Bringing your whole self to work

Sounds like the CEO of UPS owns his pipes.

From mars2venus in pinkmagazine:

For generations, American businessmen lived double lives: the corporate side, which was all business, and the personal side, which mixed with business only in the form of polite small talk or pictures of family on one's desk.

Today, women are pushing to blend the two. And frankly, the notion of a holistic approach to work is an idea that's long overdue. This concept goes beyond the usual tenets of time management. It means giving yourself time to nurture the parts of you -- professional and personal -- that make you uniquely valuable to your organization.

Every week I set aside time for self-renewal. That means doing things that aren't naturally part of my job: volunteering in the community, reading for enjoyment, exercise, sitting on the boards of other organizations, attending seminars and learning new ways of doing things from a diverse group of activity that eventually leads to better problem-solving and innovation. In short, I have a life outside of the office, and those activities make me better at what I do.

Self-renewal also reinforces the balance that is essential to good leadership. But you have to add renewal to your to-do list -- and use it wisely. If you don't, it will be lost in the chaos of the workday or, worse, become more of a distraction than a strength.

Mike Eskew is chairman and CEO of UPS, the world's largest package delivery company.

I'm not sure if I necessarily agree that it's women that are behind the push to blend corporate and personal -- I subscribe to the possibly wacky idea that we are all achieving a higher consciousness of the power of the integrated whole -- but I applaud Eskew for getting it, and bringing it to a wider audience on the pages of pink.

* * *