VOICES
Jeff Weiner
these dynamics in my day-to-day
role, so it always feels good when
I’m able to put them into practice.
However, on this particular
night, the satisfaction would be
fleeting. As I opened my car door
and started thinking about getting
home to my wife and our two girls,
it hit me: For as hard as I worked
to manage compassionately at the
office, I was not always actively
applying the same approach with
my family. To the contrary, by the
time I got home on some nights,
I’d be so spent after expending
all of my energy at the office, that
after putting the girls to bed and
having dinner, I essentially had
little left to give. So, when my wife
would try to bring up her day, or
talk about the things we need to
get done, I would reflexively say
something to the effect that it had
been a long day, I was exhausted,
and could we talk about it some
other time? In other words, I was
doing the exact opposite of managing compassionately, and I was
doing it with the person who mattered most. My wife is the bedrock of our home and has built the
foundation upon which my work
exists. As cliché as it sounds, I
couldn’t do what I do without her.
Put another way, I was doing
THE THIRD METRIC
HUFFINGTON 06.02.13
what so many of us have a tendency to do: Taking the people we’re
closest to for granted by assuming
they are the ones we don’t need
to make an effort with. After all,
they’ll understand, right? Howev-
It’s taken me over 40 years
to realize what makes
me happy — simply put, it’s looking
forward to going to work in the
morning, and looking forward to
coming home at night.”
er, nothing could be further from
the truth.
It’s taken me over 40 years to
realize what makes me happy —
simply put, it’s looking forward to
going to work in the morning, and
looking forward to coming home
at night. Applying the most valuable lessons I’ve learned in both
facets of my life to the integrated
whole, and not taking anything or
anyone for granted, is one of the
most important ways I can make
that happiness an enduring reality.
Jeff Weiner is the CEO of LinkedIn.