The Law of Replication

• Tweet

• Tweet

I subscribe to a blog by Michael Hyatt, and today he wrote about the law of replication. His post is awesome and you can find it here.

The points made are so true and give so much for thought. What is it that you do each and every day that is replicated? We see it in children, we see it in our coworkers, and you know, we even see it in ourselves as we watch someone we admire.

The world is a stressful place these days. Work needs to be done faster, with fewer people, and yet the workload doesn’t decrease. It is so easy to find ourselves becoming that proverbial “workaholic” and little time is left for anything else.

I had a conversation with a friend this past week. She spoke of a desire to not let her job consume her such that she had no time for her family. Even those habits get replicated in those around us. If your children see it, they believe that’s how it should be. It also sends the message that work is most important. If your team that you lead sees it, they come to believe that is what is expected of them and try to do the same. And at some point, with our teams, they burn out and move on because they have had the revelation that work, while important, is not the most important thing in life. As it said, no one, on their death bed, will say they wish they had spent more time at work.

I had a team member once who talked to me about the time we spend at work. In explaining to her that I had no expectation that she work 7 days a week, she disagreed with me. She said, “You always send emails in the middle of the weekend and I have to check because I want you to have the answers you need from me.” What an eye opener. I wish I could say I have stopped sending emails on the weekend to my team. Some weekends I do better than others. It is a work in progress. As a leader, Michael Hyatt’s post today has reminded me of the responsibility I have to be sure I am providing something great to replicate. I am sure glad he wrote it.