Secrets to Work-Life Balance

This is a rather controversial subject that I could not possibly provide all the answers, but I could share some experience from Mr. Jack Welch in his book: Winning by Jack Welch. Understandably, balancing between work and life requires sacrifices. For instance, working parents who want to be very involved in their kid's lives often have to give up some of their ambition. People who put business success first most likely have to give up some level of intimacy with their kids. So work life balance is a deal that you've made with yourself about what you keep and what you give up.

Before we go further, I would like to clarify that as an employee, you have to understand the following:

1. Your boss’s top priority is competitiveness. He wants you to be happy, but only inasmuch as it helps the company win. In fact, if he is doing his job right, he is making your job so exciting that your personal life becomes a less compelling draw. The truth is, your boss wants 150 percent of you and, if you are good enough, he will do almost anything to get it, even if your family wants 150 percent too.It’s not that bosses want you to give up your family or your hobbies or any other interests. It’s not that diabolical. They’re just driven by the desire to capture all of your energy and harness it for the company.

2. Most bosses are perfectly willing to accommodate work-life balance challenges if you have earned it with performance.The key word here is: if. People with great performance accumulated points, which could be traded for flexibility. The more points you have, the greater the opportunity to work when and where and how you want.

3. Bosses know that the work-life policies in the company brochure are mainly for recruiting purposes and that real work-life arrangements are negotiated one-on-one in the context of a supportive culture, not in the context of “But the company says ...!” In a supportive culture, bosses have the freedom to reward results with flexibility, and high performers feel comfortable talking with their bosses about their work-life challenges.

4.People who publicly struggle with work-life balance problems and continually turn to the company for help get categorized as different, entitled, uncommitted, or incompetent—or all of the above. Not surprisingly, moaners of work-life balance usually the below-average performers. Here's the reason why. You almost never hear people in the top 20 percent of any organization complaining about work-life balance. That fact is surely linked to their intrinsic abilities. At home, as at work, they are so smart, organized, and competent that they have figured out and implemented sustainable solutions. They have installed, as Susan Peters calls them, “home processes” of backup resources and contingency plans that take a lot of the uncertainty out of juggling situations. Below-average performers, by contrast, have three strikes against them. First, they tend to be less expert at organizing their time and sorting through priorities, not just at work, but at home. Second, because of their middling performance, these people have been told they have limited chances of advancement. That lowers their self-confidence and raises their ambivalence. And finally, they’re not as financially secure as people in the top 20, giving them fewer resources to buy work-life balance with nannies or personal trainers or whatever. Put all three dynamics together, and it’s no wonder under-performers struggle publicly with work-life dilemmas and ask for help so often.

5. Even the most accommodating bosses believe that work-life balance is your problem to solve. In fact, most know that there are really just a handful of effective strategies to do that, and they wish you would use them.

Best practices:

1. Compartmentalize: We're already established that work demand 150% of you, and your family as well. So to deal with this, you have to compartmentalize, meaning focus on what you're doing, and what you're doing it with.

2. Have the gut to say no to requests and demands outside your work-life balance plan: Eventually, most people come up with a work life balance schedule that works for them, but the hard part is to stick to them. It's hard to say no to a request, especially, when your success comes from saying yes so often. You have to consider carefully, whether saying no will be the best option for you.

3. Make sure your plan doesn't leave you out: there is a risk that your plan will finally makes you balanced for toward other people, but yourself. You could manage to give enough of themselves to workplace, family and one or two volunteer organization. The problem is this perfect plan creates a fun free vacuum for you. So if you created a work-life balance plan where you are having no fun, chances are you won't be able to sustain it. The plan must include your dreams and passions.