Every leader has an opinion about work life balance. Almost none of those opinions matter to the team. What matters is whether you lead by example, and your example is what you do at 9 p.m. on a weeknight. This week a billionaire made a big prediction about the future of work, and it is a good reminder of the difference.

The prediction

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos told Fox News this week that AI could make a shorter week possible. “Some people will decide, ‘I can support my family working three days a week,’” he said. He added that more households may only need one income. (Fortune)

Amazon has cut about 30,000 corporate jobs since late 2025, and online reaction to the prediction ran skeptical. Will anyone actually get the three-day week, or will they be asked to do five days of work in fewer?

I am not going to argue about AI or Amazon’s layoffs. Nobody knows how that plays out. The lesson is smaller and closer to home.

What your team actually learns

A forecast about balance costs nothing. Your team has heard plenty of them. They do not live in the forecast. They live in your next email.

Ask what your people have learned about work life balance on your team. Not from the poster in the break room. From you. The message that lands at 9 p.m. The reply you expect by morning. Whether you take the vacation you approved for them.

Most leaders do not mean to send that message. They answer one email at night because it is quiet and they are catching up. The team sees a timestamp and hears a standard. Within a month, nobody feels safe going dark.

Lead by example: rest is part of the plan

In the SEAL Teams, rest was part of the plan. Not a reward. A requirement. Tired men make bad decisions, and bad decisions get people hurt. A leader who ran on no sleep and bragged about it was not tough. He was a risk.

That is the standard I coach leaders toward. Work life balance is not a perk you hand out. It is a standard you lead by example and then enforce the same way every time, calm and boring. Two weeks ago I wrote about saying the standard out loud. This is the other half. Your team believes what you do at 9 p.m., not what you say at 9 a.m.

Apply it this week

1. Log it. Four times a day for three days, write down what you are doing and what time it is. No judgment. Just the facts, the way I teach it in the Ice Cold Leader course.
2. Read it as an outsider. Read the log like you are watching someone else lead. What would a new hire conclude about how people live here?
3. Change one thing, out loud. Pick one behavior. Tell your team what it is, and ask them to hold you to it.

Then take three questions to your team Monday morning. What do you think I expect from you after 6 p.m., and where did you learn that? What is one habit of mine that makes it harder for you to rest? If we got one extra day a week tomorrow, what would we protect first?

A forecast is easy. To lead by example is the only version of work life balance your team will ever believe. They will hold you to what they watched you do. Make it something you are glad they saw.

Keep your eyes on the target. — Errol