Manager's Corner Article: I Want My Life Back!

Yep, I heard it again. A new client, a CEO, told my team prior to our first work session, "I want my life back. I love working, but I've got to stop working 90-100 hour weeks. Something's gotto change around here."

Sounds logical and completely reasonable to me. But how do youget your life back if you're the only person who knows your job? Worse yet, how do you do that if you're the owner, CEO, or a senior manager? Who can do your job?

In addition, the December 2004 issue of HR Magazine, cited a survey conducted by Wirthlin Worldwide which found that 60% of executives in 150 Fortune 1,000 firms don't want to become a CEO. In 2001, only 27% said they didn't want the top job. The numbersmore than doubled in less than three years. Why the increase? Why the change? Why don't more people want to take the lead?

Well, as the article indicates and as I've observed over the years, being a CEO is hard. Being the top dog is tough and it's lonely. For publicly held companies it's even worse since Sarbanes-Oxley Act went into effect in 2002. There are more reporting requirements, more involved board members, and more people watching to confirm personal and professional integrity and ethics are in play.

So, how do you find someone to takeover some if not all of your job responsibilities in the near or long-term? How do you do this when more and more executives and prospects for the top job -- don't want it? You develop more leaders throughout your organization and not just at the top. You create more "depth" and not just single-position strength.

Now let me ask you this: If you've been working 90-100 hour work weeks, how much of that time are you spending developing others? My experience tells me -- very little. Why? Because if you had been spending dedicated time in developing skills in your other managers, supervisors, and front-line staff, you wouldn't feel so out of control. You'd feel more in control because you'd be leading a team who knew what was expected of them as a whole and of them individually.

Get your life back by developing skills in others. Get your life back by developing leaders throughout your organization. Get your life back by working with your team on developing systems, processes, and procedures that help all of you gain greater control now and in the future. Create an organization others want to become a part of and your team members are happy to be with. Then you'll have a life you can enjoy.

Copyright 2008,2005 - Liz Weber of Weber Business Services, LLC.
Liz speaks, consults, and trains on Leadership Development, Strategic Planning, and Organizational Change. Additional articles can be found at http://www.wbsllc.com/leadership.shtmlnLiz can be reached at liz@wbsllc.com or (717)597-8890

Permission to reprint this article is granted as long as you use the complete attribution above - including live website link and e-mail address - and you send me an email at liz@wbsllc.com to let me know where the article will be published.