Leaders are increasingly challenged to preserve balance between their corporate responsibilities and their personal core values. The inability to sustain this balance can cause conflicts for the leader and confusion for those who depend on her or him. A prolonged imbalance can breed distrust in a team.
One way to help leaders preserve balance is for them to measure the energy and skill invested in their key activities versus the benefits they receive back from that investment when the activities are done well.
In his book, Mojo, Marshal Goldsmith describes how leaders can evaluate their energy and skill investment using five parameters: motivation, knowledge, ability, confidence and authenticity. Likewise, there are five benefits leaders typically receive from a job well done including happiness, reward, meaning, learning and gratitude. The balanced leadership ROI test measures these 10 factors.
To try the test, choose one key activity in your typical work life. Then, rate yourself from 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest) on the following ten questions:
What do you invest in this activity?
- What is your level of motivation to do a great job completing this activity?
- How well do you understand what to do and how to do it? (knowledge)
- How strong is your ability to complete the task well?
- How confident are you when performing the task?
- How genuine is your enthusiasm for completing this activity?
What is your return on this investment?
- Is engaging in this activity stimulating and enjoyable? (happiness)
- Does participating in the activity provide important material or emotional rewards?
- When producing productive results from the activity, do you gain a sense of fulfillment or contribution to purpose? (meaning)
- Does the activity enable you to learn and grow?
- Do you appreciate this task as a productive use of your time, energy and skills? (gratitude)
Leaders can often overvalue their strengths and underestimate their weaknesses. Completing this simple test for several key activities provides a sense of how well you are leveraging your strengths, addressing your areas of development, and accomplishing this in a manner that aligns with your core values.
After completing the test for one activity, repeat it, but this time ask yourself how your peers or associates might grade each question with you in mind. Then, choose another key activity and duplicate the process.
The results of this simple test can confirm which tasks matter most to you and how they align with your personal core values. The stronger your alignment, the more genuine your leadership will be perceived.
What actions do you take to preserve your professional-personal balance?
How do you resolve conflicts that arise when you are out of balance?
Use “whole life” perspective and insight to accelerate growth.
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