44 There Is No Such Thing as Work/Life Balance
Brian O. Underhill PhD, PCC
Brian O. Underhill, PhD, PCC, is the founder and CEO of CoachSource, the world’s largest pure play executive-coaching provider. He is an industry-recognized thought leader, international keynote speaker, and published author. Brian’s executive coaching work has successfully focused on helping leaders achieve positive, measurable, long-term change in leadership behavior.
As reports of COVID-19 spread began increasing in frequency throughout the world, I sat down with my new client, the VP Engineering of a Silicon Valley tech firm, at a local coffeehouse. Our goal today was to review the feedback I had collected after interviewing his boss, peers, and direct reports.
“Well, Arun,” I said, “It looks like your towering strength may also be your largest area for development. Everyone working with you says: ‘he volunteers for everything, takes anything on, gets the job done, great at execution, makes it happen, gets the trains to run on time.’” I continued “And…”
“BUT!?…” he interjected.
“AND…” I jokingly retorted, “Arun takes too much on, it gets to the point where he never sleeps. Any time you write him, he answers 24/7, works 16–18-hour days, doesn’t delegate, does it himself. It is just not sustainable. We worry about his health.” I went on, “Your boss even joked that if you left the organization, he’d have to hire 2–3 people just to replace you!”
As we wrapped up and walked toward our cars, he talked ...
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