Purposeful Boundaries at Work

Lead Your Leaders

Apr 5 2022 • 21 mins

"I work for a boss who does not have good boundaries around work and time. He expects me to continually live in crisis mode...responding to his urgent requests. How do I set and keep boundaries in my workplace so I don't sacrifice my family or my own health?"

My guess is that this kind of situation is all too common. Listen in to the session with Eric Bailey, best selling author and president of Bailey Strategic Innovation Group. His book, Cure for Stupidity: Using Brain Science to Explain Irrational Behavior at Work draws on a variety of personal experiences and is in depth understanding of brain science to help us understand what drives us nuts with the people around us and their common sense errors and irrational decisions.

Then, how we can break through those common communication barriers to improve every relationship in our life. Without boundaries and barriers people don’t have the chance to recharge themselves which makes the work harder to do creating a downward spiral.

“The only people that will remember your long hours, remember the late nights, remember the extended trips are your family. It’s not your boss. It’s not your company. It’s not your co-workers. It’s your family.” ~Eric Bailey

How do you know what your boundaries should be?

  • Challenge the ambiguous concepts we hold onto about when we work
  • Identify what you need to protect in your time, energy, space
  • Get clear on what is restful, recovery time for you and hold it sacred

What helps people stick to their boundaries?

  • Clarify perceptions of what YOU THINK your boss wants.
  • Ask about expectations – move from perceptions to clearly stated expectations.
  • Know the difference between your desire and your expectations
  • Beware of multi-tasking and the illusion of productivity

Two checking questions for you:

  1. What do I truly want out of this moment, conversion, work, relationship…
  2. If that is what I truly want, how would I behave right now?

If it’s a mismatch and you want congruence, you can change behaviors or change what you want. Then, once you get clear on boundaries that are purposeful and congruent for you . . . it’s time for a boundaries chat with your boss. Next episode Eric will give us more guidance on how to have that conversion.

Links to check out: