game if something slips, while girls are less likely to allow the possibility of slippage, holding the energy of maximum effort.

Damour writes, “We need to ask: What if school is a confidence factory for our sons, but only a competence factory for our daughters?” She asserts that with girls, we need to stop applauding ‘inefficient overwork’ and start rewarding ‘economy of effort’.

Part of this is encouraging girls to acknowledge how much they already know and then where to focus their mastery building, as opposed to only building up capacity for work. The confidence gap and stress gap between genders is only widened when girls and women put disproportionate stock in their ability to work extra hard, as opposed to their innate abilities to deliver good results.

We think we have to work harder (and we do) at work.

A study designed to monitor the impact of privacy filters on productivity at 3M also verified the suspicion that women employees work harder. “During a ten minute experimental trial, female employees worked longer without (2.5 minutes vs 2.1 minutes) or with (4.9 minutes vs 4.3 minutes) a privacy filter. 52 percent of male workers walked away during a waiting period while only 38 present of women did.

Across three decades of studies, professional women in both Britain and the United States are also significantly more likely than male peers to agree to the statement “My job requires that I work very hard.”

“Between a man and a woman who hold the same job, shoulder the same burdens at home and have the same education and skills, the woman is likely to feel she must work harder,“ said co-researcher and sociologist Elizabeth Gorman.

The researchers speculate that “the association between gender and reported required work effort is best interpreted as reflecting stricter performance standards imposed on women, even when women and men hold the same jobs.”

Being too conscientious adds up to emotional exhaustion.

Women tend to experience more stress in the workplace – and a UK survey found up to 67% higher stress levels for women between 34 and 44 compared to men.

Research on organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) explored five types of behavior for impact on individual well-being: “altruism (helping a colleague), conscientiousness (going beyond the minimum), civic virtue (involvement in the organisation), courtesy (avoiding work-related problems with others) and sportsmanship (tolerating inconveniences and impositions of work).”

The research showed that employees who regularly put in hours and effort beyond the call of duty experience more emotional exhaustion and work-family conflict – especially for those who carry out responsibilities at a high level.

The study also found “employees who already performed well in their job and had a high level of conscientiousness also suffered significantly higher emotional exhaustion and work-family conflict. Those who exerted greater effort in their work and family roles, with a general sense of not wanting to let people down, found they had little left in reserve, increasing the challenges of balancing work with a healthy family life.”

Doing well at work, not surprisingly, leads to more work: “Managers are prone to delegate more tasks and responsibilities to conscientious employees who are likely to try to maintain consistently high levels of output.”

If you get hooked to hyper-conscientiousness as your success card, you’ll feel you have to keep it going, even when it grows.

What if we just cared less?

Beyond the external demands, clinical psychologist Dr Jessamy Hibberd, co-author of This Book Will Make You Calm, notes the internal demands that we create for ourselves on top of external demands. “These are the pressures you place on yourself,” Hibberd told The Guardian. “For example, checking and rechecking work, spending too long on each task, taking work home and setting excessively high standards.”

As Lauren Bravo writes in the same piece, “As promising students we were told ‘aim high! Join in! You can do anything!’ – but nobody thought to mention we could also aim lower, opt out or do exactly what our pay cheque required and no more.”

“The happiest people at work seem to be the ones who don’t care as much,” writes Bravo, “they might just be on to something.”

How do to less and more.

University of California, Berkeley professor and author of Great at Work, says our approach to work is “broken.” He said to Forbes, “We pursue a paradigm of ‘more is better’ — but more hours doesn’t lead to better performance. And it leads to worse work/life balance.’”

From a survey on what really drives performance, Hansen found some secrets behind doing less to create more impact:

Do Fewer Things: Top performers are very selective in what they do and don’t scatter their efforts too much across too many tasks or too many meetings. Hansen says, “It’s counterintuitive. It’s not how much you can get done in a day, but how few things you have to do in order to excel.”

Sarah Knight, author of “The Life Changing Magic of Not Giving a F**k,” encourages us to declutter our mind and care less. She also suggests ditching corporate formalities like conference calls, when the time can be used more productively.

Push Back: If you’re asked to stretch yourself across too many things, Hansen suggests pushing for prioritization. “Say: ‘You asked me to do two things last week and now you’re asking for a third. Which should I prioritize? I can do all three, but it won’t be high-quality work.’ You’re not saying ‘I don’t want to do it.’ This requires some courage and tact.” Another tip: Say no to additional responsibilities with low visibility that won’t truly advance you.

