3 Reasons Winning At Work Is Easier Than Winning At Home

How’s it going at home…really?

Here’s what I’ve come to believe.

Ultimately, everything rides on how you lead at home. 

The stakes are high.

Lead well at home, and you will inevitably become a better leader in your ministry or organization.

The difficult issues you work through in your marriage and parenting will make you a wiser, stronger leader organizationally. My wife Toni tells how we worked through some very hard seasons here.

The discipline of loving someone for a lifetime will help you love the people you serve and work with through their ups and downs. Working through the issues at home actually makes the issues at work easier.

Leadership at home is more difficult than leadership organizationally for most people.  Because respect is earned at home, and no one is interested in your title or corner office, you have to lead with love. It’s the only thing that works long-term.

Lead poorly at home, and the consequences will play out in several ways in your leadership:

You may win in ministry but lose the heart and affection of your family. Most of us have met leaders whose family is still together but deeply resents the leader’s organization.

Your leadership in ministry might be permanently stunted as unresolved character issues leak from home into your organizational leadership. Your flaws tend to eventually impact everything you lead and touch.

You might lose it all – the collapse of your family might lead to the collapse of your ministry and leadership.  How often have we seen an affair, an addiction, or other moral failures take out a leader whose gifting outweighed his character?

See what’s at stake?

Even though so much ultimately rides on how you lead at home, you will be tempted (as I am) to resist leading well at home.

In fact, many people pour all their skill development into leading at work and will let the home front slide.

I know in seasons I’ve done that.

But here’s the truth. If you’re winning at work but losing at home, you’re losing.

Why?

If you're winning at work but losing at home, you're losing. Share on X

Here are three reasons winning at work is easier than winning at home.

1. Respect is often easier to get at work than it is at home.

Men, in particular, crave respect. So it’s easy to skip home, work harder and become even more ‘celebrated’ in your field.

Respect at work often comes from your accomplishments and sometimes your position.

At home, it comes from your character.

No one at home is impressed by your resume, your sales, your growth, or your war stories, which makes it easier to keep working.

Respect at work often comes from your accomplishments and sometimes your position. At home, it comes from your character. Which makes it easier to keep working. Share on X

2. At home, there is no escape from who you really are. 

People at home see you as you really are — in your weaknesses, in your most vulnerable moments. They see you uncut.

Many leaders prefer the edited version of themselves, but our families never get that.

Because at home, there is no escape from who you really are, some leaders are tempted to escape from home (back to the office, to friends, or to some time-consuming hobby).

Because at home there is no escape from who you really are, some leaders are tempted to escape from home (back to the office, to friends or to some time-consuming hobby). Share on X

3. The wins at home are long-term wins

You can get quick fixes to problems at work. At home, you primarily work on things that take a lifetime to achieve.

Great marriages are measured in decades and ultimately in fractions of a century. The relationship with our kids last throughout our lives. God works on our character over a lifetime, not just in Q3.  You can change your job. You can get a promotion. But our family relationships are forever. That makes them much harder but so much more worthwhile.

You can get quick fixes to problems at work. At home, you are primarily working on things that take a lifetime to achieve. Share on X

I realize this post doesn’t resolve the tension. It raises it.

But maybe for some of us, that’s where we need to leave it for now.

Sometimes when I think about what’s at stake and why I resist, it ups my motivation to change. My next post will outline several ways leaders can lead better at home.

But in the meantime, let’s leave it there.

And let’s think and pray about what’s at stake.

Want some help winning at home? 

If you feel like you’re losing touch with your spouse at home, you might need a pattern disruptor.

For a start, plan a fun meal, grab your favorite beverage, and use my wife Toni’s Start Fighting for “We” Couples Conversation Guide to move past everyday conversations and into closer ones.

Toni and I have used the concepts in this guide to rebuild a much better marriage over the last decade and a half.

I hope they help you (or a marriage around you) too!

You can download the guide here.