I read a press article this week which made me more aware of a skill that all professionals need but which is not always recognised or valued. The context was the ability of the former American president Bill Clinton to “compartmentalise” issues so that, for example, even though he was in the process of being impeached he was still able to deal with the leader of the house and keep US government business moving along.
 
So, in any given business day we all have many issues to manage, but what does not work is to let one dominate the others to their detriment, even though that may be something that particularly annoys or upsets us or makes us angry.
 
This skill is even more important in balancing work and private or family life. Bringing work cares home from the office is I have found rarely welcome or constructive and just distracts from other important priorities. And if like me yesterday you are walking your dog through beautiful early summer woodland with the trees all fresh in their new greenery, take the time to appreciate and enjoy your surroundings without thinking about the latest business issue.
 
This ability to place issues into different “buckets” and then deal with them appropriately seems to be recognised as a skill more generally. Here is an interesting Forbes article which discusses compartmentalization and suggests that in dealing deal with extreme challenges while running a business first Compartmentalize it. Isolate the issue from all the other challenges you are dealing with.While this blog How to compartmentalize your thoughts to beat stress says I vigilantly divide up the tasks I need to do and the conflicting responsibilities I have so that they can’t slam into one another.
 
This Harvard Business Review article broadly discussing emotional intelligence points out how Many of us now work in constantly connected, always-on, highly demanding work cultures…which requires resiliency skills including compartmentalization commenting  We receive 11 million bits of information every second, but the executive, thinking centers of our brain can effectively process only 40 bits of information, according to Shawn Achor, co-founder of the Institute for Applied Positive Research and author of The Happiness Advantage.
 
As the American footballer Larry Fitzgerald says When it's time to focus in and play ball during the season, 100% of my focus is on that. When it's the offseason and I've got time to be away and I can do other interests - they don't conflict. I'm good at compartmentalizing. I can put everything in its appropriate box at the time and open it up when I need to at a later time.
 
This is also about helping to prioritise – there is an old Russian proverb If you chase two rabbits you will catch none, or as the German writer and statesman Goethe (1749 to 1832) observedThings which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.

I have worked for many leaders over the years and indeed been one myself. One of the things that has struck me is how hard it is for such gifted and intelligent people, which they invariably are to hear the views of anyone other than their direct reports. 
 
A very wise executive who ran a large computer manufacturing plant once told me that the most direct reports a manager can deal with is 9. You can obviously listen to them, but will they always give you the true position? Harvard Business School utilises case studies to teach professional firm leadership. One of them is about how General Electric under their legendary leader Jack Welch cut out the middle managers and communicated directly with the workers on the shop floor – they organised a series of meetings in their factories to do this. The results far surpassed expectation. For example, they received feedback on a new lathe they planned to buy and discovered it was not fit for purpose - so they cancelled the procurement.
 
Jeffrey R Immelt the CEO of General Electric from 2000 to 2017 who succeeded Jack Welch said Good leaders, good CEOs, are curious. They are absorbing information about potentially important trends and developments all the time, but they don’t instantly react to them. They contemplate them. They read about them. They listen to internal and external experts with a variety of perspectives. They engage in what I call a “soak period” before they reach a conclusion about what the input means for their company and how to act on it.
 
By their very nature leaders tend to be good communicators and are very capable of talking rather than listening. Here's a good Harvard Business Review article How to Really Listen to your Employees which starts Let’s face it: strong leaders tend to be characterized by their strong opinions, decisive action, and take-no-prisoners attitude. These are important traits, but it’s equally important for managers to stand down and listen up. Yet many leaders struggle to do this, in part because they’ve become more accustomed to speaking than listening.
 
It also suggests the idea of a “listening stick” – if you are holding it you must listen. Max de Pree the American businessman and writer cited an example of this. "In some South Pacific cultures, a speaker holds a conch shell as a symbol of temporary position of authority. Leaders must understand who holds the conch—that is, who should be listened to and when."Might be interesting to try this in many marriages!
 
I think it is about finding ways to break through the management veil and hear what is being said outside of the boardroom – which does mean going out and meeting the more common folk through round table discussions or by some other means. Here is a Forbes article Six Ways To Listen To Your Employees
including Town Hall meetings which suggests If you can get your team together physically or virtually, do it! Schedule a Town Hall Meeting where your topmost leader can address the team and answer questions. This is not a presentation, but a general talk about the state of the organization, the culture, the energy, the goals and the mission.
 
Even the Chinese leaderMao Tse-tung who as Chairman of the Communist Party of China from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976 was a very authoritative leader recognised the value of listening. "We should never pretend to know what we don't know, we should not feel ashamed to ask and learn from people below, and we should listen carefully to the views of the cadres at the lowest levels. Be a pupil before you become a teacher; learn from the cadres at the lower levels before you issue orders."
 
As Woodrow Wilson said "The ear of the leader must ring with the voices of the people."

Have you ever noticed how corporate and professional firm networks and VPN’s and their associated conference call and IM service slow down on a Friday? This is no coincidence. That is the day above all others when professionals and other office workers abandon their time consuming and often expensive and uncomfortable commutes and work from home. This puts a far greater strain on the networks and associated technology that supports home working.
 