“Do Less, Then Obsess”: Hansen suggests to do less tasks, but put attention into doing the things you commit to with excellence. Take time putting the attention into the details and making the work you commit to high quality. Do less, and do it better.

Women have been devalued in the workplace. You can stop devaluing yourself by finding ways to trim away the work that’s draining your energy more than its advancing you towards your own career desires.

Author Bio:

Aimee Hansen is a writer here at theglasshammer.com.

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The 4AM Club: Three Ways to Make It Work For You

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4am, early morning, dawn , The 4am Club
You’ve heard it said: the early bird catches the worm — in the opinion of many highly successful people, the phrase is much more than a cliche.

The benefits of an extremely early morning routine have been touted by so many self-made celebrities that the “4AM Club” has become a part of the public vernacular. It’s the magic hour for many world changers like Oprah, Michelle Obama, and Tim Cook, and experience has taught me why. In my world, it’s a time of quiet, focus, determination, and accomplishment.

As an entrepreneur and a mother, high-paced days at my desk and endless days on the road are only outpaced by high-energy evenings and weekends with my family of five. By waking up at 4 AM, I’m able to routinely devote time to my own self-development and care, a necessary practice for success in all areas of my life.

If this is something you’ve wanted to try but haven’t yet managed to find success in, here are a few keys I’ve found to making this routine not only possible, but extremely enjoyable as well:

Check your DNA

Our tendency to be productive at certain times of the day is often hard-wired in us, an internal clock that’s determined by our DNA. This genetic predisposition is called our chronotype. If you identify as a “night owl”, then you can stop reading now. This method is not for you. In fact, research shows a correlation to weight gain, diabetes, and heart disease if you try to force an extra early wake-time when your DNA is telling you otherwise. But if you feel like you do your best work in the morning, or maybe you’re not sure, than the 4 AM club could be for you.

Check your Watch

The key to sustaining this routine has everything to do with a consistent sleep schedule. Knowing the exact number of sleep hours that support your peak performance is requisite to success. Not getting enough sleep effectively compromises all the systems that work together for success in day-to-day life. Without enough sleep, the motivation to exercise is zapped, food choices start moving in a downward spiral, and productivity at work takes a nosedive.

Check your Excuses

An early morning routine is a no-excuses kind of practice. Follow the 21/90 rule — on average, it takes 21 days to form a habit. If the system seems to be working for you, another 90 days is recommended to turn it into a permanent lifestyle change. That said, the first few days will inevitably be brutal. Resist the temptation to hit snooze on that alarm by using the Rule of 5. When the alarm goes off, count to five, pop up, and start moving out of bed, no matter how you feel about it in that moment.

Above all, know that every person is wired in their own way, and successful habits look different for everyone. Do not try to define yourself by what works for others — instead, let them inspire you to find your own routines that drive you toward your goals.

Author Bio

Judith Nowlin, Chief Growth Officer with Babyscripts. Judith created iBirth™, a mobile care companion for pregnancy, birth and postpartum, to help healthcare practitioners deliver better health outcomes for women and children in the United States and beyond. The original idea for the app was born out of her prior decade of service in maternity care. The technology platform she and her team built has since impacted nearly 1 million families on their journey toward optimal health and wellness during one of life’s most precious times. iBirth was acquired in June 2018 by Babyscripts, Inc., the leading virtual care platform for obstetrics. You can find her here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/judith-nowlin-3a9b82b/

Guest contributors views are their own.

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How to Be Productive Without Feeling Stressed

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women stressed

Guest Contributed by Anna Whitehouse

Keen to be more productive?

Constantly trying to squeeze every drop out of the day could leave you feeling incredibly stressed. So what’s the solution? Read on to discover how to achieve more without sacrificing your mental health.

Learn to be present

In 2005 Arianna Huffington founded the Huffington Post. Two years later, she had collapsed due to stress and burnout. It took a breakdown to make this highly successful woman realise that she needed to slow down.

As well as starting to sleep properly, Arianna learned to be fully present in each moment. She began to appreciate the simple pleasures of life and became passionate about the connection between well being and productivity at work.

So if you need time away from the demands of work, the constant chatter of social media and a busy home life, why not find a tranquil spot in a local park or garden and experience the power of being fully present for yourself?

