What is a good work-life balance?
A healthy balance might look like: meeting your deadlines at work while still having time for friends and hobbies. having enough time to sleep properly and eat well. not worrying about work when you’re at home.
Work–life interface is the intersection of work and personal life. There are many aspects of one’s personal life that can intersect with work including family, leisure, and health. Work–life interface is bidirectional; for instance, work can interfere with private life, and private life can interfere with work.
A healthy work-life balance will mean different things to us all. It’s not so much about a perfect split between your time at work and leisure, but more a case of making sure you feel fulfilled and content in both areas of your life. Ask yourself: what’s currently causing me stress or unhappiness? How is that affecting my work and personal life? What am I prioritising? What am I losing out on? There are many aspects of one’s personal life that can intersect with work including family, leisure, and health; work can interfere with our private life, and private life can interfere with our work. Stephen’s case study below is typical of the issues we all face:
“In the autumn of 2021, I asked Kay to give me coaching support. My problem wasn’t one of how to bring in new business but how to manage an increasingly demanding workload while maintaining a happy and healthy lifestyle. I’d reached the stage where I’d thought the latter was pretty much unachievable. My main difficulty lay hidden in the minefield known as ‘distractions’.
Through her experience and NLP know-how, Kay showed me how not to treat distractions as the enemy – but to regard them as rewards to be indulged once the working day is over. Kay helped me to discover which times of the day I’d be at my most productive, how to allocate work time and how to set aside time for exercise, gardening and, yes … frittering away the hours dabbling on Youtube.
The result? I spend less time at my laptop working, and yet, the hours I do work are more productive than ever before.
I’m delighted to recommend Kay as a coach. She has worked wonders for my work life … and for my real life.“
Stephen Church
Most of us, at some time or other, suffer from a lack of self-belief and confidence. We tend to listen to our inner voice, the gremlin telling us we can’t achieve rather than look at our achievements to replicate thoughts, feelings and behaviours that brought success. Challenged by what they thought was an unachievable target, this sales team lacked belief in their combined ability. Weekly sessions over a period of 3 months, with the entire team and individual one to one sessions, turned the situation on its head.
We all get stressed and anxious to a lesser or greater extent – it’s dealing with it and knowing how to get through it that counts. Stress at work unfortunately impacts on our personal lives, and vice versa. Katy is a highly successful and driven individual. Like her, those of us who push our-selves and our boundaries to the limit are often fully aware that stress levels are being challenged and charged on a daily basis. Couple this with unexpected personal stress and the combination is toxic which clearly impacts on personal and business life.
This case study reflects a very common situation – organisations which are run by talented, committed, reliable, uncomplaining and highly efficient individuals who have had little or no management training, yet without whom an sme would be lost. “I was promoted to Administration Manager, looking after two members of staff, one of whom was underperforming. I had no previous experience managing people, and didn’t feel confident dealing with an underperforming member of staff.
Motivation can come and go and it is vital to understand your drivers and motivators to get back on track when motivation is seriously lacking. This client was a classic case of an enormously talented individual who was unfocussed and de-motivated. We were tasked with finding his roar. We analysed his learning style and drivers from a previous very successful career, to make him aware of how he had previously achieved success to utilise these drivers in his current job, and to motivate himself on a daily basis.
We were invited to work with this Senior Manager as she was heading for potential redundancy and we were challenged with supporting her during the process. We aimed to develop her confidence and re-imprint her skills and capabilities to ensure she become self-aware, equipped and confident for future opportunities and interviews. We were initially engaged to work over 6 sessions, but a further 3 sessions proved to be invaluable in helping her to achieve an appointment as CEO in a new career sector.
We were asked to ‘tread gently’ with this potential client by a Company Director who knew that this Senior Consultant was hugely capable and highly intelligent, yet under-performing. We were asked to see if we could change his attitude and approach. Over 6 sessions we were able to arouse his curiosity and quietly challenge his modus operendi and patterns of behaviour to ignite his self-awareness, but this was work in progress.