Adrian was almost beside himself. I say, almost, because he was trying to be so logical about it. “Why is it that people always seem to bring their personal lives to work?”

“Adrian, I have found that people bring their personal lives to work, because they have personal lives.”

This notion that we can separate our business and personal lives is somewhat absurd. There is nothing that impacts someone’s professional life as an issue occurring in their personal life. As managers, we always seek high levels of performance, yet often attempt to remain ignorant about those circumstances that influence performance the most. A manager unaware of a health issue, a marital circumstance or a drug problem will likely be befuddled and unable to anticipate or compensate when performance drops off. Effective managers know their team members, the whole person, the whole person who comes to work everyday. -TF