Leading a balanced life is a critical aspect of performing well as a leader. There are two types of balance. We always think about work/life balance in terms of “how much time do I spend away from the office?” You probably spend more hours at the office than you do away from it with your friends and your family. But there’s another kind of balance I encourage you to think about. I call it a work/work balance.

We need a balance of work that we love to do to balance out the work that we don’t enjoy doing. If those ratios get out of balance, we’re going to be miserable at work.

To achieve that work/work balance, you need to set boundaries because without boundaries, people are going to violate them all the time. You’re going to be upset, they’re going to be upset, and nobody’s going to know why. We need to draw those lines. One of my maxims to remind me to set those boundaries is, “I’m going home. You’re doing my job.”

That maxim reminds me of a job I had where the boss was a bit of a micro-manager. He came into my office one day, very well-intended, got in front of my desk, and said, “Hey Mike, I want you to start thinking about this, and this, and this, and working on that.”

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