What if business has always been personal?

"Leadership begins where strategy meets humanity.."— James McPartland

Have you ever heard someone say they keep business and personal life separate, only to talk about their kids, morning routine, or a recent vacation during a meeting?

It’s something I encounter all the time in my work with leaders. We say we keep the two worlds separate, but the reality is they’re constantly blending, and often without us realizing it. And that’s not a flaw. That’s being human. 

One of the biggest misconceptions I hear in my coaching work is the belief that we can (or should) separate our business lives from our personal ones.

But the truth is, it’s all our life.

You see, we all live inside our own carefully constructed worlds. These worlds are like snow globes, each unique and precious, filled with our beliefs, relationships, favorite places, and daily routines. They're perfectly circular, like our comfort zones, containing everything that makes us who we are. So when someone says, “It’s just business,” they’re drawing a line that doesn’t really exist.

Think about your own world. Your favorite coffee shop. The route you take to the office. Your values, your team, your morning playlist. All of that comes with you to work—whether you’re conscious of it or not.

And when our worlds intersect with someone else’s? That’s when things get interesting.

Sometimes it sparks alignment, sometimes conflict. Either way, those moments of collision aren’t problems—they’re opportunities. They invite us to grow, to stretch, to better understand ourselves and others.

This is where conventional advice often misleads: “Get out of your comfort zone!” But I believe that advice misses the mark.

Your comfort zone isn’t a cage. It’s your home base, it’s your foundation. Rather than leaving it behind, what if you expanded it? Gently, intentionally, like stretching a rubber band. You try, you learn, you recalibrate. That’s real growth.

I call this practice world wonder—the curiosity to explore someone else’s reality, not from a distance, but as if you lived there. What if you had their story? Their circumstances? Their upbringing? Wouldn’t your perspective shift, even just a little?

And that brings me back to business.

When a leader says, “Don’t take it personally,” they forget that we’re all people first. Businesses don’t make decisions—people do. And those decisions ripple across real lives, with real emotions, in real time.

In over twenty years of working with executives, I’ve never seen a purely impersonal decision. Every choice, every strategy, every deal involves people whose worlds are impacted—deeply.

So maybe it’s time we stop pretending there's a hard line between business and personal. It’s all personal. It’s all connected. And that’s what makes business so powerful. It’s a human endeavor, shaped by the worlds we carry with us.

Your success doesn’t just depend on what you do; it hinges on how deeply you understand and connect with the many human worlds around you.

Mac 😎