Boundaries

I’ve written about boundaries before and, more recently, about the linked topic of exhaustion.

There are plenty of blogs and ideas flying around about the impact of the lockdown and I see it as important to emphasise that my thoughts consciously relate to those who are in work. Others have it much worse. We must always recognise the enormous numbers of deaths and injuries caused by COVID-19 and also remember to think about people who have lost their jobs and livelihoods.

I mostly coach senior, successful players and they, in turn, are mostly still in work. They are grappling with significant changes and I have tried to provoke their (and your?) thinking on how their businesses have been during the pandemic.

I have spotted something in 2021. It has become a theme weaving through many of my coaching sessions over the last two months. I have supervised myself on this point and also taken it to external supervision. For if a topic keeps coming up then I cannot ignore that I am the common denominator. I’m satisfied that it isn’t just me, although I am feeling the effects too.

The theme: the collapse of boundaries. Where once there was work and home and, hopefully, a third place, there is now a destruction of “home” by work. An invasion. This has been forced remote working, hasn’t it? It has not been a welcome bout of flexibility.

Where is the flexibility? I see people, coachees or my loved ones, who are working all hours. For whom there is no divide, including physically, between work and home. I see behaviours which lead to midnight emails, seven day working, an inability or reluctance to take annual leave, constant iPhone checking during what should be downtime. To people feeling unable to avoid incessant Zoom meetings, to not being able to say No.

We’re about to make some big decisions about our future organisations, aren’t we? I’m hoping not too many CEO’s will have this mindset. It is the 21st century, or at least that’s what I thought.

As we design for the future, as we hopefully return to prosperity, we must put wellbeing first. We must design two-way flexibility into our employment deals. We must aim for hybrid models which work for all concerned.

And, in order to do so, we need to do a few things as leaders. Firstly, build cultures of openness and trust. Secondly focus on inclusion. For example, how do you build principles of inclusion into the office returns? How do we decide which work patterns suit each individual? Thirdly, if we haven’t already, we need to manage performance around outputs not inputs. This goes hand in hand with trust, doesn’t it?

Finally, we need to rebuild and respect our own boundaries. We simply must. This has repeatedly become an important action, a priority, for my coachees over the last two months. We need to role model the sanctity of home and the importance of wellbeing & those third places. Then we need to pay close attention to the needs of all our employees and carefully respect their boundaries too.

Good luck!

Tony