Читать книгу Leading from the Middle - Scott Mautz - Страница 18

Leading from the middle can most certainly take a physical toll. But you can't take care of everything, or anything, if you don't prioritize taking care of yourself first. That's straight from the playbook of life, let alone this playbook.

Here are a few more reorienting insights to help reduce the physical drains.

1. Know that while you can impact everything, you're not responsible for everything. Period.

2. You're in the middle but aren't at the epicenter of every earthquake. Not every fire drill needs to be answered. Everyone else's urgent is not your urgent. And acting like it is isn't a good place to be. To illustrate, I can say my most ineffective stint as a middle manager occurred in a role where fire drills constantly sprang up. Instead of filtering them, I fed them, creating a flurry of activity that distracted my organization from more important priorities. Learn from my mistake.

To push back on repeated urgent requests, come from a place of accountability. Meaning, let the requestor know you can't accommodate because of the impact it would have on other critical priorities. Give them a different “yes” by empathetically offering alternatives to you dropping everything. Show them support in other ways.

3. Your physical health and succeeding at work aren't mutually exclusive. Step out of the grind long enough to realize that. Put your health on a pedestal, the investment will pay dividends personally and professionally. For instance, I find my work gets better the more time I take to work on my health.

4. Be bound by boundaries. While leading from the middle requires a strong presence everywhere within your scope of responsibility, it doesn't mean your work should cross over into every aspect up, down, and across the organization, and of your life. Boundaries are more important in the middle than anywhere else in an organization because more people have access to you, and so you're disproportionately exposed to stress triggers.

First, give yourself permission to set boundaries. Then, take the time to define what your boundaries are (what you'll engage in, when, within what parameters) and clearly communicate them to others. Pick low‐risk situations to practice saying “no” and commit to delegating more. Create structures and processes to help control work and time flow (like agendas), and stick to them. Finally, identify what needs to change to enable your boundaries (like new habits at home that would help keep work at work).