Who are you?
What comes to mind when you read that question? I imagine you are thinking about your name, age, your family background and your career. Usually when someone asks that question, those are the answers they are seeking.
The same question can be asked but with deeper meaning in mind. This time think of the question in the context of the person you are inside that affects who you are on the outside.
Most if not all of us have the tendency to allow words, actions and attitudes of others to influence our responses. At some point in life, we’ve likely blamed someone else for our response to a situation or a person. To be honest, I think most of us still do. We likely do this because it is our default response. It has been part of the human experience from the beginning.
Scripture recounts the first instance of people being held accountable for their choices, and their immediate response was to blame someone else for their choices. This story of Adam and Eve disobeying God in the garden is found in Genesis 3. The tendency to blame others for our choices is still very much a part of the human condition.
Is work-life balance possible? If so, how does one go about achieving it?
For many years we have been hearing about the importance of work-life balance. Perhaps like many of you, for years I have tried to strike the balance and have not been able to do it.
Trying to manage your time in order to attend to all the different areas of life has been a lifelong battle for most of us. Many of us work too much and as result neglect the other areas of our lives, such as family, health, church, and/or friends. On the other hand, some of us give too much focus to our family, church or physical well-being and give the bare minimum at work.
How can we ease the guilt and frustration of trying but being unable to find that elusive work-life balance formula?
In leadership, your most important asset is the people you lead. The worth of this asset increases or decreases based on how you treat those people.
In the relationship between leader and follower the banking principle of deposit and withdrawal is always at work. When something positive is said or given to someone under your leadership, a deposit is made. When something difficult has to be said, such as talking to someone about poor job performance or consistent tardiness, a withdrawal is made. The principle is true in all healthy relationships. Things can go very wrong if the withdrawal turns out to be larger than the deposits.
For the worth of those relationships to continue to increase intentional deposits are essential.
Here are some ways you can intentionally make deposits in the relationships of those you lead.