Leadership is hard work.
But it can be made a little easier with the understanding that people are at the heart of what every company does—that’s according to Candy Valentino, financial analyst and author of The 9% Edge: The Life-Changing Secrets to Create More Revenue for Your Business and More Freedom for Yourself.
Valentino shared with HR Brew a few people lessons from her book.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What leadership lesson can readers take away from your book?
The HR role is so critically important to all businesses, because regardless of what business industry a founder or an entrepreneur may think they are in, everyone is in the people business. So, no matter what product or service you sell, people [are] truly one of the most important parts of every function in business.
What advice do you have for leaders who don’t recognize that people are the heart of business?
Many people think that they are just trying to manufacture a product, or they’re just providing services to their customer, but you also have the ability to make real, lasting change in the lives of the people that work for you…You’ve been gifted this position to actually affect lives, to share wisdom, to help people beyond the business, and really develop people in their own life, so that regardless if they’re working for you or another company, that they leave your company, they leave that position just a little bit better.
I often look at not only are we in the people business, but we’re also in the people development business. So, if we’re looking to just develop people and make them better and just kind of sharpen the ax, if you will, while they’re with us, then our time with them, regardless if it’s one year or 10 years, we're able to have a positive ripple effect in the world…Whether it’s 10, 100, or 1,000 employees, these lives all around us, we have the opportunity to really touch them, to create a positive impact…It’s really leading people to develop personally in every aspect of our life, because if we just focus on that, we could literally raise the vibration of the world.
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Burnout is at an all-time high at work. Do you have advice for managing that?
When you are around high-performing individuals that really take their work seriously, burnout is absolutely possible, if not probable…I don’t believe in work-life balance. I truly believe in work-life integration. Balance is trying to take two things that are separate and always filling up the buckets, so that they will balance, if you will, and I think the visual of that is massively stressful…When we integrate, we tie it together, and we allow ourselves the freedom and flexibility that sometimes you’re going to work a little bit extra, and sometimes you’re not going to have work as much in another period…The stress and the anxiety of always trying to live in a balance is actually damaging to a lot of people…If you ever find yourself feeling burned out or overly stressed, here’s two quick tips.
Number one, remember that anxiety and excitement [are] the same exact feeling in our body…So, when you’re feeling perhaps anxious about a problem or something going on in the office. Switch it and say, “You know what? I’m just excited to solve this problem.” Sometimes, just that little shift in perspective can minimize the stress that you’re feeling in the moment. The second is to have boundaries. Making sure that you are placing boundaries around your time and your focus…I always say, first, tackle the three non-negotiables. What are the three non-negotiables that you have to do today in order to drive this project or develop this person or solve this problem?...Put some boundaries around how much time you’re going to spend on that.