Be A Better AND More Balanced Leader

Being balanced personally and professionally requires effort!

Unless you’ve fallen recently, you probably don’t give much thought to your balance. Did you know that somewhere between forty and fifty years of age your balance begins to decline? Even more alarming, after your turn sixty-five, your chances of falling increase. In fact, falls are the leading cause of injuries for those over 65 in the United States according to the CDC and those are only the reported falls!

There are a few reasons for being less balanced as we age including changes in…

• Your inner ear
• Depth perception
• Sensitivity to contrast or vision changes
• Blood pressure that contributes to lightheadedness
• Reflexes
• Coordination
• Muscle mass and strength
• Risks as a result of medications

What is Balance?

Both physical balance and life balance boil down to your ability to respond to both internal and external forces in a way that allows you to maintain equilibrium and remain steady.

A strong core, working with your entire body, is necessary for you to successfully maintain your physical balance – your brain, eyes, ears, and stabilizing muscles. A high level of kinesthetic awareness doesn’t hurt either!

Essentially, you are able to maintain balance when there is just the right tension between your strength and flexibility. Tight, overworked muscles lose their range of motion, while muscles that are only stretched lack tone, both of which are necessary for good balance.

If you’ve ever taken a nasty fall, you know painful losing your balance is! I know – I’ve experienced a fall a time or two! I bet you have too! If you are lucky, your loss-of-balance moments have been minor, but the truth is that falls often lead to some very serious injuries!

A Balanced Life?

The very same principles apply to balancing your life – something especially critical if you are a leader, professional, or entrepreneur! There are plenty of pulls in your life between work, relationships, health, finances, emotions, and spiritual life on a daily basis. Not to mention your need to participate in activities that feed your soul and that enable you to grow personally and professionally.

When one area of your life suffers, it throws you off balance, impacting all of the other areas of your life in varying degrees. That’s when the pain sets in!

Leading successfully depends on how adept you are at maintaining your balance in your life both personally and professionally. Here are some questions to ponder about your professional side:

• Are you leaning into your strengths, but ignoring the areas where you need to stretch?
• Do you lead with incredible vision, but lack the ability to turn that vision into a viable plan?
• Does your strategic side kick in with ease – the careful planning side, but you lack the ability to be spontaneous and quickly respond to unexpected situations?
• Are you quick to see the strengths and potential in your people, but your communications skills need some work?
• Do you let little issues slide but find yourself later dealing with problems that feel BIG?
• What tasks are you hanging onto and not delegating that others need to learn so that you are able to focus on higher level tasks?

The imbalances in your leadership skills eventually turns into painful problems.

To be more balanced, how do you increase your STRENGTH as a leader?

1. Take Time to Reflect, Dream, Strategize, and Plan

Reflecting is not just kicking back and allowing your mind to wander, but rather an intentional way of processing and examining your life and work. It’s a way of leaning into what you want and exploring solutions to strategically bridge the gaps. It’s about learning from your mistakes and minimizing them in the future. And celebrating your success, and finding ways to utilize them to your advantage going forward.

Your rhythm of reflection will depend on your needs. You may find that once a month is adequate. Or you may prefer to carve out time to reflect daily or weekly. If the idea of intentional reflecting is new to you, here’s a great place to start.

Don’t let reflecting, dreaming, strategizing, and planning be something you do while you’re driving home or waiting in line at the grocery store. Schedule it! Do it routinely. You’ll be surprised to discover how fruitful and productive reflecting is!

2. Invest in Growing!

For even the most experienced leader, professional, or entrepreneur, there’s room to grow! And there are dozens of ways to make growing a priority including adopting a growth mindset. Here are just a few you might consider:

• • • Ask for feedback. If you are a leader, cultivate a feedback culture.
    • Read books. If you are not a reader, listen to audio books or podcasts on topics that you’d like to grow in
    • Find a mentor.
    • Attend leadership workshops, webinars, or seminars.
    • Take a class.
    • Pursue a new degree or certification.
    • Invest in a leadership coach.

3. Fill In Your Gaps

Leaders, professionals, or entrepreneurs who do it all well – they don’t exist. That’s why it’s important to surround yourself with people who are able to help fill in where you have gaps. That means being intentional about who you mingle with and who is on your team.

Another way to help you do what only you can do is to delegate well. The added bonus is that you also help others grow their skills in the process so that what’s on your plate is what you do best and what only you can do.

4. Spend Time with God.

If you really want to have a strong core, make spending time alone with God a priority. Not a quick obligatory minute in the morning before you run out the door, but time where you linger in His presence, seek His direction, and His help. Then keep on connecting with Him throughout the day.

Time spent in His presence allows you to get to know Him in a deeper way, trust Him more fully, and it strengthens your core as a leader. Another bonus: when I’m in step with Him situations have a surprising way of coming together that are clearly His doing!

To be more balanced, how do you increase your FLEXIBILITY?

1. Slow Down

When you’re in a hurry, you’re more likely to react in unhelpful ways and with less patience. Coming up with creative solutions and innovative ways of approaching problems rarely happens in a hurried state.

Slowing down makes mistakes less likely, minimizes stress, and just makes life and work more enjoyable!

2. Listen

You don’t have to have all the answers and you actually don’t need to have all the answers. Having that perspective frees you up to listen and seriously consider the points of view of others. Most importantly, listen to God!

Listening is a skill worth improving and is sure to stretch you in valuable ways.

3. Be Willing to Fail

Fear is no friend! It keeps you stuck and prevents you from stretching and trying new ways of doing things.

Risks are risky – there’s no denying it! They lead to one of two things: success or great lessons learned, both of which are positive, right? Failure is your best teacher.

When you are willing to fail and discover that it’s survivable, it gives you the courage to continue to expand your comfort zone.

4. Branch Out

Rub shoulders with people who have different perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds. Read books outside of what you typically read. Focus on opportunities and possibilities, rather than problems. Attempt something you’ve never tried before – something personal or professional. After all you are a whole person!

Losing your balance leaves a mark! We don’t often think about it this way, but being burned out, stretched too thin, restless, irritable, unmotivated, or exhausted are signs that your life is probably out of balance!

Achieving balance takes practice, just like it does to successfully hold Tree pose! An amazing picture of strength and balance in action!

What balance look like changes from moment to moment. It’s an ever-changing state, so, tune in and pay attention to the signs that are suggesting you are out of balance…again.

Ready to be steadier, more stable, and balanced personally and professionally?

What would increase your strength and/or flexibility and lead to a more balanced you?