Boundaries are designed to enable organizations to stay aligned with their vision, mission, and goals for conducting business. Vision, mission, and objectives can be found in a mission statement, annual report, or on an organization’s website. Job descriptions also provide boundaries for employees by informing them where they need to allocate their time and effort to meet company goals.
What are boundaries?
While the organization’s boundaries are outlined in the mission, vision, and goals, boundaries also need to be set for vendors and customers. While setting boundaries with vendors and clients can cause a lot of angst (for both parties), defining the business relationship early and clearly is necessary. Depending on the type of business, these expectations can be documented in a formal legal agreement. Organizations need to establish clear boundaries, and employees, vendors, and customers must understand the consequences of exceeding them. Communicating boundaries is difficult, especially if you’re not clear where your boundaries lie.
Why are they essential in the workplace?
Boundaries help identify what behavior is and isn’t acceptable for each employee, which helps create a standard definition of good behavior for your work environment. The world is changing, and so are our language, values, and behaviors within the workplace. (1)
How can leaders encourage healthy boundaries through modeling behavior?
- Start small: If boundaries don’t exist with you as a leader within the organization, begin by establishing those that are likely to be accepted. How do you minimize resistance to boundaries? Begin by asking the people who are most likely to have issues with boundaries (or who already violate them now). It might seem counterintuitive to ask boundary-benders or violators to be involved in developing guidelines, but this approach can have the opposite effect, as they will feel part of the process. You may also learn why they are benders or violators in the first place. Some individuals may never fit into a traditional structure and may be better suited elsewhere. Others may never have had an opportunity to voice issues with people or processes that make them feel that THEIR boundaries are being violated. Fresh perspectives can offer innovative methods to boost productivity and morale. Adjustments may be necessary in other situations, such as retraining, mentoring, or shifting teams to improve cohesion and consistency in management.
- Establish a structure: Build healthy boundaries, effective communication, and desirable behaviors, beliefs, and attitudes into the corporate culture. Be diligent about protecting the corporate culture and the norms established by its structure. Everyone needs to contribute to this process, from the top down, bottom up, and so forth.
- Initiate early in the relationship: Starting with the initial candidate selection and vetting process, be selective about who makes the cut. Look for candidates who share the same attitudes, respect, beliefs, and behaviors, even with the little details – showing up on time, dependability, respect, etc. Identify sloppiness versus thoroughness, transparency versus half-truth, authenticity versus trying to fit in, etc. Doing this early can prevent a lot of frustration, anxiety, confusion, feelings of hurt, and the perception of not being valued by the organization or other workers.
- Use self-reflection: Whether you are a leader or any other worker, self-reflection can be a powerful tool. It’s not always a “what could I have done better,” but it can also be “what do I do well, that I’d like to do more of…” or “what are new perspectives I learned because of this?” Self-reflection also involves introspection. Introspection is examining our own emotional and mental processes. Introspection can provide us with insight into our inner workings. Introspection is similar to perception, but unlike perception, it does not rely on our five senses. We don’t touch, taste, smell, see, or hear to gain insights. Deeper or more frequent introspection can help us gain clarity, which in turn enables us to move forward and live our lives more effectively. Being introspective is generally regarded as a positive trait. Sometimes, self-reflection can be difficult because there are aspects that no one wants to examine within themselves, areas that need improvement. Still, when used effectively, self-reflection and introspection can boost confidence, build mental resilience, and foster new perspectives. (2)
- Consistency is key: Boundaries can be hard to enforce. It is challenging for leaders to implement boundaries across various departments over extended periods consistently. However, it is a must. Boundaries are like promises that act as building blocks in healthy relationships. Each time they aren’t kept, a small part of trust, integrity, and respect is torn down. Reconstruction is possible, but it requires diligence to achieve. Admitting mistakes and fixing them will help you gain back trust and integrity. When you set new expectations, offer incentives to keep them and hold everyone accountable, including leaders, to the same standards.
- Encourage healthy communication: There are a variety of dangerous ways to communicate that lead to dysfunctional communication, so beware of communication that may feature:
- The loudest voice or strongest opinion, which always gets the most attention,
- Overstepping and challenging weak authority,
- The peppering of questions merely to control the conversation,
- Blame shifting, gaslighting, or non-productive,
- Negative feedback -or constructive feedback that is met with extreme resistance,
- Distractions, not keeping the conversation on-topic,
- Excuses, high emotions, disrespectful/resentful attitudes, etc.
- A history of prickly responses or unwillingness to get involved
- Continues to ask, “Why am I here? Why can’t someone else do it? What is {NAME} doing?”
Excellent communication involves two or more people invested in a specific outcome. This investment doesn’t mean that healthy debate isn’t acceptable. It should be encouraged. It doesn’t mean that questions shouldn’t be asked and answered. It means that everyone should have the opportunity to communicate respectfully and effectively, both by listening and speaking, so that everyone feels heard, valued, and understood.
If you’re like most people in a meeting, you probably want to ensure that your point of view is heard. And in doing that, you may ignore the other person, pretend that you’re listening, and concentrate on only the words that are said but miss their meaning entirely. (3)
So why does this happen? A key to effective communication is to listen. Dr. Stephen R. Covey, in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, points out “…that most people do not listen with the intent to understand what is being said but listen with the intent to reply.” A participant, who is listening to understand, should be able to say, “Is this what you are saying? And then wait for a reply. (3) Listening is a proactive skill rather than a passive one like hearing.
