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Setting Your Professional Boundaries
by Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan, Organisational Provocateur
When we talk about any kind of boundaries, it means when we cross them, something significant changes in our lives. Here we discuss what sort of work we want to do, how, with whom and under what circumstances. Unless we get clear on these issues, we can mildly or even seriously derail our careers and it can take quite a bit of time and effort to get back on track. Unfortunately setting boundaries is not as common as it should really be.Most professionals accept any kind of work with any client that brings money to the house.
But why do we do that? In a way this is the old puritan work ethics. Someone needs help and we must jump in to save the day. Comments like "I feel honoured to be able to help", "It is a privilege to be called", "I never turn away any work" and "If I say no, they may never call me again". Or one of my best: "I love this work so much that I would do it anytime". This can also translate into "I love this work so much, that I am ready and willing to sacrifice my family and friends for working more anytime.
Some other comments I often hear from the same people are: "I am overworked", "My life has gone apeshit", "My family is pissed off with me" and "I am stressed out".
I believe most of us have chosen our professions because we love it, but when practising that profession becomes a treadmill from futility to oblivion with occasional stops at tedium and counter productivity, then we had better look at ourselves and the boundaries we have set for ourselves. Have we set any at all?
So, let's see these boundaries.
Boundary of Operation
This is the geographic are of your work? Are you local, national or international? How far are you willing to travel in pursuit of interesting assignments? Whichever way we look at it, constant travelling is not exactly a fun activity, so we must decide how far we are willing to go.The other factor is whether or not your local market can support the kind of work you want to do for the kind of fees you wish to charge.
So, we have to think about how to get the best of everything: Getting interesting, high-fee gigs without too much travelling. There must be a way. How can you strengthen you local reputation, so more and more companies seek you out, and be willing to pay your fees?
Boundary of Clients
Do you know exactly what sort of people you want to work with? And here we are not talking about target market. What we mean is individuals within our target markets. It is very important at performing professional services that the work in collaboration WITH clients not for, to or at clients in superior subordinate relationships.Therefore a question from the prospective client like "What can you do for me?" is a red flag. Some of those clients may not know how to work with service professionals and can be educated. However, some of them just want to hire you as an extra pair of hands to deal with stuff they have neither time nor inclination to do.
What sort of people do you work with well? People who let you loose on the project or people who are breathing down on your neck day in day out? Or people in between?
At what level of organisations do you like working. Higher or lower? Do you prefer to work with salaried people or people with hourly wages? They have totally different perspectives on work.
Boundary of Fees
Besides time, this is the other boundary that can be quantified. If your fees are related to time, you can only earn more by working more hours. This can easily lead to the point of sacrificing personal life altogether for the sake of more money. But that in turn will sooner or later undermine the joy you get out of your work, and it becomes a burden. Just like a job, lie "I do it because it pays the bills". There must be more in life than paying the bills.Boundary of Work
You must make a decision about what kind of work you are and you are not willing to do. At the end of assignments, some clients may ask you to write a report to summarise the gig. Are you going to write that report, or are you going to turn it down, saying, you are not a report writer? If you are unclear on this boundary, your life can pretty quickly fill up with scope creep, and you will not even know where it comes from.One important question to decide is, whether or not you get involved in the implementation of your recommendations. Some clients insist on your involvement, some say: "We will do it ourselves".
When you are part of the implementation process, you can make sure that the project gets successfully completed.
The other issue is that just because you can do a certain work, would you do it with passion and enthusiasm? Without passion that work becomes a chore, and the end result will show it. You may be an amazing educator (some call it trainer), but what if you are sick and tired of that kind of work. You just have to say no to some of that work to create space in your life for other kind of work.
Boundary of Time
Time is our greatest treasure. Once it is gone, that is it. It is gone.
What hours are you willing to work? Any weekends? And if you do
weekends, do you charge differently? Or do you simply say that your
weekends are yours, and do not do any kind of work? One way to stop
counting time is decoupling your compensation from time. If you work
for time-based fees, then you cannot save time, for your income is the
function of time. The more you work, the more you earn. How much time
you have and how much time you spend working will basically define the
quality of your life.
Boundary of Office
Where do you want to operate from? Are you all right working from your
spare bedroom, or do you prefer an office away from home?
