At a recent HR industry conference, Jack Welch recently was quoted as saying, "There are work-life choices, and you make them, and they have consequences." He was referring to women who take time off to have / raise a family, basically saying that you can't get to the top if work is not your top priority.

Interestingly enough, several leading executive recruiters agreed. Most of these recruiters are women.

As someone who spent five years in a leadership position at a public company, I know the type of commitment expected and necessary for executive roles. I also know how that level of commitment can impact other areas of your life. Working 70+ hours per week leaves little time or energy for family, etc.

I was curious to see what others thought about work being the top priority, so I posted a variation of this question in several Linkedin discussion forums:

Would you hire someone for a critical sales / sales management position if they told you work was NOT their first priority?

This question generated over 100 responses in less than 24 hours. Here are the highlights:

• People who WOULD hire outnumbered the WOULD NOT hire 5 to 1
• Of the WOULD NOT hires, most of these responses were from sales managers
• Of the WOULD hires, many said people who choose work over family, etc. are not a fit for their organization
• No correlation between answer and sex of responder
• My favorite comment - It kind of depends on what they say their top priority is. If they say "Family" or "My relation with God", then they're probably better off than if they answer, "Tennis", "Skiing", "Guinness", "Running with the Bulls", "Burning Man", or "Jihad".

Personally, I think the answer to this question is, "it depends." It depends upon where you are at in your life, your work environment, and the philosophy of the leadership team. It depends upon the expectations and level of difficulty of the job. It depends on your needs at the time.

The key is to be true to yourself and find work situations that are in line with your priorities.