Leaders often assume their personal habits and strategies are the best, which can create problems when different employees use alternative, effective approaches. Individuals vary in chronotype, work-life segmentation, and preferred schedules; what works for one person can be ineffective for another. Matching employees' preferred work timing and integration or segmentation styles to actual work arrangements improves outcomes. Examples include an early riser who concentrates work into morning hours and protects evenings for family, and a night owl who spreads tasks through the day and works later into the night. Flexible leaders attend to these preferences and adjust behaviors accordingly.
Have you ever watched someone work and thought, "That's not the way I would do it"? It's natural to feel defensive about your own work habits. If you didn't think they were effective, you probably wouldn't engage in them. But, in our research, we find that it's exactly this kind of thinking that gets leaders in trouble. There are many different ways to go about completing the same task or solving the same problem.
For example, imagine George, who is naturally an early riser, gets up at 5:30 a.m. to start his day. After exercising and eating breakfast, he starts his workday at 7:00 a.m. He prefers to segment his work and life from one another. So, from 7:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m., George focuses solely on work. At 3:00 p.m. each day, George closes his laptop to pick up his kids from school and keeps his evening free to spend time with his family.
Now, imagine Grace, naturally a night owl, who gets up at 8:30 a.m. to start her day. Engaging in a similar morning routine as George, Grace starts her workday at 10:00 a.m. She prefers to integrate her work and life tasks throughout the day, which means that she tends to extend her workday into the later hours of the night. At 7:00 p.m. each
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