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What are Professional Boundaries and Why Do You Need Them?
Do you ever feel overwhelmed, as if you’re being pulled in a million different directions? Are your evenings and days off often interrupted by emails and client calls? Do you find yourself saying ‘yes’ to things you don’t really want to do? Does work constantly leave you feeling tired and exhausted?
If the answer is yes to any of these questions, you might need some professional boundaries.
Why are Professional Boundaries Important?
‘Boundaries help us understand where our limits are. In the work context, they help us protect and support our wellbeing and therefore also enable us to give our best.’
Dr Elena Touroni via Mashable
Professional boundaries help you stay aligned with your vision for your business or career. They ensure you stay focussed on the tasks and activities that truly light you up. In other words, they help you achieve your version of success, whatever that may be.
I believe creating and enforcing professional boundaries is a form of self-care. Whether you’re a business owner or an employee, it’s up to you to protect your time and energy. Doing so enables you to produce your best work and serve others, but it also leaves you free to enjoy your downtime. Professional boundaries play a key role in achieving that elusive work/life balance and avoiding burnout. If you often find yourself working when you should be resting or relaxing, it could be a sign your boundaries are a little off.
Clients and colleagues also benefit when you enforce professional boundaries. Clearly and openly communicating your guidelines with them can help establish a deeper sense of trust and connection.
In a service-based business or role, boundaries are integral to the customer service experience. To quote Maya Angelou,
‘people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel’.
In this context, effective boundaries make sense because we’re all happier when we know what’s expected of us.
How to Establish Effective Boundaries (and Make Sure Clients Stick to Them)
Despite the benefits listed above, establishing and enforcing professional boundaries can be a source of angst. This is especially true if you lean towards people pleasing or have trouble saying no. These worries and nerves are normal. Nobody wants to appear difficult or inflexible. But the better you are at setting boundaries, the more likely you are to find yourself running the business you want to run or building the career you dream of.
The first step towards establishing effective boundaries is getting really clear on your values and tuning into your feelings. You need to start noticing when you feel stressed, angry or frustrated at work. This is usually a sign that you need to set a boundary. Think about things like working hours, when and how (and how often) clients can contact you, what is included in your work with clients and what falls outside of the scope.
If you run your own business, communicate your guidelines to clients and make sure they sign-off on them. Set up consequences if client agreements are breached and make sure everything is detailed in your contract. Establishing a clear policy will limit future stress and overwhelm because you’ll simply follow protocol if the same issue arises.
If you’re an employee who needs to chat boundaries through with their boss, try framing them in a positive way. For example, instead of simply refusing to respond to emails after 6pm, explain that you always give 110% when you’re at work and you need to unplug once you leave the office in order to recharge.
In either scenario, you need to get comfortable saying ‘no’ or ‘not at this time’. However, it’s worth noting firm boundaries don’t always have to include complete refusal. It's also possible to be flexible and/or offer alternatives. You can honour your own boundaries by introducing a colleague, contact or tool that would be a good fit for the project or task in question.
If You Do One Thing This Week
Spend some time thinking about your priorities and tuning into your feelings about work. Can you spot any red flags that suggest a boundary is needed? Once you’ve identified any issues, consider whether you could do things differently. Are there any boundaries that could help? What do you need to do to make that happen?
Further Reading/Watching/Listening
- Defining Success When You’re Building a Lifestyle Business
- Don’t Lose Money to Burnout by Setting Boundaries at Work
- 10 Ways to Set Healthy Boundaries at Work
Val
