Ask a Coach - Finding Balance at Work

What would it look like to have balance in your life and good workplace relationships, right? Like what does that look like? And you get to decide, right? The next thing I would think about in order to communicate this, because you don't wanna just do it and not say anything. You don't wanna just say, "Office hours are from 3:00 to 10:00," right? Or whatever time. So what you might do is just what I like to say just practicing assertive communication, right? So you might make a plan to just use your I statements and just say, "I feel this way and because of that I want to shift just kind of how we work and communicate a little bit." (bright music) Okay. (video beeps) Hey, I'm Neca and welcome back to Ask a Coach. So our next question is from Magdalena. Magdalena says, "I am the owner of a small business and the manager of a team of four people. I want us to collaborate and enjoy working together, and I know that comes from leadership. I want my employees to know that the door is always open for us to speak. While these conversations are meaningful, it comes at a cost to my schedule. I'm often staying later at work because of a random conversation, or I'm not getting my work done and then having to make up the time in off hours. I want my employees to feel they can always come talk to me, but I also want to keep promises to myself, like leaving work on time. How do I set boundaries at work as a leader?" Great, great question. First of all, kudos to you for wanting to create this collaborative environment. I don't think there's enough of that in the workplace, but it looks like, again, it's coming at the expense of your own time and your own balance, actually. What would it look like to have balance in your life and good workplace relationships, right? Like what does that look like? And you get to decide, right? The next thing I would think about in order to communicate this, because you don't wanna just do it and not say anything. You don't wanna just say, "Office hours are from 3:00 to 10:00," right? Or whatever time. But you wanna do this in a way that it feels collaborative. So what you might do is just what I like to say just practicing assertive communication, right? So you might make a plan to just use your I statements and just say, "I feel this way and because of that I want to shift just kind of how we work and communicate a little bit." You can ask them, "Well, what do you think?" And it sounds like they respect you enough, Magdalena, to agree with that, or just say, "You know what, that makes sense." So it may be that you begin to communicate that with them, again, assertively. Maybe not...