Tag Archive for: Emotional Intelligence

Seeking Work-Life Balance: Myth Or Manageable

I was recently fortunate enough to be invited to participate on a panel in my workplace focusing on work-life balance – a phrase that is possibly overused and misunderstood and a term that I have read conflicting opinions on in recent months.

The panel forum consisted of a number of employees in the audience and 4 panel member’s, including myself, who each pitched out their own thoughts on the topic and then received questions from the audience. It was a very interesting exercise as I found that each of our situations was quite different. Whereas we may have been in similar roles at work, our roles and focus at home was quite varied regarding how we manage our time and the choices we make. However, there were some consistent themes that carried over between speakers.
My view is that work-life balance is an extremely important facet of my life. I have significant responsibility in my role – something I take quite seriously, particularly the support, satisfaction and growth of my team. However, nothing is more important to me than my family.

My work provides me an income, a great deal of satisfaction and has contributed to who I am, my knowledge, values and self-awareness but I always seek to balance what is required from me at work with that at home. It requires developing a  strong skillset around delegation; time management / prioritisation; recruiting and developing the right team and culture; building trust and many others attributes. I work with many managers who do not find a balance often because they struggle to understand what is most important to them.

A recent article highlights research that demonstrates that many of us are finding this balance more difficult to achieve. Key findings include:

  • The majority (78%) of those who work overtime prefer payment to time off in lieu
  • 75% of part-time workers believe work/life balance is becoming harder
  • 83% of full-time workers believe it is becoming harder
  • 24% of workers earning less than $50,000 are finding it much harder
  • 65 per cent of workers perform work tasks or answer work-related calls when they are on holiday
  • 35 per cent of employees never work on holidays or days off

Source: Work Life Balance Harder Than Ever

It requires a definitive view and focus on goals and direction, otherwise it is too easy to get ‘pulled into’ other people’s needs and wants. Often these wants seem urgent but in fact, are not critical. This is where relationships, communication and prioritisation are key.

This is a large topic that I am briefly touching on, but I would like to share my key thoughts as presented during the forum:

  • Understanding what is important to me
  • Understanding what is important to others – my family and my team
  • Surround myself with a good team – provides opportunity and ability to delegate and share workload
  • Develop my leadership skillset to be effective and efficient
  • Prioritise…Prioritise…
  • Find what you enjoy most…do more of it
  • Find what you enjoy least…remove as much of this as possible
  • Understand values and beliefs for yourself and of those closest to you
  • Communication and clarity are key
  • Work with and for your family and team…not at them
  • Take and maintain control of your choices and decision-making
  • Tell and show those most important to you that you love them…regularly!

One or more of these points may resonate with you and hopefully stimulate thought about where these attributes, actions and skills sit in your life. I would also be interested to know what you have done or work at to strike the ‘right’ balance in your life.

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Practicing Leadership: Skill Development and Commitment

Why is it that people are prepared to spend time practicing learning an instrument, language, sporting skill or similar but are less willing to apply lengthy practice schedules in developing leadership skills?

As part of my various roles, I often facilitate leadership training in a group setting and conduct coaching and mentoring sessions with attendees. It’s not always the case, however the one-on-one session content often refers back to the leadership training itself. This is powerful in that training rarely leads to lasting change in itself – something most of us already know. Reinforcing the knowledge gained through practice and support is a key. The opportunity to reflect internally and share with your coach or mentor adds weight to the ‘stickability’ of the training concept, content and the growth in ability for the budding leader.
The age-old leadership question remains – are leaders born or taught – nature or nurture? I am not seeking to answer this today, however the question relates. If you subscribe to the theory that leadership is predominantly learned, then it is natural to assume that to become proficient in leadership application, many weeks, months and years of practice is required. Malcolm Gladwell refers to the premise that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become proficient in something. Fair comment, but the anomaly remains that most leaders I know assume that this skill is something that comes with a title and/or somehow automatically derives from holding a management position for a period. This is perplexing and, as stated, is inconsistent with the belief of practice application in other aspects of our lives.
Is it because leadership is less tangible than hearing someone practice and improve playing a musical instrument over time; become more proficient playing golf, as measured by a reducing score or handicap or other examples of measured improvement? The perceived intangibles of leadership are difficult to describe to someone who has not felt the pleasure of leadership such as turning around a ‘problem team member’; helping someone through a difficult situation; or seeing improved results, profit or other measurable outcomes, amongst other leadership inputs/outputs.
The benefits of leadership success are some of the most powerful emotional accomplishments an individual can feel. Yet, until these are actually felt and the wins uncovered, a commitment to leadership is possibly one of the great contradictions of business. The role may require it but that does not mean leadership is actually provided to any depth.
Leadership is often talked about. It is a key to business success. The links are obvious, yet we still struggle to genuinely encourage and support our newer leaders to a level where they are comfortable performing more than transactional aspects of the role.
The desire to practice and become truly proficient and efficient as a leader requires us as experienced leaders, to help expose the emotional benefits and connections as soon as possible in the leadership journey. This emotional success and association with leadership as more than simply a concept or byword drives ongoing commitment and transformational change in an individual. Once experienced, this once elusive success quickly becomes a tangible benefit for those being led and the potential to truly influence outcomes.

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