Tesla and Space X CEO Elon Musk tweets that no one changed the world working 40 hours a week. He rarely sleeps or sees his kids and had a famously public meltdown. Apple’s Tim Cook is on email before the sun rises. And billionaire Mark Cuban worked until 2 am launching his first business and didn’t take a vacation for seven years.
You Can Be a Great Leader and Also Have a Life
Intense and all-consuming work styles are often celebrated as the only way to get to the top and be a super productive leader. But does it have to be that way? Over the last 20 years, a group of executives has been meeting and sharing innovative ideas for finding time for work, family, and life. For leaders to stand up to status quo pressures and make work-life balance a priority, the group found that they needed to cultivate skills around three relationships: learning to work differently with their teams at work, making a plan with their families to put home and family first, and shifting their own mindsets — to not only believe change is truly possible, but to give themselves permission to try, and speak up about it. The stories of three leaders exemplify how this can be done.