Why Leaders Need More Than “Work-Life Balance”
On my elementary school playground, we had a series of balance beams in the form of a triangle. I have distinct memories of trying to move across the beams, attempting to complete one full lap. I have no memory of actually doing so. To be honest, I don’t know if my balance has improved much since then.
The idea of work-life balance feels equally out of reach. Not because it’s impossible, but because it’s ambiguous. How do I know when I’ve achieved balance? What if I have less capacity in one season and more in another? Does that mean I’m suddenly out of balance?
The idea of balance is fragile and exhausting.
What leaders really need are healthy rhythms. Rhythms are steady patterns that keep us grounded in both work and life. And when we get off-beat, rhythms give us practical patterns to get back on track.
Healthy rhythms allow leaders to lead with clarity, energy, and peace. They help us avoid burnout, build trust with our teams, and create space for what matters most.
To build these rhythms, you must look at both your personal world and your professional world.
Healthy Rhythms in Life
1. Evening and Morning Routines
I know, I know, you are highly innovative and love spontaneity. But your body and spirit still long for some routine. When your body knows what to expect, it impacts your brain chemistry by regulating cortisol, your body’s stress hormone. A healthy routine also reminds your spirit that there are more important things than your to-do list.
Consider starting your day in the evening. How are you preparing for the next 24 hours? For me, my evening starts at 8:30 p.m. when my phone automatically locks all my apps and goes on “Do Not Disturb.” Lately, I’ve been doing my Bible reading and journaling at night. Then I read a fiction book before bed. Right as I turn off the lights, I play the Lectio 365 Evening Prayer. This is idealistic, but when I feel out of sync, these are the rhythms I return to. They nourish my spirit, mind, and body.
My morning routine has shifted recently. Now, I wake up and while preparing my pre-gym food, I play the Lectio 365 Morning Prayer and a voice memo I recorded with my goals and affirmations for the year. When I return from the gym, I settle into breakfast and getting ready, usually while listening to a podcast or a career-oriented audiobook.
As a single woman with no kids, I can keep this routine most days. It may not be possible for you to do it exactly like me. But I encourage you to incorporate some version of these practices into your daily rhythm:
Silence and prayer
Journaling
Goal setting, affirmations, or declarations (choose the word that fits you - something that reminds you who you are and where you’re going!)
Exercise
Reading (for me, this includes Bible reading, fiction, and professional development)
2. A Day of Rest
Few things have changed my life like practicing a weekly day of rest. John Mark Comer and Jefferson Bethke describe this day as being about joy and worship.
A day of rest isn’t about saying no to everything, it’s about saying yes to the things that give you the most life. For me, it’s the day I eat my favorite foods, spend time with my favorite people, and enjoy my favorite activities. It’s the best day of the week, and I always (always) end it glad that I set everything else aside.
For leaders, this rhythm is vital. It’s not wasted time; it’s how you recharge to lead with wisdom, perspective, and patience.
Healthy Rhythms at Work
Healthy rhythms begin at home, but they extend to the workplace. After all, most of your week is spent working. If you’re off-beat here, it will inevitably impact your personal life.
1. Strategic Planning for Long-Term Vision
Healthy rhythms aren’t just about the week in front of you, they are about the year(s) ahead. Once a year, leaders should gather with their core team and board to create a strategic plan for the coming year.
This plan serves as a blueprint, both strategically and operationally. It tells you where you’re going, the steps to get there, when those steps will be completed, and who is responsible for them. This rhythm prevents mission drift and keeps the entire team aligned.
If your professional life feels off-beat, start here.
2. Quarterly Priorities
From your strategic plan, quarterly priorities will emerge. Your organization should likely have only 3–5 of these each quarter. These priorities then guide your weekly meetings, KPIs, and feedback.
When you build this rhythm into your leadership, you:
Stop spreading yourself too thin
Measure progress in meaningful ways
Help your team focus on what matters most
Protect your other rhythms
3. Effective Communication
Communication is both our words and our actions. Seventy percent of employees say communication is one of the most important parts of their workplace culture. So what rhythms help create that culture?
Effective meetings: Too often, leaders spend hours in unproductive meetings. The EOS Level 10 Meeting™ provides a weekly rhythm that keeps everyone aligned and solving real issues. It offers clarity, space for open conversation, and accountability.
Effective feedback: Feedback is also a rhythm. Ideally, you’re giving positive feedback (in the SBIR format) 80% of the time and constructive feedback 20% of the time. It takes intentionality, but it is vital for creating a healthy work culture.
Effective understanding: Because communication is so central to culture, hosting a yearly workshop is wise. When teams understand one another’s communication styles, they can meet each other where they are.
Bringing the Two Worlds Together
Healthy leadership rhythms are not about keeping work and life in separate boxes. They are about creating a flow where your personal and professional practices strengthen one another.
Think of it this way: the rhythms you build at home restore your heart and mind so you can lead with clarity at work. In the same way, the rhythms you set at work provide structure that frees you to be fully present in your personal life.
When these rhythms align, you begin to experience leadership from a place of peace instead of pressure. Your energy is no longer divided; it is directed. You stop living in constant reaction and start leading with intention.
The goal is not perfection. The goal is steady patterns that guide you back when you get off-beat. That’s the gift of rhythms: they remind us who we are, where we are going, and how to return when life gets messy.
When your professional and personal rhythms work together you start to thrive.
