According to a recent study, turning off your notifications and ignoring your email at the end of the workday could help you be a better leader. Managers who disconnected from their jobs at home felt more refreshed the next day, were recognized as effective leaders, and helped their employees stay on target better than bosses who worried about work. Used to do Less experienced leaders were especially likely to be ineffective if they spent their time at home focusing on their jobs. The upshot is that the key to effective leadership in the office may be a better work-life balance. Led by scientists from the University of Florida, the University of Arizona and Florida State University, the new study was published in the Journal of Applied Psychology.
“The simple message of this study is that if you want to be an effective leader at work, leave work at work,” said Claudia Lanaz, professor in UF’s Warrington College of Business, who led the research. “This is especially important for inexperienced leaders, as it appears that they benefit most from recovery experiences when they are at home. Leaders have challenging tasks as they balance their own role with the needs of their followers. fulfill their responsibilities, and they need to rise to the demands of them.” leadership role.”
The study surveyed managers and their employees in US businesses in 2019 and 2022. The researchers assessed the leaders’ ability to disconnect from work and their energy levels the night before they were home and how strongly they identified as a leader at work in the morning. Employees rated their bosses on their ability to lead their teams.
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“What we found is that on nights when leaders completely shut down and didn’t think about work, they were more energized the next day, and they felt better connected to their leadership role at work. day, their followers reported that these leaders were more effective at motivating them and guiding their work,” said Lenaj.
“But when leaders reported at night that they were thinking about the negative aspects of work, they really couldn’t get their energy back until morning,” she said. “They saw themselves as less of a leader and not as effective as their followers rated.”
How to improve work-life balance?
So how can leaders – and businesses – foster this kind of work-life balance to create effective leaders? “My hope is that this study will give managers data to support their decision to stay home and separate from work,” Lanaz said.
While Lanaz’s study didn’t ask managers how they relax at home, other research points to well-known ways to relax and reset: exercise, socialize with friends, spend quality time with family. Spend time, or get involved, with TV shows, books, or hobbies. What helps one person quit working at the office may not help another. The key is to find ways that let you take as little off work as possible, says Lanaz, and businesses that want the best from their leaders at work should help them recharge at home.
Lowering expectations for after-hours emailing and on-call work is one way to do this. Tech fuels much of the after-hours work, but may also offer a solution. You can set your phone to disable notifications after a certain hour or leave the devices at work in a dedicated office. “You can start small,” Lanaz said. “Say, ‘After this time in the evening, I will not check my work email.’ See where it takes you.”