Bruna Tawake, marketing director for ADRA Australia, worked in several Adventist institutions before running her own business for 13 years. In 2017, she closed her business to "slow down, to re-prioritise and to re-claim" her relationship with God, her family and herself, she says. In her own words, Tawake shares lessons she says she learned “the hard way” about leadership and balance in life.
What are you learning right now that you wish you had known at the beginning of your career?
I am learning that achievement is a shared – a whole-team, if you like – responsibility, not just the responsibility of the leader. In the beginning of my leadership career, I often took full responsibility for the output and/or achievements of teams. And I sometimes went about ‘owning achievement’ the wrong way: delegating less and taking on more. But in so doing, I robbed the capable, amazing people in my teams from opportunities to grow professionally and to share in the challenges and joys of a whole-team approach to achievement. And I robbed myself from a balanced and joyful life. When work becomes all-consuming, other important aspects of life, such as health, downtime and even family, suffer.
Is there such a thing as work-life balance? How do you balance your career and personal life?
There has to be such a thing as work-life balance because without such balance, it is difficult to thrive. I am a daughter of God, a wife to a supportive and amazing man, a mum to two beautiful and active children, a daughter, a sister, a friend, a neighbor, a member of a church family and of a local community. My identity is wrapped up in all of these roles.
I learned the hard way, but now I really try to balance my career and personal life by putting clear boundaries in place and by empowering important people in my life to keep me accountable within these boundaries. Family quality times, holidays, date nights and sisters’ weekends are marked in the calendar on January 1 of every year and well before any work commitments are scheduled in. There are no-phone and no-laptop times (such as between 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on weeknights, for example) and ‘no electronics’ spaces at our house (such as the dining and sitting rooms). I volunteer at my local church and participate in at least one community service activity every year. And I do my best to catch up with girlfriends once a week, even if it is for half an hour.
I use my commute to work to pray, to listen to good podcasts and e-books, to call important people in my life, and to record voice memos. I try to walk a couple of times a week during my lunch break.
