ATD Blog
Wed May 09 2018
In my last blog post, I suggested you can be either involved or committed with your business. And while it is certainly a continuum, with grades of degree, the behaviors associated with each are quite different. I argued that while on the surface, being committed seemed to ensure the most likely path to success, it could also be relatively unhealthy to totally commit to your business. After all, there are other things in life to enjoy. As they say, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”
Naturally, this brought up the issue of work–life balance. So, I ask the question: Is there really such a thing, and if so, how much compromise with either must be made to achieve the ideal balance? In fact, what exactly is ideal? Is it simply a matter of what individuals can personally tolerate? After all, we all have varying degrees of activities and demands pulling us one way or the other; some personal, some family, and some work-related. The choices are often very difficult to make. On the one hand, you might feel that if you work too much, you won’t permit enough time to spend either with your family or in your personal endeavors and interests. On the other hand, if you spend a lot of time with your family, it may detract from the time you can devote to building your business, which could negatively impact the amount of time you can spend doing other things. While many of us may use the excuse of needing to work so that we can support our family, it’s a rationalization that can be readily unraveled. The same argument applies: Are you just involved with your family, or committed to it?
The challenge, however, is that work–life balance is largely presented as an either/or proposition. We feel we can’t fully commit to one without sacrificing the other—the proverbial zero-sum game. But this may be a fabricated assumption; to the extent we make it an either/or decision, it will always be one. The result is a lose-lose outcome.
So, how do we manage a win-win outcome? A few years ago, I had a leadership development defense system client. The pressures of that industry are ongoing, as its success is often left up to uncontrollable, unpredictable, and varying government agendas and budgets. One part of our executive level course was a “fireplace chat” wherein participants could ask any questions of the CEO. Invariably, one consistent topic that would surface was how to achieve work–life balance in an environment requiring constant vigilance in the defense of our country.
The CEO gave an insightful response that has stuck with me all these years and changed my entire approach to this difficult challenge. She flat-out stated that work–life balance doesn’t really exist in the business world, especially at the executive level. Instead, it is all about how you integrate the two. She contended that trying to compartmentalize life and work as two separate entities of equal weight was a no-win situation. Her solution was to integrate them 24/7.
You might argue this is simply a semantics answer that avoids addressing the real issue. But I think there is considerable merit in the attempt to reframe the problem this way. I am not sure what integration looks like; it is probably different for each of us. Nonetheless, it avoids having to make the distinction between being just involved or fully committed to your work. You can have both, as long as you define it to meet your individual needs.
Where are you on the work–life balance continuum? What could you do to integrate your work with your life to achieve the lifestyle you want?
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