✅ Today’s checklist:
🤔 Riddle me this: I am a path, but I have no direction. I can be stepped on, but I will never complain. What am I? (Find the answer on the bottom).
❌ Equity and Inclusion: Mispronouncing names is not a good look at work…or anywhere else.
📝 Communication: Everyone can benefit from this field guide for handling correctile dysfunction.
😊 Relationships: How to be happy—not jealous—of your friends’ successes.
💻 Workspace: Level up your office with this next-level productivity tech.
🤲 Employee Engagement: Skill-based volunteering stokes feelings of engagement and belonging.
Yes, you can be a strong leader and have work-life balance. Will this be…challenging…to achieve? Absolutely.
If the dangling carrot of work-life balance alone doesn’t inspire you to tackle the substantial groundwork required to achieve it, then maybe this will do the trick:
A team of scientists who spent years surveying managers and their employees concluded that work-life balance is crucial to leading effectively.
“The simple message of this study is that if you want to be an effective leader at work, leave work at work,” the study’s lead investigator said in Phys.org’s news release.
“This is particularly important for inexperienced leaders, as they seem to benefit the most from recovery experiences when at home. Leaders have challenging jobs as they juggle their own role responsibilities with the needs of their followers, and they need to recover from the demands of the leadership role.”
Leaders should invest time and energy in achieving work-life balance. They can get started with this work-life balance cheat sheet for leaders:
Don’t bring work home unless it’s absolutely necessary.
This is crucial for achieving a balance that’s also sustainable in the long run.
(The researchers even recommend leaving work-dedicated devices at the office or in your home office to reduce the temptation to check emails, etc.)
Be as strategic about managing your free time as you are about managing your work time.
All that really means is being sure your down time includes activities that aren’t only relaxing but also restorative.
A truly restorative activity will check all these boxes:
Strengthen your delegation muscles.
Delegate. Work out any resulting frictions. Repeat.
Keep delegating until it feels comfortable and then do it even more. The more trust and support you can find through delegating, the more time and headspace you’ll have for other things.
Keep two golden rules in mind each time you delegate:
Each week, or even each day, pinpoint or re-pinpoint your current top 10 priorities.
Write them down and display them prominently in your workspace. Reference them every time you need to make a decision.
Looking for more in-depth coaching? Learning platform Maven has an online course designed to help managers and founders identify and free up time.
You’ve heard us sing praises for Bonusly — it’s a fun platform that gets everyone at your org pumped.
People feel a sense of pride whenever they get points and recognition, so they go above and beyond.
But the best part? Bonusly truly “gets” their customers…they know you are super busy, so they make it free and super easy to try.
We’re talking instant set-up in just 3 minutes. Here’s how!
Step 1: Go to bonusly.com and enter your work email
Step 2: Create a password
Step 3: Add your role, company name, company size
You’re in!
Step 4: Invite colleagues via email to test drive it with you (click the button in the nav that is an outline of a human with a “+” next to it)
Step 5: Ready to bribe give Bonusly? Tag the recipient (@joanna), add the number you want to give (+25), pick a hashtag of the team value you want to celebrate (#collaboration) and insert a note/GIF/emoji to spice it up
Ready to fire up your team for Q3?
Don’t miss out on your 14-day free trial of the full Bonusly experience.
No credit card needed (so seriously, zero risk).
One TA reader feels stuck:
My biggest challenge is being in a dead-end role with no upward growth available while also job-searching with little encouraging success.
Few things feel more oppressively boring and limiting than a dead end—whether it shows up on your career path, your drive to the beach, or what you’d thought to be a promising series of interviews.
Strangely enough, reaching a dead end does come with one major silver lining: It limits your options, which makes deciding how to handle the block just a little bit easier.
Imagine walking to your favorite coffee shop. Your morning seems perfectly fine and perfectly similar to every other day until you confront a massive wall blocking your only route.
Continuing as you’d planned to—as you always do—is no longer an option. If you want to move forward, you’ll have to choose from a limited set of options.
1) You could…scale the wall and then continue on your usual path. It will take time, effort, and maybe some tools, but it can be done.
Career translation: Take some time to give all the positions and career paths at your organization a good hard look. A lateral move might not be ideal, but if you find an interesting opportunity that comes with growth potential, it might be worth pursuing—even if only to feel unstuck.
This might be a good option for you if: You crave any change as much if not more than the specific change you want; the idea of just doing something—anything—different makes you feel a spark of hope and excitement.
2) You could…turn around and find a different route, or even better, a different coffee shop. Why beat your head against the wall when you could just walk away from it?
Career translation: It’s time to reflect, regroup, and reimagine your big-picture career strategy. Start with the basics:
This might be a good option for you if: You feel a lot of uncertainty about what really matters to you.
3) You could…blast a hole through that wall and keep on walking.
Career translation: You know what you want, you’re 100% certain it’s right for you, and you’re working toward it, but it’s just not happening as fast as you need it to. In this scenario, you can either:
This might be a good option for you if: You know your priorities, you’ve affirmed and re-affirmed your commitment to them, and you’re willing to fight (and wait) to achieve them.
We surveyed 350+ administrative professionals in the US on their meeting planning process today.
Organizing in-person meetings takes up on average 25% of their time, a considerable investment given the full range of their responsibilities.
In this report you’ll find:
This research intends to offer an in-depth analysis into the state of meeting planning today, and act as a resource for self-advocacy.
I always remember that my team is human first, employees second. Meaning that I need to lead with grace and empathy.
If there is someone who is always late, I try figure out why so I can be understanding and supportive instead of being frustrated.
When my stellar employee’s performance drops, I support them until they’re back in their groove.
This helps boost overall morale and my team knows I’ll have their back and advocate for them, and it also helps bring them back up to speed sooner than they would’ve if I hadn’t extended that grace that they needed.
Andrea, Site Manager
⭐️ We want to hear from you! Share your best career advice here.
🪜 Looking to climb the career ladder? CareerAddict has you covered with a 5-step guide to career planning. With tips and tricks on advancing your career, plus templates to jot down your bright ideas!
🕵️ Every day, data brokers profit from your sensitive info. Incogni automates personal data removal, protecting you from identity theft, spam calls, and more.
📚 Dive into the suspenseful world of Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell, a gripping thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
🍭 Satisfy your sweet tooth with JOYRIDE candy, the perfect sugar-free and low-calorie alternative.
Join 301k+ smart women reading The Assist every Tuesday.
