Get to know your workaholics

Photo by Antonio Gabola on Unsplash

Hi, my name is Ray, and I am not a workaholic. I hear “you work too much!", "do you ever sleep?" regularly though. I disagree that the workaholic title is the correct label to define me or others that are like me that I have come across in my career. From the outside, I can understand why people assume that long hours means you are a workaholic. So, I wanted to give some insight into the difference between a workaholic and a performance-driven individual.

There is a subtle difference in being performance-driven and being a workaholic. A workaholic will work excessive hours due to external pressures to meet the unrelenting demand for output. They seek the elusive validation from others and have no clear sight of what is essential and what can wait or be achieved differently. They feel the workload is not a choice but an expectation.  It is the single statement "I need to work long hours per week to get my job done". 

In this article, I want to provide insights on what a performance-driver looks like. I want to provide questions to help make it easier to ask your yourself, your peer or your team member questions to understand them better. To learn how to support them as opposed to criticise them. Below are four things that should help explain what a performance-driver is.

One. We love what we do. Yes... almost everything.  The challenging problems. The solving of puzzles. The new initiatives. The helping of others, whether it is support or coaching. The getting stuff done #GSD. The innovations that make an impact are all critical to providing joy.

This list is ongoing. I don't see any role as strictly to deliver the tasks and get paid.  Performance-drivers are in the position they want to be in. They are passionate about the things they do and want to have an impact.

Performance-driven employees always have side projects. They use them to stretch and learn new things as well as help others. Even if they are not aligned to their own roles. They know this will benefit the organisation. I like transforming people and processes to maximise potential and impact. As well as designing new apps to improve efficiency and solve organisational problems. 

The joy stems from running parallel streams that are helping others in their goals, overcoming obstacles, exceeding targets and doing cool things. When you have all three things Passion, Play and Purpose in your role. Everything fits into place.

Q. Do you love what you are doing?

Two. The extra hours. This is the easiest to see.  The late-night emails, the active green light on the chat apps. Over the years, I have improved in hiding the hours I work. Yet there are only so many ways to hide lumps under a carpet. Your base role should fit into a 40-hour week.  When you start a new position, it could be more. As you get into the flow, it should move to 40 hours or under.

In a flexible workplace, work doesn't mean being isolated alone in a room with a laptop. It also shouldn't be so late in the office each night that you know the buildings shutdown process. It could be on the phone waiting for the train or in front of the tv watching a basic Netflix show. It can be after dinner with your friends where you choose to work on something interesting over a sitcom. 

I know I prefer to spend my day on activities that involve people. Then go home spend time with the family and work on my cool things in the quiet of the night.  I am energised, focused, productive and work on things I enjoy.

The subtle difference in the hours is the feeling of being pushed into doing them or opting into them yourself. 

Q. What are you working on when you are online at night? 

Q. What is driving you to do that?

Three. Balancing wellness. Wellness is key to your longevity. Healthy mind, body and spirit. That is my baseline target. The goal is to have a sharp mind, fit body and a life of purpose. A performance driver strives to be sharp, fit and purposeful. You need to work on these three things. Incorporate them in your life to ensure they are not a January only goal.  

To be sharp, a performance driver has to maintain a growth mindset. They are always learning and reviewing their mistakes. I like to learn about behavioural psychology for kids and adults, new technology platforms or uses as well as 101 leadership and business teachings. There are so many years left, so why not strive to be better every single day. Adopting small changes like choosing Audible over music for a daily commute can make a big difference. I like to ask questions after observing leaders in a situation. I am still improving my questions asking by taking inspiration from someone I work with. She always asks on-point questions without hesitation in the right situation.

To be fit as a baseline, I use a standing desk, walking meetings and focus on closing my daily activity rings. Taking the stairs more often than not and keeping my 272-day streak going. I focus on the physical activity that I enjoy doing so I don't need to waste mental cycles motivating myself weekly. This allows me to push my physical limits and improve my heart health. Over the last few years, I have been more conscious on what I eat which is also a big factor. Feeling physically fit helps with me with my mental focus and balances my body’s natural chemicals like endorphins.

Sleep is always a fun conversation. Since I was young, I found 7.5 hours to be a sleep in.  It is not something I decided on. I know many others that are the same. I use a tracker to understand my sleep patterns to make sure I am getting healthy sleep. There is only so much tv one can consume. This means at weird hours of the night you still might see them online.

To have a purpose means knowing why you do it all.  Focusing on being the best version of myself for my family and friends. Making time to coach my son's soccer team or watching my daughter's soccer games.  Our weekends are quite active, and I still attend my kid's school things. Through being organised you can ensure you have enough time to be there with your friends and family.

Q. What are you doing to keep it all balanced?

Four. Monitoring for burnout. Burnout is something you want to avoid. Everybody has the potential to burnout. As your hours and stress increase your potential burnout increases with it.  Ensuring you have checkpoints where you are asking yourself the questions in this article.

Burnout is something people talk about as something that happened overnight. In reality, it is a build-up of events over time.  The stress and hours remain, but the play, purpose and passion fade. The irritations grow. The sensitivity heightens, and awareness decreases. 

Outside of your personal reflections, having a handful of trusted people that know you and understand you and checking in on you is a good idea. Everyone will ebb and flow their stress levels.  Keeping the oscillations as close to your midline is the goal.  If you feel you're moving too far away from your midline, that is a clear indicator to press pause and evaluate what you are doing.  

One thing I have worked on over the years is to compartmentalise. Like switching modes. My family will tell you I am not perfect at it. Albeit that, being able to turn things on and off increases my chance of being more focused and present at the right time. This helps me to balance my well-being as well as the people around me.

Q. How are you balancing it all? 

Q. Do you feel like yourself right now?

I hope this helps clarify that not everyone is a workaholic and how to best support those permanence-driven individuals you work with.

Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not represent the views or opinions of my employer.