Once you’ve found your spot, start by drawing a deep breath and letting it out through your nose. Next, relax each part of your body and become aware of your surroundings. Feel the sun on your face, listen to the birds singing and simply enjoy being in the moment.

Stop multitasking

In our busy society, the ability to multitask is often admired. However, according to Paul Towers of Task Pigeon, “our brains are designed to focus on one thing at a time. We are not like a computer where we can successfully run multiple applications simultaneously.”

While constantly switching between tasks might seem like a good idea, it actually leads to procrastination and lack of concentration. These can affect our productivity at work and our relationships with those we love.

If you want to become more productive, try tackling one thing at a time, as losing yourself in a particular task leads to creative flow. When you allow this to happen, you’ll actually complete your task more efficiently and to a higher standard.

Say no more often

Is saying yes your default setting? Then you’ll probably end up feeling resentful and stressed because you’ve taken on too many projects. If your goal is to become more productive, learning to say no is crucial, because you’ll then be able to say yes to the things you’re passionate about.

TED speaker Derek Sivers sums this up nicely with this statement: “if you’re not saying “Hell Yeah!” about something, say no.”
Saying no can be tricky to start with, but being able to set boundaries is a sign of maturity. Most people will respect the fact that you know your limits and you can always point them in the direction of someone else who might be able to help.

Write effective lists

To do lists can be very handy when it comes to being productive, but they can also cause a great deal of stress. To avoid this, we recommend prioritising each task on your list. Tasks with an impending deadline should always be placed at the top, as these need to be dealt with urgently. Non urgent but important tasks go next in line, followed by jobs that can be left for a little while.

If your list is becoming ridiculously long, delegate! Focusing on the jobs that you do best means that you’ll be able to give someone else the chance to develop their skills.

Look after yourself

At the headquarters of Arianna Huffington’s company Thrive Global; employees are encouraged to take a nap during the working day. Her mission is to prioritize the well being of her staff and promote the value of sleep:

“Studies have shown that naps boost our immune system, lower our blood pressure, increase our ability to learn, improve our memory and performance of complex tasks.”

Exercise is another excellent tool for boosting productivity and combating stress. This is because it keeps you mentally sharp and increases your energy, while also releasing endorphins.

If you’re suffering from afternoon sugar slumps at work, a diet rich in fruit, leafy green vegetables, oily fish, eggs and wholegrains will also increase your ability to concentrate.

Any change involves commitment, but if you take the time to follow our tips you’ll enjoy better mental and physical health as well as increasing your productivity.

Anna Whitehouse writes for Inspiring Interns, which specializes in finding candidates their perfect internship. To browse our graduate jobs, visit our website.

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Productivity – Is It All About Prioritizing to Feel Good at the End of the Week?

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By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Psychologist

We all have tasks within our job that we like better than others, and most of us have some level of procrastination ability with the tasks we like less.

So, I use a system that works for me and it may work for you depending on several factors including how you think, learn and approach work as discussed in our “Do you know how you learn” career tip

I like to write down on a Monday morning all the things I need to do this week and then I assign priority- one being needs to happen ( like this weekly career tip column), to sales work (which I quantify by how many people I will talk to in a week), to admin and even life admin. Some things have a two, three, four or five assigned to them. If I get through all my ones, and half of my twos then by the end of the week I feel a sense of achievement and can have a reward of some kind. Possibly because I score very low on hedonism on the Hogan personality test this works for me and I can understand how other people would not like this feeling but the point is, there are ways to know yourself and get a system that works for you.

The next week I look back at the same list and ensure things dont stay low ranked. Even if it’s something I hate doing, I commit to making it a one within 3 -4 weeks( if that works for whatever the task is).

Have a go! It might help.

If you would like to figure out more about how you optimally work, Nicki is a qualified organizational psychologist and Exec coach. Contact nicki@theglasshammer.com or nicki@evolvedpeople.com for a free 15 mins exploratory session.

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Why You Should Avoid Overwork To Be Effective In Your Job

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women stressedRecently in Fortune, Besty Myers, founding director of the Center for Women and Business at Bentley University, called the 24/7 workday “the biggest setback for women in corporate America.”

Professor Robin Ely of Harvard Business School has said the 24/7 work culture “locks gender inequality in place.”

But this is not an article about gender. The chronic overwork culture doesn’t need to change only because it works against women: it needs to change because it’s not working.

