Business
Face Challenges Head On
Facing a challenging situation? Contemplate how to proceed, and take swift action
As more people are out and about, you’ve got some decisions to make. Things in your life and likely in your work have changed since March, 2020. You’re facing some challenges, and accompanying decisions, with a dwindling amount of time to move forward.
The late Earl Nightingale, renowned motivational speaker and author, once said you can’t get to second base if you won’t take your foot off first. You can’t attain what you want if you remain “one of the timid feeders in the lagoon” who fears to venture out into the deep blue sea.
Action is Invigorating
If you’re facing a challenging situation, after contemplating how you’re going to proceed, your next step, invariably, will be to take action:
* Use the phone now and call whomever you need to contact.
* Buy the plane, train, or boat ticket and meet the people you need to see.
If your challenge involves spending money, review your budget and if you have the means, move the requisite funds into place. If you don’t have adequate funds, list possible ways to help you acquire them.
Identify things that are no longer valid or in the way. Then, without remorse, remove them from your life. If you need motivation, announce your intentions to somebody else, or commit yourself on paper.
Deadly Sin or Divine Aspiration
Like clockwork, when you decide to tackle a challenge, someone will come along and try to tell you not to do it. That someone could be a board member, a key staff person, a vendor, or one of your long term members
“It can’t be done.”
“It shouldn’t be done.”
“You can’t do it.”
“You shouldn’t do it.”
“You’re going to fail.”
Don’t be surprised if you hear these kinds of admonitions. The typical person dislikes change, doesn’t see the possibilities that you see, and can’t envision a successful conclusion. Hence, you can’t take a quick survey of others and expect any meaningful input.
It is valuable, however, if trusted peers point out specific hazards to your goals. For example, if others can offer relevant, factual information that you need to know to fully understand what it will take to achieve your goals, then more power to them and to you.
If you understand the impediments that you face, you’re better off than if you proceed blindly. When you understand the pitfalls and still commit to proceeding full speed ahead, then the choice is indeed yours, and it’s a grand one.
Let’s Get Unreasonable
Some say that nothing of lasting value is accomplished by reasonable men (and of course, women too). It is the unreasonable people — the discontented, the dreamers who still keep their feet firmly planted on solid ground, or the visionaries — who improve peoples’ lives, or, in rare instances, help to advance society.
The reasonable man or woman can talk himself or herself out of anything, no matter how great the merit of the venture or cause. You probably could stand to be bit more unreasonable when it comes to your challenges.
Don’t Take on too Much at Once
Concurrently, executives and high achievers in general face the problem of taking on too much. They’ve been so effective at accomplishing things in the course of their career that they start to think they are capable of accomplishing even more. Their productivity causes these otherwise worthy individuals to create longer and more involved to-do lists than the rest of us.
Many people unconsciously ensure that they’ll never get to the end of their list by continuously adding more tasks after accomplishing even just a few. Over-achievers seem to derive some kind of motivation from never completing everything on the list for a given day.
This kind of approach to managing one’s to-do list is fraught with problems. It is both rewarding and appropriate when you cross off everything on your list and feel complete about your achievements. When you’re able to finish your lists 2 to 4 times a week, you actually come back to work the next morning with more energy, focus, and direction than you might presume.
Completions Yield Satisfaction
Conversely, when you leave the office with unfinished tasks for that day’s to-do list, you unconsciously engender a situation in which you never quite feel complete or satisfied, and you find yourself in a perpetual “striving” mode.
In the short run, it’s okay to leave unfinished tasks, especially when you’re on a specific campaign or project. In the long run, however, continuously over-extending your daily to-do list can have a harmful, de-motivating effect on your life.
It’s understandable that highly ambitious career types want to achieve as much as they can and, if employed by others, desire to greatly benefit their organization.
If you’re not careful, however, and you attempt to accomplish one major task after another instead of alternating large and small tasks, your productivity will actually suffer, as trying to tackle one major task after another can be mindnumbing.
Keen Choices
So, choose to tackle a handful of key tasks each day, alternating them with minor tasks so that you can maintain a fairly high level of energy and allow yourself to leave the workplace with a sense of completion.
