Weekend Leadership Reading: 12/6/19

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Weekends are time when things slow down a little. Your weekend shouldn’t be two more regular workdays. That’s a sure road to burnout. Take time to refresh yourself. Take time for something different. Take time for some of that reading you can’t find time for during the week.

Here are choice articles on hot leadership topics culled from the business schools, the business press and major consulting firms. This week there are articles about balance.

From Adi Gaskell: DO WE NEED A NEW WAY OF THINKING ABOUT WORK-LIFE BALANCE?

“Providing a good work-life balance is one of those things that has been widely proven to be beneficial, not only to employees who have less stress, lower absenteeism, higher employee engagement and often better productivity, but also by virtue of these things, the employer benefits too. In work, less is often more, yet this seemingly counterintuitive finding is sometimes hard for managers to swallow.”

From Ashley Goodall: Why Aren’t My Attempts at Finding Work-Life Balance Successful

“Work is hard. Perhaps you know the feeling of too many requests from too many people and not enough hours in the day. To push back against the never-ending tide of work and preserve a place for our own interests and obligations, we’re told to strive for work-life balance. And although well-intentioned, this ideal doesn’t translate to the real world. Here’s why.”

From Anat Amit-Eyal: An Action Plan for Work-Family Balance

“Finding the right balance for your personal and professional life requires conscious planning, ample reflection and proper communication.”

From Arianne Cohen: Americans have a twisted relationship with paid time off

“Two out of five workers feel guilty for taking paid time off, according to a new survey by Zenefits. This is alarming, given that ‘time off’ is code for your real life. The survey indicates that Americans are a psychological hot mess on the topic: Half of employees don’t take paid time off due to high workloads or worries about job security, and 49% don’t take their allotted vacation days, yet nearly three-quarters agree that paid time off makes them feel more productive and healthier at work, and a quarter of employees would be willing to take a pay cut to get more of it.”

From John Hittler: Do You Really Need Work-Life Balance?

“Many people today feel as if they need to cultivate and perfect work-life balance. Is there really such a thing? More importantly, even if there is, do you really need it?”

From Carlos Hidalgo: Why I Do Not Believe In Work-Life Balance

“What I do believe in is work-life boundaries. I have had some who have told me this is just a different choice of words and that work-life balance and work-life boundaries are the same things. I would contend however that they are quite different. I spent years focused on trying to be balanced, but was completely unbalanced in my life and I can attest to the difference that boundaries have made in my life. Here are some of the differences between boundaries and balance.”

Book Suggestions

Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World by Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall

The Motivation Trap: Leadership Strategies to Achieve Sustained Success by John Hittler

The UnAmerican Dream: Finding Personal and Professional Happiness Establishing Work-Life Boundaries by Carlos Hidalgo

Off Balance: Getting Beyond the Work-Life Balance Myth to Personal and Professional Satisfaction by Matthew Kelly

Great at Work: The Hidden Habits of Top Performers by Morten T. Hansen

Every Monday, I do a blog post about business reading and business books. Follow this link to my review of Range.

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