Please subscribe to our YouTube channel using this link.

In This Article:

• How to transition from work to home without carrying stress into your personal life.
• The power of family meetings for strengthening relationships and reducing conflicts.
• Building deeper connections with your family through open communication and shared experiences.
• The importance of personal growth within your family and fostering a supportive environment.
• Why creating meaningful moments is more valuable than simply spending more time together.

3 Ways to Have it All: Leading at Work, Loving at Home

by Dr. Christian Marcolli, author of the book "Spotlight on Performance".

You Can Have it All: 3 Ways to Boost Your Relationships at Home, Enjoy Life More, and Thrive as a Leader

I am extremely passionate about sustainable high performance in the corporate and athletic worlds, about great teamwork, and about creating healthy and productive cultures so that people can become truly extraordinary.

But there is another thing I'm equally passionate about: creating and maintaining healthy relationships and exciting family lives while succeeding in professional roles that carry massive responsibility. Very often, it's the close personal bonds that help build the strong foundation you need for success and fulfilment — not only in your career, but in your whole life.

In my experience, it’s very hard for business leaders to pay sufficient attention to their private lives. It's understandable: they tend to be incredibly dedicated to and preoccupied by the highest level of responsibility, huge volume, and massive intensity of their work. Professionally, there is always something happening, and plenty of unfinished business to keep their minds occupied, even when they are with family and friends.

The Challenge

To have a very successful career and a most satisfying life in the long run, it is necessary to commit to not only be highly successful in delivering amazing performance at work, but to do it in a happy, playful and sustainable way that is entirely compatible with an enjoyable and fulfilling life at home. So, as a business leader or senior executive, how can you build and maintain strong relationships with your family and friends, even if you only have very limited time available? 

Here are some impactful techniques to address this challenge. Some of them can be applied day in, day out, all year round: 

Solution 1: Transition from work to home

It's important to know how to transition into the home zone so you don’t just turn up with your head full after a busy day. Deliberately take a little time to think about how you want to show up in your private life. Set your intention on how you will make a difference: How can you enrich the lives of your loved ones today? How can you create positive emotions? How will you transition from business to home, from professional to parent, partner, and friend?

Consciously shut down your computer and pause for a moment of reflection. Then close your eyes. Start with a short meditation, where you do some minutes of conscious breathing, and visualize yourself joyfully interacting with family members. Then, look through some of your favorite family photos on your phone. After this, when you are peacefully connected with your ‘best side,’ you can intentionally approach your family and connect with your friends outside work.

Solution 2: Hold family meetings

If you're a parent, deliberately include your kids more in your thinking. Learn how to better understand their expectations of you and how to express your expectations of them. Invite them to understand what your world at work looks like: the passion, the joys, the challenges, the stresses.

Consider this routine: once a week, maybe on a Sunday morning or before dinner, together with your spouse / life partner and the children, hold a family meeting, where each of you goes through your schedules for the upcoming week, and shares your challenges. Discuss the important things happening in your job and how you feel about them. The same goes for your spouse / life partner.

As for the kids, depending on their age of course, they can share when they have tests at school and other things they want to go well. Talk about how you as a parent can help, and how everyone as a family can best support each other. 

Family meetings tend to bring everyone closer and reduce friction, negative short-term surprises, and misunderstanding. They help all family members feel like they're in it together, that many things are within their control, and that they have each other’s backs. It helps reduce stress around challenges and minimize the impact of things that may not be perfect. And it can help the family be connected and happier overall.

Solution 3: Grow within your family

Bringing peace to yourself, your family and your home comes from understanding, accepting and recognizing who we are and what we are. Creating a supportive, safe and healthy environment for each other is the most important thing to achieve. It is the basis for honesty, feedback, input and discovery. Allow your spouse life/partner and your kids to let you know what they appreciate and what they wish they could see more of. Be a role model in terms of both giving and receiving feedback.

Every three months, as a family, give meaningful feedback to each other. Have everyone in your family prepare a few questions in advance for each of the others, such as:

• What do you like the most in me as your spouse / life partner, as your mother/ father? What do you think are my best sides?

• When spending time together, do you feel that I am fully there, engaged and present most of the time? How do you feel about the time we spend together?

• If you had a wish for me that would make me a better spouse / life partner, mother / father or us a better family, what would it be?

• In order for us to have a great next three months as a family, what are the key things we need to consider?

This ritual will bring everyone closer together, keep you honest, and allow everyone to grow over time. A climate of open feedback is the basis for continued growth and creates peace in the long term for everyone.

Enjoy More Life

Ultimately, it’s up to you to take responsibility for enriching your life and the lives of the people around you, not only at work but also in your private life. Make a conscious commitment to bring the same professional dedication to your home life that you bring to your work, using some of these positive actions to nurture healthy relationships.

These solutions form an integral part of my work with senior executives and business leaders, and I see the positive results every day. These are people who have very limited time available for their lives outside work.

I keep reminding them: Life is not about how much time we spend together; it's about how many moments we create with each other. For so many, putting in this work is the foundation to build strong relationships at home, to truly enjoy their lives, and to thrive as leaders as well.

Copyright 2025. All Rights Reserved.

Book by this Author:

BOOK: Spotlight on Performance

Spotlight on Performance: Executive Inspiration - Volume II
by Dr. Christian Marcolli.

This book is for executives, business leaders, entrepreneurs, and anybody about to reach the top in the corporate world. It offers a wealth of insights from Dr. Marcolli’s work with world-class performers to inspire you to aim high and succeed professionally and personally. It is in two languages, both English and German.

If, while reading this book, you feel it could also benefit someone you know, please don’t hesitate to pass it on to them as a gift – and then simply request a new free copy.

For more info and/or to order this book, click here.  Also available as a Kindle edition. 

About the Author

Dr. Christian Marcolli is a global expert on sustainable high performance who coaches executives, business leaders, market-leading brands and elite athletes to achieve outstanding results. His firm, Marcolli Executive Excellence, focuses on fostering leadership excellence, driving team effectiveness and creating organizational health. He’s an in-demand speaker, award winning author, University of Zurich-trained psychologist and former pro soccer player. His latest book is Spotlight on Performance: Executive Inspiration, Volume II. Learn more at www.marcolli.com. 

More books by this Author.

Article Recap:

Balancing career success with a fulfilling family life is possible with intentional actions. By smoothly transitioning from work to home, holding family meetings to strengthen communication, and fostering open feedback, leaders can maintain strong personal relationships while excelling professionally. True success is about creating meaningful moments, not just time spent together.

#WorkLifeBalance #LeadershipAtHome #ThriveAtWorkAndHome #MindfulLeadership #FamilyFirst #SuccessfulParenting #CareerAndFamily #ExecutiveSuccess #StrongRelationships #WorkLifeHarmony