You’ll work more effectively the next day, as well as throughout the course of your week, month, year, and career. You’ll engender a most definite sense of accomplishment while experiencing, at the least, recurring feelings of work-life balance.
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Business
Work-Life Balance in Your Life
It the ability to experience a sense of control and to stay productive and competitive at work while maintaining a happy, healthy home-life
Work-life balance (WLB) is the ability to experience a sense of control and to stay productive and competitive at work while maintaining a happy, healthy home-life with sufficient leisure. WLB, also referred to by some as work-life harmony, work-life shift, work-life blend, work-life effectiveness, or work-life integration, requires focus and awareness despite seemingly endless tasks and activities competing for our time and attention.
Work-life balance entails having what I call “breathing space” for yourself each day, feeling a sense of accomplishment while not being consumed by work, and having an enjoyable domestic life without short-changing career obligations. WLB is rooted in whatever fulfillment means to you within the course of a day and a week, and however many years you have left in your life.
Supporting Disciplines
Several disciplines support work-life balance though, individually, none are synonymous with work-life balance:
1) Self Management
Sufficiently managing one’s self can be challenging, particularly in getting proper sleep, exercise, and nutrition. Self-management is the recognition that effectively using the spaces in our lives is vital, and that life, time, and available resources are finite. It means becoming captain of our own ship; no one is coming to steer for us.
2) Time Management
Effective time management involves making optimal use of your day and the supporting resources that can be summoned – you can only keep pace when your resources match your challenges. Time management is enhanced through appropriate goals and discerning what is both important and urgent, versus important OR urgent. It entails understanding what you do best and when, and assembling the appropriate tools to accomplish specific tasks.
3) Stress Management
By nature, societies tend to become more complex over time. In the face of increasing complexity, stress on the individual is inevitable. More people, noise, and distractions, independent of one’s individual circumstances, require each of us to become more adept at maintaining tranquility and being able to work ourselves out of pressure-filled situations. Most forms of multi-tasking ultimately increase our stress, while focusing on one thing at a time helps decrease stress.
4) Change Management
In our fast-paced world, change is virtually the only constant. Continually adopting new methods, adapting old, and re-adapting all methods is vital to a successful career and a happy home life. Effective change management involves offering periodic and concerted efforts so that the volume and rate of change at work and at home does not overwhelm or defeat you.
5) Technology Management
Effectively managing technology requires ensuring that technology serves you, rather than abuses you. Technology has always been with us, since the first walking stick, spear, flint, and wheel. Today, the rate of technological change is accelerating, brought on by vendors seeking expanding market share. Often you have no choice but to keep up with the technological Joneses, but rule technology, don’t let it rule you.
6) Leisure Management
The most overlooked of the work-life balance supporting disciplines, leisure management acknowledges 1) the importance of rest and relaxation, 2) that “time off” is a vital component of the human experience, and 3) that one can’t indefinitely short-change leisure without repercussions. Curiously, too much of the same leisure activity, however enjoyable, can lead to monotony. Thus, effective leisure management requires varying one’s activities.
Entirely Achievable
Achieving work-life balance does not require radical changes in what you do. It is about developing fresh perspectives and sensible, actionable solutions that are appropriate for you. It is fully engaging in life with what you have, right where you are, smack dab in the ever-changing dynamics of your existence.
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Business
Work-life Balance: The Enduring Quest
Organizations today recognize the importance of supporting employees’ well-being while maintaining productivity
Thank goodness that organizations today increasingly recognize the importance of supporting employees’ well-being while maintaining productivity. As such, the corporate quest for work-life balance, harmony, and integration has gained great prominence.
Key Aspects
Here are 12 key aspects of this pursuit gleaned from a variety of programs:
1. Offer Flexible Work Arrangements: Offering flexible work schedules, remote work options, and part-time opportunities allows employees to better balance their professional and personal lives.
2. Have Clear Policies: Establishing clear policies and guidelines regarding work hours, overtime, and expectations helps employees manage their time effectively.
