My Work, My Life

It’s one of the great executive challenges of our time: How can I give my all to my job and yet live a rich, rewarding personal life? We talk a lot about work/life balance—implying that 50/50 is the ideal split between our jobs and everything else. But as Harvard Business School’s Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams show in “Manage Your Work, Manage Your Life,” achieving such a balance is an elusive, if not impossible, goal. Instead, the authors suggest, leaders should make deliberate choices about the lives they want to lead—about which opportunities to pursue and which to decline. Otherwise, they’re apt to be constantly juggling priorities and rarely engaging fully in anything. Having interviewed almost 4,000 executives worldwide, Groysberg and Abrahams present a framework for thinking about these choices. The executives, they write, discovered through experience that “prospering in the senior ranks is a matter of carefully combining work and home so as not to lose themselves, their loved ones, or their foothold on success.” The article is part of this month’s Spotlight on Thriving at the Top. The package also includes a lively interview with the Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer, who explains how leaders can apply mindfulness—a topic she has explored for decades—to unlock innovation in their work and their organizations. And Wharton’s Peter Cappelli and IE Business School’s Monika Hamori and Rocio Bonet present a data-rich snapshot of exactly who fills the top jobs these days and how the mix of leaders has changed, particularly since the 2008 recession. Last, be sure to check out this month’s Life’s Work interview, which features one of my all-time heroes—the legendary comedian and actor John Cleese. In it (and in the extended text and audio versions), Cleese shares his thoughts on creativity, corporate humor, and how the Pythons made decisions. Adi Ignatius, Editor in Chief

My Work, My Life

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