Remember your first date?
You were so focused on making a great impression:
- You thought through where to take her about 1000 times.
- You were deeply interested in her and listened more than you spoke.
- You held the door open.
- You had only kind things to say.
- You even bought a new shirt.
- You were you were focused on getting everything right.
Almost every relationship starts there, but something happens to many of us when we become a family.
Our guard comes down. We become as interested in ourselves as we do in other people. We might expect people to hold the door open for themselves.
Kindness gives way to ‘truth’.
New shirts are mostly for making an impression at work.
Some of this is natural and even good (don’t we all need a place where we can just be ‘ourselves’?) – but not all of it.
What happened?
Many of us simply cease putting our best efforts into leading well at home.
As I outlined in this post, that’s a mistake. Way more than you think is riding on how you lead at home.
Leading well at home (whatever your family looks like) is a prerequisite to leading well in life and at work.
And yet many leaders will let things slide at home. They come home drained from a demanding day and give the family leftovers.
It’s critical that leaders think this through:
Lead poorly at home, and the consequences catch up with you. In fact, they can cause you to lose the position you’ve worked your whole life to attain.
Lead well at home, and you will become a better leader in every aspect of your life.
Here are a few surprisingly easy things you can do to lead better at home.
None of these are that hard to do in the end. If you remember to do them.
And I find when I do them, my ability to lead my wife, my kids, and even myself goes up significantly. I just become a better leader (and a better follower) in every aspect of my life when I do.
5 Ways to Lead Better At Home
1. Save some of your best energy for family.
Many leaders simply show up at home exhausted. They’ve given their best, and there’s nothing left over for the people who matter most to them. Start managing your energy, not just your time. Prepare for home the same way you prepare for work and your home life will improve. Guaranteed.
2. Eliminate “Family Voice”.
Most people in families will, semi-regularly, use a tone of voice that is a mixture of frustration, aggravation and exasperation that I call ‘family voice’. And almost every family has one. If you used that tone of voice at the office, they would fire you. But somehow we think it’s okay to use it at home with the people who matter most. It communicates that we don’t value them. So what if you started communicating with your family the way you would with a colleague or even a stranger – with kindess and respect? Changing the tone at home could change so much.
3. Look to apply what you’re learning at work in a home setting.
You read leadership books. You go to conferences. You mine blogs. All to get better at your job. But what if you added an extra application place for your learning? Your home. What makes you a better leader at work can make you a better spouse and a better parent. Try it.
4. Date your family.
Date your spouse for sure, but also date your family. Intentional time together is more important than just time together. Sure, you need downtime. But you also need ‘up-time’ where you are focused on the others around you, engaged at a deep level, and present for them. It can be fun (and it usually is). Make meaningful time together.
5. Build margin into your life.
Margin is the white space left over in your life. If I clutter up my life with too many things and lose white space, I get too stressed to bring my best. Tell me if this isn’t true in your life: you are at your most kind when you have the most margin. If you calendar margin into your life at work and at home, you will find it much easier to lead at home and at work. In this post, I outline some of the things I do to ensure I have white space and margin in my life.
I share these things with you because they are also a reminder to me.
When I lead well at home, everything goes better.