3. Support Mental Health: Providing access to mental health resources, counseling, and stress management programs can address employees’ emotional well-being.
4. Give Leave: Offering generous paid time off, including vacation, sick leave, and parental leave, allows employees to address personal and family needs without fear of repercussions.
5. Prevent Burnout: Encouraging employees to disconnect from work-related technology after hours helps prevent burnout and supports work-life separation.
6. Support Workload Management: Ensuring that employees have manageable workloads and realistic deadlines prevents excessive stress and long working hours.
7. Provide Wellness Programs: Implementing wellness initiatives, such as fitness facilities, nutrition programs, and health screenings, promotes a healthier work-life balance.
8. Enable Employee Assistance Programs: Such programs provide confidential counseling and support services for employees facing personal challenges.
9. Promote a Culture of Balance: Company culture plays a significant role in work-life balance. Leaders should model a balanced lifestyle, and the organization should celebrate accomplishments beyond work.
10. Maintain Continuous Communication: Engaging in open dialogues with employees about their needs and concerns regarding work-life balance fosters a supportive and responsive corporate culture.
11. Empower Workers with Training and Education: Providing training on time management, stress reduction, and resilience equips employees with the skills to better balance their lives.
12. Leverage Remote Work Policies: Crafting clear remote work policies and expectations ensures that remote employees have a structured work-life balance.
Bringing in the Hired Gun
As the world’s only holder of the title, “The Work-Life Balance Expert®,” as issued by the USPTO, I am often summoned by organizations to enhance work-life balance for their troops. In all, I’ve delivered programs and spoken to 960 groups. Below depicts an encounter with a company who shall remain nameless for reasons of confidentiality. See if this squares up with your experience in your organization.
The following responses were derived as a result of my sending a questionnaire to the conference meeting planner where I was to be their keynote speaker. I requested the names of 10 people who would be in the audience. I called each of them to discuss their current challenges. Here are their actual replies to three of my questions:
1) If you could magically resolve a work-life balance issue, what would it be?
* Have more breathing room between high-level projects.
* Accomplish more during the workday and leave mentally free.
* Hire more staff!
* Take vacations and time off with no big pile ups when returning.
* Be allowed to take some Fridays off and catch up on much needed appointments.
* Reduce the number of pop-up requests and questions flying at me all day long so that I could ACTUALLY do what I need to do each day.
* Be approved to work from home or adjust my hours. My personal time isn’t respected.
2) What do you seek to derive from attending a session such as mine?
* Manage my time more effectively.
* Gain tools to embrace life while living it
* Develop stronger skills.
* Make work-life balance a reality in our company’s work-first culture.
* Acquire strategies, tips, or ideas to re-think my approach.
* Learn to change my focus, to be more productive, balanced, and focused.
* Be able to balance the few things that I do control during my day.
* Discover tips for keeping my staff in balance.
* Gain a realistic expectation of what we can achieve or experience.
* Develop a more positive outlook for the group.
3) Are there any observations you could offer?
* Work-life balance is a huge topic organization-wide. We are high performers who want to do a good job. We compromise our personal lives to meet work demands. We have to keep pace with the leaders and teams we support. If we don’t, we’ll be deemed unresponsive.
* A frenetic pace seems to be inherent in this company. Our team does a good job of emphasizing work-life balance; the problem lies with the surrounding divisions that thrive on working all the time, for no good reason. Yes, we are in a global space, working in different time zones, but some of these people are beyond the pale.
* What I love about this organization are the people. They are dedicated to the cause and truly want to deliver reliable, affordable, dynamic, and versatile solutions to our customers. However, our frenetic pace isn’t necessary. Not every project is the most vital. Not every problem is an emergency. Not every request has to be filled now.
* If in charge, I’d implement a more efficient, logical pace organization-wide. If we all took a breath and reevaluated how we work, in a more focused environment, we might find that we could produce better results with less stress.
Resonates Strongly
As you can see, the topic of work-life balance resonates strongly among today’s career professionals. Going forward, may more organization recognize and acknowledge the critical role that employee wellness and work-life balance has on the organization’s overall effectiveness.
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