The 4 boundaries all managers need to set

Your 30 day boundary challenge

Gooood morning again happy Tuesday team!

Since last week, we’re now all deep in a 4-week long challenge for us all to end the year STRONG. Each week will have a theme, where we can level up in leadership together, ready to smash 2025.

This week we’re talking BOUNDARIES. Everyone tells you you need to set them, but nobody shows you how. So that’s exactly what I’m doing today.

I have a video going live across all my social platforms at 1pm GMT today to go alongside this post. But because you know this is my fav corner of the internet, you will always get this info early, let’s go…

A confessed people-pleaser

I used to be nothing other than a rampant people-pleaser who cared more about winning approval than my own mental health.

I ended up overstepping in relationships, having no time to work ‘on’ big projects, and ended up being a sponge for all the drama in the office.

But the thing is, when we don’t set clear boundaries, not only do we flush our mental health down the drain, we actually become a really shitty leader as a result.

That all changes when I got very strict with my boundaries.

Admittedly it didn’t happen overnight, but I can absolutely pin point it

You’ll have heard 1000 times that “you need clear boundaries”

But what you won’t ever have seen is a comprehensive, practical list of actual boundaries that you can write down and start practicing this week.

So that’s what I’ve pulled together for you today.

The spreadsheet

Over the next 30 days, I want you to commit to tracking exactly when you do and don’t honor them (no shame here, but you need to be super honest with yourself about them). Make a duplicate of this spreadsheet for us to track them together.

The 4 boundaries all managers need to set

1. Time Boundaries

   You need to set some very clear restrictions around your time to be the most successful manager you can. The restrictions I set were:

   • Don’t respond to team outside of work hours

   • Zero work allowed when on holiday/lunch breaks

   • Before clicking ‘accept’ on a meeting invite, review the true importance of it, is it worth your precious time? Can the time be reduced?

   • Never send meeting invites without a clear agenda

   • Don’t take on projects that you and your team can’t finish

2. Friendship Boundaries

   You can socialise and be friends with your team, but you need a line, that line is your Friendship Boundaries. And here’s what they look like:

   • Never share management-sensitive information with a member of your team just because ‘you trust them’

   • Never allowing the people you’re close with to ‘gossip’ to you about others at work

   • Educating yourself on bias, to make sure you never allow friendship bias to impact any of your decisions

3. Energy Boundaries

   You need to be protecting your energy just as much as you do your time, because when either runs out it’s game over. Here’s exactly what to don to protect your energy at work:

   • When people come to you and ‘moan’ or ‘complain’ deal with it very factually, don’t get involved too deeply in the emotion or drama.

   • Don’t take on tasks that don’t play to you and your team’s strengths, you can push back, there may be a better team for the job, or it might not be a good course of action whatsoever.

4. Pace Boundaries

   Otherwise known as what gets your urgent attention, and what get’s left and pushed back until someone forgets about it.

   We usually focus on the easier, safe things (like emails/slack) but the scarier, more important work (like doing some deep research, or starting a presentation) is where the growth lies.
   You need to decide what takes your ‘urgent’ attention, what is the first thing you prioritise in the morning. Here’s what:

   • Turn off notifications, your team’s quick questions aren’t important and you’re actually becoming the bottleneck to their growth by being a rapid responder and never letting them learn for themselves

   • Close that email tab, set time to respond to emails for 1hr per day and the rest of the day stay out of there.

   • Following on from that, don’t have your emails as the host for your todo list, it does technically work well, but the hidden impact is that you’re always checking your emails and using your inbox like a brain, meaning you’re in a perpetual state of distraction

Summary

Here is your boundary tracker spreadsheet, 30 days to help keep you accountable, just make a copy of the spreadsheet to use it yourself.

Peace,

H

P.S. Some very exciting info is being sent out to the Fresh Start waitlist tomorrow morning regarding the January cohort, so keep your eyes peeled for updates. If you’re not on the waitlist, join here.