Work Life Balance

I’m a few months into a new role at my day job that I love, and I found myself wondering…

This is great, but how did I get here?

After looking back on my career, talking with other professionals, and reading about career climbers, I saw two major themes about the way we work propelling us forward into a position for future opportunities – you can outwork or outperform.

Outworking is straight forward. This is where you start early, stay late, and get more done in a day than your peers. This is hustle culture. It’s doing whatever it takes to prove you’re ready for what’s next. I used to use this method exclusively early in my career. Being a young manager, I was hungry to grow and to be taken seriously. It was easy to get noticed when you volunteer for extra assignments, when you can drop everything and jump on a plane, or you can give up your weekend to prep a presentation for the big boss.

Then there’s outperforming. This takes strategy. The work results have to be better, the insights smarter, and the plan more compelling. Outperforming doesn’t care how long you worked. In fact, we all know top performers are super smart about how they spend their time. You don’t find them at meetings where they aren’t adding value. They aren’t glued to their laptop at all hours. They take time to think, to plan, and to seek input along the way.

As Marshall Goldsmith famously said, “what got you here, won’t get you there.” Outworking used to be my default, and it seemed to be working as the promotions rolled in. Yet, as I progressed in my career, I also progressed in my personal life. I got married, we had children, and now my evening and weekend time took on a level of importance and value that a job just couldn’t compete with no matter how much I enjoyed the work.

I had to find a new way.

When you start to live a full life, it forces you to get serious about how to work better. If we all have the same amount of hours in the day, then we need a way of working that produced the kind of RESULTS that get noticed, and not rely on my car being first in the parking lot or my status dot staying green into the evening.

Let’s get tactical.

Ideas for how you can position yourself to get ahead by outperforming

Deliver really excellent work for high priority items – not perfect, but excellent. This takes time and focus; time you don’t have if you don’t block it out during peak creation hours. You can’t bounce from video call to video call all day and then pull a fantastic presentation together using your 5 o’clock brain.
Get input. Good work solicits feedback. But great work? That requires research, talking with stakeholders, pushing on their ideas and getting curious about assumptions, asking questions, and taking a step back to really think about the audience whether it’s a spreadsheet, a presentation deck, a document, or timeline and incorporating all of this into a work product that delivers at the next level.
Be visible. If you work in a hybrid environment, it means showing up to your office when it counts, making the space in your schedule for hallway conversations, grabbing tea in the breakroom, and connecting with others. When you’re remote, it means going on camera when you’re speaking, or engaging in a discussion. Your non-verbals are important! It also means voicing questions and ideas, and supporting the ideas of others all in service of achieving a better result.

Outperforming may not be talked about as much as hustle, but I have found it is the most sustainable way for professionals to move forward in their career.

While my days on relying solely on outworking to get ahead have passed, there’s still value in leaning into an all out sprint while prepping for the big presentation, supporting a product launch, or when things go wrong. I know when I’m in this mode, it’s temporary, and rest is coming when the moment is over.

Are you ready to outperform?

If the thought of leaving work for a few days of PTO leaves you feeling burdened instead of excited, it’s definitely time for a vacation! In our heads we tell ourselves we have too much on our plates, that we’re dropping the ball, and shifting the burden to our co-workers, or worse, our future selves. This isn’t the kind of guilt and worry anyone needs as they prepare to take a few days off. It’s called Paid Time Off for a reason. It’s not working from a beach, mountain, or hotel while pretending to unplug while you scroll through e-mail everyday, and responding to anything you can resolve quickly or may blow up later.

I can already hear the protests. My work is TOO important not to check in! There’s no one who can cover for me? I have a big project going on! If you want to mix working remotely with some rest and relaxation, that’s fine, but make sure you have some clear boundaries on when you’re working, and for how long. An e-mail session can quickly expand from 15 minutes to all morning. Chances are some true distance from work will provide some much needed perspective if only for a few days.

Here are some concrete steps I’ve learned that help me prepare for some well-deserved PTO.

1) Create a coverage plan

Now’s when you nail down:

what’s in progress that needs oversight in your absence
who can provide that oversight
which tasks need new owners while you are away.

It’s easy to cover off on these tasks during 1:1’s with your team members the week before you take off. If you’re looking for support outside of your team, now’s the time to schedule those conversations.

2) Clear the calendar – decline, delegate, delay

Even though you may have had the day or days blocked, it’s likely you still have some meetings scheduled during your PTO. Now’s the time to go meeting by meeting and alert the organizer that you won’t be there. If it’s something critical you don’t want to miss, arrange to have a delegate attend in your place. If sending notes isn’t a normal part of your meeting culture, ask your delegate to send you a bulleted list of actions and decisions right after the meeting. If I’m doing this for someone, I literally keep a list going in a blank e-mail and send as soon as the meeting concludes. This way, I don’t have to remind myself to do it later! The final tactic for clearing the calendar is to delay the meeting until you return from vacation.

3) Block your return morning.

While you’re calendar clearing, ensure you’ve got at least 1-2 hours blocked to ensure you don’t burn up on re-entry to work. This ensures you can catch up prior to any major meetings. And your team will appreciate “seeing” you that morning, either virtually or in-person before your meeting rush begins.

4) Communicate with your boss what you’ve got going on, and how you’re covering things

It seems common sense to give your boss a heads up on your PTO coverage plan, but it’s something that rarely happens and really can set you apart as a top performer. It can be as simple as “Joe’s covering the monthly report out for me” to an e-mail that gives a bulletpoint list overview, to a few minutes chatting about it during your 1:1.
Anticipate anything that may come up while you’re gone that may need their support, and be sure to ask if there’s anything specific you need to do before you go. This keeps the phone calls to a minimum.

5) Don’t give away the day

If you’re going to be gone during something that really does “need” you, then build that into the vacation plan. Do that one thing, and be done! Don’t give the whole day away unless, you choose to spend it working.

To all my type-A working vacation types, now’s the time to commit to at least one FULL day off of the tech. Make sure on this special day, you are fully present with your spouse/kids/friends/family. You may find yourself itching to fill your hands with your phone or laptop. But instead of connecting to the internet, connect with those you see, and know more days like this are the ones that make the best memories.

One last thought for those wrestling with the thought of truly disconnecting because it feels selfish. I can assure you, it’s not. One added benefit of taking a real vacation instead of a working vacation is the break it gives you team. I remember when a former boss used to go off grid for nearly a whole week. Everyone knew she had no wi-fi, no cell reception, and wouldn’t expect responses until she returned to the land of wi-fi. So while she got to enjoy some uninterrupted time with her family, those of us working also had the opportunity to focus on the current priorities, and resolve issues on our own, while still getting responses ready for her return.

So do yourself, and your team a favor, and take a REAL vacation!

Getting ahead at work while living a full life