Work-Life Balance Part 6: President Richard Brodhead
Richard H. Brodhead finds time to feed his soul with long walks, books and friends.
One glance at Richard H. Brodhead's calendar is enough to learn that being a university president could easily take over one's life.
His job includes many events - dinners, receptions, sports events, travel, encounters with faculty, students and alumni and more, he said. "All these are energizing and fun, but they make for a calendar where nearly every minute of my week is scheduled," he said.
To create a bit of balance, Brodhead turns to his "first-line defenses: a long walk, a good book, and spending time with family and close friends," he said. He recalled with pleasure a day last October that included all of these loves. "Some close friends invited my wife Cindy and me over to see their collection of American literature. That's my old subject, so they knew how much it would mean to me," he said. "Then we took a long walk and sat outside eating as the evening fell. That was pretty restorative."
He believes firmly that experiences like these are the stuff from which balance is created. "The challenge of work-life balance - for me as for every Duke employee - is to give your job your best effort," he said, "but also to protect precious time for family and the other things that feed your soul."
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