This morning I had a business call scheduled for 7am. My wife, a therapist, needed to leave for work around 7:45. We have two young, active boys at home: a three year old and a one year old. And this morning was my day to take the kids to daycare.

My wife was gracious enough to let me take the call while she handled breakfast and general toddler wrangling. Part way through my call, she popped her head into the room to let me know she needed to leave for work. She was checking to be sure I’d be okay. I nodded “yes” and continued my call while trying to juggle the 3-year-old’s desire for attention and the 1-year-old’s growing mess in his high chair.

It isn’t easy raising a family. It isn’t easy for both my wife and I, while parenting, to pursue careers. It seems like success with one should come at the cost of the other. However, as counter-intuitive as it may seem, investing in and building a healthy home-life has proven to pay direct dividends at work.

What science says:

The Academy of Management Perspectives recently completed a study showing that fathers who spend more quality time with their families have increased job satisfaction and lower turnover rates than those fathers who don’t. Additionally, a Clark University and Center for Creative Leadership study has demonstrated that parenting improves a manager’s ability to multitask, manage stress and negotiate.

What the experts say:

John Lee Dumas, of the wildly popular podcast Entrepreneur on Fire, has observed that many entrepreneurs experience a “Baby Bump” in their business success that corresponds with having their first child. I can identify. It’s the pure fear that that comes with impending parenthood. It gets you off your butt and doing what needs to be done.

Dr. Alan Weiss, a globally respected consultant, has stated that a strong marriage relationship is crucial to the success of those starting and operating their own businesses. Having a supporting and stable home environment allows a leader to focus their efforts and energy on creating their business.

The caveat is this is true for people who actively invest in building healthy relationships at home. Just being married or having children isn’t enough. It’s the active investment towards becoming a better and more supportive partner or parent that has a positive impact at work.

Nine ways investing in family makes you more effective at work – increasing your ability to:

1. Reduce Stress: A healthy relationship with your spouse gives you a place to vent and receive support.
2. Multitask: Family, especially parenting, teaches you to juggle multiple & competing priorities.
3. Persevere: Building healthy family relationships requires a regular routine of doing what needs to be done. It cultivates the ability to endure and follow through on difficult or unpleasant tasks.
4. Coach, Mentor and Develop Other Leaders: Being a good listener, encouraging someone, supporting and & guiding someone’s growth are core capacities in family and in good leadership.
5. Develop New Networks, Ideas and Perspectives: Spouses and children have their own social networks and perspectives. They expose you to a larger world of people, experiences and ideas then what may happen if you were on your own.
6. Be Resilient: Resiliency is the ability to ‘bounce back’ from discouragement or defeat. Family can provide a place of support, a source of confidence and positive self-image.
7. Manage Crisis: Family experiences can teach you to stay patient and make effective decisions in times of crisis or emergency.
8. Negotiate: Family life allows ample opportunities to practice compromise, developing empathy, the ability to listen and identify underlying issues.
9. Resolve Conflict: Family life provides are rich environment for making mistakes, asking for and offering forgiveness, learning to apologize and own your impact and how to value others who see things differently.

Investing in family improves your working ability; precisely because it is challenging. For those of us who embrace and grow through those challenges we have the additional benefit of knowing we’re growing professionally, as well. (Now if we could just figure out how to make date nights tax deductible….)

My business really took off after I married six years ago. And, beginning with my wife’s pregnancy with our first son three years ago, revenues at both Vantage Consulting and the non-profits that I direct (Beyond Borders and the Conflict Resolution Center) have doubled each year.

How have you grown, or benefited professionally, because of investments you’ve made in your family?