Ever found yourself navigating the delicate balance between being a leader and establishing personal boundaries with your team? Setting effective boundaries is an art that not only fosters a healthy work environment but also protects your well-being as a leader. In this article, we’ll delve into three crucial aspects of boundary-setting that can transform the dynamics within your team.
1. Social media
One of the issues is that you are not only seeing the person at work but also they pop up on your feed. The lines become super blurred because you see them at work and then you see them on your phone uploading super silly things and I decided I wanted to protect myself, as this became an ethical issue for me. I didn’t want my perception of them to change just because of things they do in their personal time, but also, I wanted to grant them the necessary privacy they deserve.
2. Events out of work hours
Work events – yes. Personal go out and drink together and do silly things together – no.
When we do all these personal things together, we cross the boundaries when we try and be “friends” with them. You constantly have to move between mate and manager and someone is going to slip up and you will reap the negative consequences of that.
I believe there should be a clear boundary here to protect both you and your team.
3. Learning to say no
You need to protect your own physical and mental health as a leader. That includes saying no sometimes and not taking everything upon yourself. Delegate those tasks that you know another person can do much quicker than you or even enjoy it.
Sometimes we want to take things upon ourselves to lighten the load of our team, and now although that is beautiful and a wonderful thing to do, servant leaders often do this to the detriment of themselves, our families and our time.
Yes, there will be times when you will have to jump in and help and work twice as hard, or longer than usual, but so long as that is seasonal and doesn’t become a regular occurrence, you’ll be fine,
The art of saying “no” is really difficult for some, especially the people pleasers.
Learn instead of saying yes immediately, rather come up with a statement or a phrase, like “I’ll think about it and get back to you” or “I’ll evaluate my availability and get back to you” etc. But do not say yes unless you can say with 100% certainty that you can commit to it. Also refer to podcast episode 29: ‘The art of saying no gracefully’.
Next steps
Listen to the podcast episode on Apple Podcasts
Listen to the podcast episode on Spotify