Expectations

If your industry doesn’t honor your values, make small changes to the expectations others have of you. The CEO is always on call if something goes wrong. Her opinion is often needed to make big decisions and to fix unforeseen problems.

But you don’t have to operate like this. When Derek Sivers started CD Baby, he slowly ceded power to managers until no one was calling him for his opinion. He was still the owner of the business and retained most of the equity, but he didn’t have to worry about being called in the middle of the night. He changed the expectations that others had of him.

There are small ways we can change expectations so that we’re not a slave to work. When you respond to email at one in the morning, it gives others the expectation that you’re available in the middle of the night. If you don’t want to be checking email in the middle of the night, don’t respond to email then. Instead, empower others to make decisions. Or at least train them to wait until a decent hour to expect a response from you.

How might you change expectations so you can live out a New Year more aligned with your values?