- Broaden circles: Research shows most social interactions occur within the confines of people like themselves, making them less sensitive to how people outside their ‘social bubble’ live. This segregation can lead to profound misperceptions. If everyone in your circle agrees with you or does not want to offend you by what they say, perhaps it’s time to expand your circle to include some people outside of your process who will tell you, not what you want to hear, but what they think you need to hear.
Once you’ve gained perspective by zooming out, pay attention to which details are essential to achieving your goals, and take time to make sure you have sufficient information to make a decision.
- Minimize areas of toxic energy: Spend less time on social media or other areas where negativity prevails. Being on social media, checking notifications on Facebook, scrolling through pictures on Instagram, reading quick updates on X/Twitter, and interacting in groups on LinkedIn has become part of everyday life. But if you don’t control how much time your employees spend on it, the hours will fly by, and nothing will have been accomplished. So, either ban it, impose a time limit on it, or develop a collective policy for the company. If leadership is on social media, you can bet the employees are as well. Leadership needs to address the appropriate times (perhaps during breaks or lunch) for checking social media and obtain buy-in from those who check their feeds every ten minutes. Set clear boundaries and enforce them consistently for everyone.
PRO TIP: Even social media and community managers, as well as anyone who has frontline interaction with prospects, customers, and vendor partners, need time away from their work. This time should be designated differently from a standard break policy. Frontline workers and those who exclusively interact with people in social media for a living are subjected to many levels of toxic human responses. Complaints, service calls, online debates, etc., are just a few of the hundreds to name. Whether behind a mask, on a phone, or at a computer, stakeholders can treat frontend workers in a deplorable manner. Be sure to give your workers not only words of appreciation but also the time to take a mental health break, so they can stay at their peak potential. - Respect the boundaries of others: Basic human needs include those of being heard and accepted. No one will ever fit into what the “perfect person” should be. Don’t force someone to make them fit your ideals. Instead, let them be themselves and show them respect, whether or not they have earned it. You’ll earn their respect by listening to them and resisting the urge to interrupt or react; instead, respond thoughtfully. When you respond, it means you’ve taken a moment to reflect on what you heard, including the verbal cues, as well as the body language you’ve observed. Responding versus reacting means that you’re invested in the outcome of the interaction and have made a conscious attempt to “read” the boundaries that the other person is establishing. When in doubt, ask about boundaries. If someone says, “I don’t like it when you provide me specific timelines when you drop off projects,” that’s a pretty clear boundary. In the future, you can rectify that issue by simply including a due date for each stage of the project. Sometimes you may have to look more closely for clues. For example, if your co-worker always gets her assignments approved before yours, you could ask her the secret of getting approved despite yours being handed in earlier. It may be that she’s completed all the necessary paperwork, had preapproval or buy-in earlier in the process, or something else that can be easily modified in your work structure to reflect your boss’s preferences.
- Appreciate/cheer others on: Remember the little details (e.g., their favorite movie or book or flower or color), be respectful of their time, listen – limit distractions and be active in the process, be available, follow-through on your promises, help them out when they need it, tell them “how” you appreciate them, tell others how much you appreciate them or how helpful they were and how, etc., celebrate successes (e.g., little notes, balloons, e-cards, cupcakes, take them out for lunch, etc.), ask them how they would like to celebrate their successes (e.g., some want to do so quietly while others enjoy the limelight)
- Don’t forget to be your own biggest champion: Remember, you have value. In the workplace, especially when morale is low or the job is demanding, it can be challenging to feel that your role, work, and efforts make a difference.
- Keep a journal of your accomplishments and, when possible, include metrics. For example, if you’ve reduced costs but increased customer satisfaction or shortened the sales cycle through improved efficiencies or new techniques, and so forth, include the “how much.” This journal can be referenced on days when you’re feeling discouraged and need a boost, utilized to present your rationale as to why you’ve earned a raise or promotion, and even to express the need for investments to be made into your department (making you the go-to source for information!)
- Use positive self-talk. Replace negative thoughts or ideas with positive ones. For example, instead of thinking, “I don’t have the skills to do this project,” replace it with “I am intelligent and capable of learning new things. I can do this project!”
- Take on constructive feedback as an opportunity to improve rather than something malicious, undermining, and given with cruel intentions. Constructive feedback at its heart is beneficial. Issues that can be fixed help you excel beyond expectations. Remember that constructive feedback is actionable, rather than just a blanket critique.
Boundaries are designed to enable organizations to stay aligned with their vision, mission, and goals for conducting their business. As the world changes, so too do our language, values, and behaviors within the workplace. Leaders need to model and encourage their team members to set boundaries. Many employees mimic management, so if management models a work-life balance, it will have a much more significant impact than the “do as I say, not as I do” phrase. A lack of boundaries can contribute to workplace issues such as miscommunication, conflict, reduced employee loyalty, and a lack of respect from vendors and customers.
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SOURCES:
- https://corporatecommunicationexperts.com.au/setting-boundaries-in-the-workplace/
- https://www.berkeleywellbeing.com/introspection.html
- https://www.berkeleywellbeing.com/introspection.html
This article was last updated on June 23, 2025