Home offices come with a broad variety of interruptions, mainly from
family members. Being single and living on my own, I cannot comment on
this, but I have heard some horror stories about how family members can
unwittingly turn home-based entrepreneurs' lives into sheer hell with
comments like: "Since you do not work anyway, can you walk the dog,
shop for groceries, pick up the kids from school, etc.?" Family members
must understand that you do work, besides your earning potential far
outweighs the rest of the family's, so if they do not let you do you
work, that can create some serious financial consequences.
Most often than not though family members understand that it is your
work and respect your privacy. In my opinion family members can be
educated, but feel free to call me the naive single guy looking at the
issue through rose-coloured glasses. However, when I was a kid, my dad
was running his photography studio and laboratory from our some 600
sqfeet home. It put a new perspective on using the bathroom when
available not when we felt like. But it can be done. And both my
brother and I grew up respecting what is dad's photo stuff, and never
went to his photo cabinet searching for a marker or stapler. That was
his different territory.
However, an off-home office requires other commitments. You are back to
the so-hated commuting again and your operating expenses can go up
significantly. Now you can invite clients to your office, but would
you? I believe a neutral turf - restaurant, library meeting room - is
way better than home turf, simply because you can focus on the agenda
instead of becoming the host of the meeting. Everything you need is
brought to you, instead of your having to run around to fetch them.
Many people feel their images demand nice corner offices. However, at
the end of the day, most buyers of professional services go for
character. There are many - for example - lawyers in town sitting in
their nice offices, wearing their elegant Italian suits and driving
their luxury cars, but only very few of them have the ability to create
energy, enthusiasm and excitement in their clients. Very few of them
have the emotional competence to be amazingly good lawyers. In my
opinion, buyers buy personalities before they buy services.
Using this guide, work out your boundaries and draw your line in the
sand. It will give you a better picture of who you are and what you are
willing to do. It will re-align your daily activities with your
long-term vision, and enhances your sense of happiness you get out of your work.
Home offices come with a broad variety of interruptions, mainly from family members. Being single and living on my own, I cannot comment on this, but I have heard some horror stories about how family members can unwittingly turn home-based entrepreneurs' lives into sheer hell with comments like: "Since you do not work anyway, can you walk the dog, shop for groceries, pick up the kids from school, etc.?" Family members must understand that you do work, besides your earning potential far outweighs the rest of the family's, so if they do not let you do you work, that can create some serious financial consequences.
Most often than not though family members understand that it is your work and respect your privacy. In my opinion family members can be educated, but feel free to call me the naive single guy looking at the issue through rose-coloured glasses. However, when I was a kid, my dad was running his photography studio and laboratory from our some 600 sqfeet home. It put a new perspective on using the bathroom when available not when we felt like. But it can be done. And both my brother and I grew up respecting what is dad's photo stuff, and never went to his photo cabinet searching for a marker or stapler. That was his different territory.
However, an off-home office requires other commitments. You are back to the so-hated commuting again and your operating expenses can go up significantly. Now you can invite clients to your office, but would you? I believe a neutral turf - restaurant, library meeting room - is way better than home turf, simply because you can focus on the agenda instead of becoming the host of the meeting. Everything you need is brought to you, instead of your having to run around to fetch them.
Many people feel their images demand nice corner offices. However, at the end of the day, most buyers of professional services go for character. There are many - for example - lawyers in town sitting in their nice offices, wearing their elegant Italian suits and driving their luxury cars, but only very few of them have the ability to create energy, enthusiasm and excitement in their clients. Very few of them have the emotional competence to be amazingly good lawyers. In my opinion, buyers buy personalities before they buy services.
Using this guide, work out your boundaries and draw your line in the sand. It will give you a better picture of who you are and what you are willing to do. It will re-align your daily activities with your long-term vision, and enhances your sense of happiness you get out of your work.
Copyright Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan. All rights reserved. You are free to use this article in whole or in part. One favour though: Can I ask you to you include complete attribution, including a live website link. Also, can you please let me know where you plan to publish the article.
The attribution: This article was written by Organisational Provocateur, Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan of Dynamic Innovations Squad, a firm specialising in helping consulting firms to sell their expertise at the highest margins. Get Tom's free Practice Management Black Paper when you sign up for his monthly newsletter, Commando Consulting: Lessons And Practices From The Ultimate Professional Service Firm, The Military. Visit Tom's website at http://www.di-squad.com.
Copyright 2007 Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan & Dynamic Innovations Squad, All rights reserved. Vancouver, BC, Canada
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