Over the last decade there has been a real change in working habits and indeed in the attitude towards them. If you were say a lawyer and were not physically present in the office then you were not trusted to be doing your job. You could literally sit at your desk and play World of Warcraft all day and nobody cared because you were “in the office”. I had a conversation some 10 years ago with a partner in a leading London law firm and I asked why they needed all of their lawyers in expensive City offices. He said it was essential to maintain camaraderie or something like that.
 
Now all of this has changed. The technology is seamless and sometimes our how networks are faster. As I sit in front of two laptops one using an Ethernet connection plus a third screen and a third, private, Macbook I am no less effective than if I had travelled to an office – and in fact I can work more efficiently and indeed for longer hours.
 
Even the law firms have recognised this now - see this Guardian article Can I work from home as a lawyer?by way of example which suggests Agile working is on the rise in the legal profession, with employees free to work where, when and how they choose. If the relatively traditional legal profession recognises the advantages of flexible working then it is here to stay, though I suspect there are still pockets of stubborn resistance.
 
And this is not just about the legal profession – here is a Forbes article on The 10 Best Jobs Working from Home which says Working from home is the job dream situation for millions of workers. But it may surprise you to know there are literally hundreds of companies providing opportunities to do just that.It then cites some of the top corporate opportunities which include Amazon.
 
Of course there are challenges – see this blog The 7 Biggest Work Challenges (and How to Overcome Them) which cites overworking, prioritization and interruptions - The good news is, when you work from home, you avoid co-workers dropping by your desk and other office interruptions (it's someone's birthday! Let's have cake in the breakroom!). The bad news is you'll likely have to deal with other kinds of interruptions and distractions, whether it's the UPS delivery person needing your signature or in-laws dropping by unannounced.Our dog always sees fit to bark at something in the middle of a sensitive and difficult conference call!
 
Another challenge cited in this blog on The top 7 disadvantages of working at home is a lack of community and differences in culture “When you only see teammates in chat or a weekly video call, it’s hard to develop the tight-knit camaraderie that makes for truly great teams.”  It also suggests ways to overcome these issues.
 
So does this Harvard Business Review article Challenges to Managing Virtual Teams and how to Overcome Them which discusses communication, trust and productivity. It also cites this two year study by a Stanford professor which:
 
showed an astounding productivity boost among the telecommuters equivalent to a full day's work. Turns out work-from-home employees work a true full-shift (or more) versus being late to the office or leaving early multiple times a week and found it less distracting and easier to concentrate at home.  
 
Additionally (and incredibly), employee attrition decreased by 50 percent among the telecommuters, they took shorter breaks, had fewer sick days, and took less time off. Not to mention the reduced carbon emissions from fewer autos clogging up the morning commute. 
 
So working from home is here to stay and whilst it does have some issues to manage represents a huge advantage to professional people where attendance in person is not essential – such as a lawyer appearing in court, or a dentist filling a tooth or a surgeon performing an operation – though even that can be done remotely using a robot, see this BBC article from 2014.
 
I personally think we should embrace this appropriate homeworking as an opportunity,but recognise its limitations. And also remember the quote commonly attributed to politician Paul Tsongas or rabbi Harold Kushner “No one on his deathbed ever said, ‘I wish I had spent more time at the office.’”
 
And if my dog barks too much I can take him for a walk in my lunch hour - which is good for him and for me!

Have you ever said something on the spur of the moment, maybe a critical or unintentionally cruel comment? And then wished you hadn’t, but it’s too late. Or even complained about something with no particular end or purpose in mind but just to get it off your chest. It’s quite challenging but rewarding to hold back and not make the comment or criticism however much you may want to.
 
I have found “biting my tongue” surprisingly difficult, we seem to be programmed not to hold back, but that the results are often unexpectedly rewarding. A new way of looking at something may emerge that would have been masked by the reproachful comment or complaint, or perhaps the silence will allow the other person to say something constructive or even profound.
 
Here’s an article on 10 tips for knowing when to stay quiet and just listen including You are tempted to “fix” the person’s problem which is very true. And a Harvard Business Review article If You Want People to Listen, Stop Talking which suggests Silence is a greatly underestimated source of power. In silence, we can hear not only what is being said but also what is not being said. In silence, it can be easier to reach the truth.
 
There can of course be times when speaking up is the right thing to do – see this article Three Times You Have to Speak Up which however concludes that it is a matter for careful judgement There are times when what we say or don’t say impacts our organization’s ability — and even our own ability — to succeed. And it’s rarely as clear as someone handing you some stones to put in your mouth, or whispering that it’s time to take them out. Knowing when to speak is an art, and like any art, requires skill. But it’s a skill worth pursuing.
 
I also like this Stamford article on Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill which starts Known for their speaking abilities, Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill often knew when and why to be quiet. “Solomon says there is ‘a time to keep silence,” President-elect Lincoln told the Indiana Legislature in February 1861. “I am rather inclined to silence, and whether that be wise or not,” he told a Pittsburgh crowd a few days later. “It is at least more unusual nowadays to find a man who can hold his tongue than to find one who cannot.”
 
Abraham Lincoln also said “It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.” while Plato observed Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.
 
For a last word on the power of silence here is an apt biblical quote from Proverbs 21:23 “Whosoever keepeth his mouth and his tongue, keepeth his soul from trouble”.