I insist on striking a work-life balance. If you’re an IT executive or moving toward becoming one, so should you. If you’re like me you work very hard, weekends and holidays when required, and for that reason you shouldn’t be willing to sacrifice your family for your job. That’s the balance you should always aim to strike.
Easier said than done, right? In order to accomplish the ideal work-life balance, I’ve learned through trial and error. That includes making mistakes around people. A key lesson is that when you hire the right people and trust them to do what you hire them to do, and you give them not only responsibility and accountability but the leeway to do their job and do it well, you will attract better people. And it’s those better people who help you strike the right work-life balance.
Why?
Because with certain problems, if I don’t have the confidence that someone working for me can handle it as well or better than I can, then it’s going to be tough for all of us. I’m going to be looking over their shoulder and following up constantly. Today I can honestly say, “Here, run with it” to the folks that report to me. If there’s a problem, they grab me if I’m needed.
Otherwise, I don’t worry about it. I can go home every day feeling good about the people that are handling day-to-day issues and not have to look over my shoulder all the time.
It hasn’t always been this way. Certainly there were earlier phases of my career where whether I insisted or not, work-life balance was out of balance. I was working a lot of hours. If you find yourself exclusively going to meetings, and hearing about budgets and politics, that’s the definition of miserable job.
So learn to hire right and get out of the way. I make the point in my managers’ meetings: Don’t ever let a request from me get in the way of your job. A lot of times people look up to their boss to the point where if their boss asks for something, they drop what they’re doing to meet that request. But I know now never to put a request out there that prevents people from doing what I know they know is the right thing to do for the company and for the department. If you’re the dictator type as a leader or manager, you’ll get folks that don’t step up and take that extra effort to own issues. And what happens then? They don’t get work-life balance, and neither do you.
For more about how you present yourself at work, read this free Harvard Business Review article, "To Exert Influence, you must balance competence with Warmth."
Tim joined PrimeLending in 2008 and serves today as EVP and Chief Information Officer. He is responsible for information security, IT operations, and technology initiatives. Tim has more than 20 years of experience in the mortgage industry and is chair of the Residential Technology Forum (RESTECH) for the Mortgage Bankers Association.
