Work Boundaries Crossed

Personal boundaries are difficult to define, but when someone violates them you know.

Violate may be a strong word, but the concept is like drawing a circle around where you stand and when someone steps inside your space an alarm goes off.

Now let’s hope this hasn’t happened to you at work, but here’s something that happens often:

The dilemma of when to say “yes” and when to say “no.”

As an employee, you may not have the option to decline tasks, but it’s important to have boundaries.

Take for instance what I call the ‘curse of being responsible’. (I see it happen all the time)

• Remember when you did group projects in school?

• Everyone shares the responsibility, but how often are the contributions equal?

The curse of being responsible means people throw work your way because you’re reliable.

• Sometimes that means you have a hard time saying no.

• And in some cases you brought that upon yourself.

Here’s what I mean: if you’re known as the reliable one at work, people are going to turn to you first for help.

That’s not a bad label, but what happens when you overcommit?

In order to avoid that scenario, you need to establish boundaries at work.

Advice I learned early in my career was: saying no.

Think of it like this, if you say yes to everything (although opportunistic) the quality of your focus (and work) is split between different projects.

Saying no to lesser tasks means saying yes to greater ones.

• The reality is no one is going to look after you better than yourself.

• Which is why you need to establish boundaries at work.

Another benefit of having boundaries professionally is earning respect from co-workers.

They quickly learn you can’t be taken advantage of, coaxed into saying yes all the time or defer to you by default.

I’m not saying being responsible is a bad thing, it’s a great trait to have.

But those normally taken advantage in the work setting are those who get stuff done.

This is multiplied as a leader because your time becomes more valuable (to others).

You have to be more protective of your time as a manager than as an individual contributor.

• The beauty of work boundaries is everyone wins.

• Those who rely upon you too much grasp they need to look elsewhere (or in the mirror).

• It also gives others who get overlooked an opportunity to step up.

This is part of office politics: knowing when to say yes and when to say no.

There is a cost for saying no at times, so you must mitigate that risk in each scenario.

But having boundaries at work is a good thing because self-preservation is ultimately your responsibility.

So much of your career success as a leader is operating strategic.

If what I shared today is something you’d like to dive deeper into, reach out here and let’s talk.

Hope this was helpful and God Bless,

Scott

If you found this helpful and you’re looking to improve your soft skills as a leader, here are ways to work with me directly

• 🗣 Hire me to speak at your company or next event (watch my speaking reel here)

• 🎤 Invite me to lead an interactive training workshop, remotely or in-person (depending on location)

• 🤝 Start 1:1 coaching with me as a new manager, current leader or executive (I once managed 30 people 1:1 weekly❗️)

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