Page 229 - Roy W. Rice - CEO Material How to Be a Leader in Any Organization-McGraw-Hill (2009)

210 • CEO Material: How to Be a Leader in Any Organization

for something, you’ll fall for anything.” At least ponder what ground rules
will enable you, at this point in time, to keep your home life in check,
and negotiate ways to make them happen.
A leader makes choices, and to stay a leader, you have to make the
right choices.
The reality is that if you limit what you’ll do for your job, management
likely will limit your progression. Still, within reason, set some rules that are
acceptable to you with agreement as to the times they can be broken.
Use technology. Although there are more pressured demands than
ever, there is also more technology to enable you to click, drop, and drag
a day’s, a week’s, or even a month’s worth of work. This is not a recom-
mendation: taking your BlackBerry to bed, which, according to a recent
survey, 63 percent do.
Use services that help you save time: organizers, delivery people,
pet care, lawn care, car driving services, fumigators, investigators, and
massage therapy.
Stay healthy, because that’s the only way you’ll be able to sustain the
schedule.
You don’t get many sick days as the CEO.

Get Your Family on Board

Make sure that the people close to you are in sync with your dreams and
goals. Tell them what’s going on, and give them a defined period of time
before it will be “over.” You can set a broad schedule (e.g., weeks, months,
or a year out), but it will be difficult to hold to, and that perturbs families.

My family went to the company picnic. We walked in, and a thou-
sand eyes were on us. My teenage son about yelped, “I got to get out
of here.” So I had to remind him of some of the benefits he gets
because he’s the boss’s son, and he sort of sighed and joined in. . . .
Unfortunately, he knows that the school nurse, who’s husband works
for me, will write him a waiver anytime he asks.

A small number of CEOs I interviewed were not only a part of two-
career families but also two-CEO families. Others had a working spouse,