We often talk about boundaries in terms of our personal relationships, but neglect the importance of professional boundaries. During the height of the COVID pandemic, lockdowns, and isolation, a lot of the boundaries between personal and professional got pretty murky. Today I discuss the importance of revisiting, recalibrating, and resetting the norms and expectations leaders set for themselves and their teams.
Let’s talk about boundaries. Specifically, the importance of boundaries at work – particularly for managers.
During COVID, we all became very comfortable with each other, our home offices (or dining rooms, or closets, or basements!), and the shared experience of living and working through a pandemic. Work hours became a bit fluid, human connection was in 24/7 demand, and the lines between home and work became a bit blurry.
Now that we’re shifting back to a different version of BAU (business as usual) mode, the blurred lines of COVID haven’t been 100% resolved. While some have been very clear-cut, like companies defining their return-to-office policies and expectations (OK, not all of them have been that clear) there are other, more personal lines, that ask the question, “What is now appropriate?”
These questions can be uncomfortable – very uncomfortable – for managers to answer. Why? Because most mean creating a boundary between themselves and their teams. Not in an effort to create hierarchy or distance, but for their own mental health and balance.
This issue hadn’t occurred to me until a client, who is a top executive, arrived to one of our sessions exhausted. He shared that a member of his team texted him at midnight – well past this executive’s bedtime – for what was decidedly NOT an urgent matter. During our discussion, the leader shared that this behavior was a holdover from his team’s pandemic norms, and it wasn’t uncommon for him to receive calls, texts, voice mails in the evenings and over weekends.
It had never occurred to him to reset norms and expectations with his team.
By the end of our session, we had a discussion plan mapped out for his next team meeting, with a firm but empathic approach to setting new team norms. As expected, the team was relieved and receptive to the dialogue, and the new norms both he and they set, since this gave them permission to take back their evenings/weekends as well.
Over the next few days, when appropriate, I asked other clients about their post-COVID experiences regarding team communications. Boy, was I unprepared for the floodgates that question opened. Most shared very similar experiences and struggles. All easily resolved with a simple conversation – yet none of them had approached the subject with their teams. Why not? For most, it either hadn’t occurred to them, or it wasn’t the priority in a sea of change.
Why wouldn’t it be a priority? Folks. it’s a simple conversation. And the outcome is mentally, physically, emotionally rewarding for everyone. It only takes one meeting.