Sarah Green Carmichael, senior associate editor of Harvard Business Review (HBR), posed in a recent article that the bigger question is not what has driven us to a 24/7 work culture, or who is to blame, but rather, “Does it work?”

The answer, according to many studies related to employee effectiveness, is no. Within her article, Carmichael highlights that a culture of chronic overwork backfires on employees and companies. Yet the number of hours worked has increased by 9% in the last 30 years. It seems Corporate America is clinging detrimentally tight to the false truth that overwork is a requirement for effective employees and driving company-level success: overwork is overvalued.

Here are four solid reasons why you shouldn’t chronically overwork if you wish to remain engaged and effective in your job and why your firm shouldn’t want you to, either. May this provide insight both for you and the men and women you manage.

1) Overwork may lower your engagement with work.

According to Gallup, nearly 61% of college graduates feel disengaged at work – meaning not “intellectually and emotionally connected,” even when they are physically present in the office, resulting in a major ROI loss for companies.

Data shows that 2/3 of employees feel overwhelmed and 80% would like to work fewer hours. The 24/7 work culture and feeling overwhelmed are major contributors to disengagement. While an “always on” expectation makes it difficult to mentally switch-off, research has suggested that being able to psychologically switch-off from work protects both well-being and work engagement.

If you feel you can never turn off, it would seem you begin to tune out. To stay engaged at work, it’s important not to give into the expectation to live it.

2) Overwork may hurt your productivity.

Research showed that a company couldn’t tell the difference in performance if an effective employee was working 80 hours or just pretending to, so working longer hours may not mean accomplishing more, career-wise too. As graphed in The Economist, longer hours are correlated with decreased productivity. In fact, research has even shown that when working hours are excessive, cutting hours back can actually increase your productivity.

Also, in research with a consultancy firm, required and predictable time-off from work including being digitally switched-off, increased productivity – even if time completely off had to be strictly enforced because employees were in the habit of being constantly switched on. Not only did it improve communication, learning and the client product, but it also resulted in greater job satisfaction, sense of work/life balance, and commitment to managing a career at the firm.

3) Overwork may hinder your ability to lead effectively.

As Ron Friedman writes in an HBR article, while putting in the excessive hours may have marked you as motivated and helped your “early career advancement,” maintaining overwork as part of your work identity once you’ve already arrived to a position of leadership can significantly damage your career prospects.

Leaders need to disconnect to optimize the interpersonal skills, critical thinking, and visionary skills important to their roles. Overwork contributes to mis-reading others (often negatively) and emotional reactivity such as lashing out. Management performance also depends upon judgement, and being tired from overwork impairs your decision-making abilities and clarity of perspective when it comes to identifying problems and creative solutions.

An overworked leader, concentrating to the point of fatigue, is often a cloudy leader, who is also more vulnerable to technology distractions, such as the 3pm workplace Facebook rush.

As Reid writes, overworking also models the behavior as an expectation for those you manage, and there’s enough evidence in this article alone to illustrate why that’s a questionable management practice.

4) Overwork may harm your health.

On top of compromising your job effectiveness, overwork compromises your well-being, a major component of feeling satisfyingly engaged in your work. Studies have shown that overwork is associated with emotional exhaustion and impaired sleep, which is a massive performance killer in addition to compromising health.

It’s also associated with depressive symptoms, heavy drinking, and long-term with heart disease and impairment of brain function when it comes to reasoning. Nothing about this says top management potential. If you’re to be a thriving executive, it’s probably best to start as a thriving human.

What Can You Do To Be More Effective?

But you’re still surrounded with a culture of overwork, so what can you do?

Friedman recommends starting with these small behavior changes:

Find a way not to have your smartphone at your side constantly when away from work, interrupting your present – instead check it with intention. Program evening emails to arrive in the morning, so they don’t catalyze a back and forth conversation after hours. Discern when a response is necessary immediately from when it’s not. Find an activity that you’re excited to leave work for, something else that will give you a sense of gain. While at work, schedule a few breaks in your day so that you can step away, clear your head, and refresh both your energy and perspective.

It’s clear that when you chronically over-extend yourself at work, you may still be there or still be on, but you stop being the same employee. Being an effective leader means managing the asset of your leadership effectiveness, not working until it’s lost to diminishing returns or worse.

By Aimee Hansen

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