Being a good manager (of yourself)

I’ve met some excellent business managers… who are extremely poor managers of their own life.

They get results. They support others. They build capable, effective teams. Their business grows.

…but they are not joyful.

They are not waking up motivated each day.

They are not finding themselves energised through the day by the activities, people and places where they spend their hours.

It strikes me as a sad trade – to be a good manager of external resources, but lacking any degree of effective control or direction of your own inner state.

Our mission at Vistage is to “improve the effectiveness and enhance the quality of life of CEOs”. I believe that the most important word in that sentence is the “and”. Achieving results at the cost of your health, your relationships, your sanity… not a great trade. What would it take to achieve both increased effectiveness and enhanced quality of life?

What is Quality of Life?

The World as 100 People, over 200 years

Life is much better today than ever before.  I guess the challenge is that we have improved all of the lower parts of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, but lost a lot of the institutions and connections that helped people explore the higher elements of meaning, connection, significance and self-transcendence.

Check out the improved quality of life over the last 200 years…

  • Extreme Poverty: from 94% to 10%
  • Basic Education: from 17% to 86%
  • Literacy: from 12% to 85%
  • Vaccination: from 0% to 86%
  • Child Mortality: from 43% to 4%

Thanks to my brother for sharing the infographic 😉

Exit mobile version
%%footer%%