What’s Your Work/Home Balance?
A few weeks ago I was at a conference hosted by Pepsico, listening to one of their top women executives talking about the company’s philosophy on work life balance. I found it interesting.
For example, they don’t talk about work-life balance as work is part of life. Instead they refer to work/home balance, a much better description sending a subtle message.
Pepsico believes that workers contribute more at work when they are able to bring their whole selves to work. In the last few years they have introduced some very home friendly working practices which has had a huge impact on all staff, but particularly on women in their organisation.
Coaching Question
And one question they asked all employees at their annual appraisal is one I am sharing with you now as it’s such s good one. (Slightly paraphrased)
If you could set one goal in relation to your work/home balance what would it be, and what do you need from your employers to achieve it? Be clear and specific, and then be assertive and ask for it!
How do you manage your work/home balance?
What’s Your Perfect Working Day?
One of the reasons I wrote ‘When Work isn’t Working’ was the number of coaching clients who came to me dissatisfied with their work. People were unhappy with the job they had, for all sorts of reasons, but just didn’t know what to do instead.
And so I wrote a creative visualisation especially for them, which is in the book, and is now available for you to listen to!
Free Download
Simply reading a visualisation doesn’t work as well as hearing it. Which is why I have recorded it and it is on the site, entirely free of charge for you! If you have the book already, you will find it enhances all the exercises you have already done. And if you don’t have the book, don’t worry – it works well on its own too!
Just simply click on the link to the right of your screen called ‘Your Perfect Day’. You don’t need to enter any details. You can either listen to it directly from your computer, or, (recommended) down load it to a player and take it somewhere calm and relaxing for you, where you won’t be interrupted.
I hope you enjoy listening to it and that it takes you closer to achieving your ideal job! Please do let me know what you think!
Some Coaching Questions for Women
Life Coaching for Women
One of the most common coaching dilemmas presented to me when coaching women is- how can I continue to make progress in my business/career as well as maintaining a good work life balance?
What makes a good work life balance varies from individual to individual but the issues for women are often around still trying to do it all, the curse of Superwoman! Like managing a home, being a carer for either children or elderly parents, general household tasks (studies still show that a higher percentage of housework is done by women regardless of status of work), let alone actually find some time for themselves!
Coaching Questions for Work Life Balance
These are some of the questions I ask when talking about work life balance with women. How do you feel about your answers?
1.) How many hours a week do you spend at work and travelling to work?
2.) How often do you think or worry about work (when you are not actually at work or travelling to work)?
3.) How do you feel about the amount of time you spend at work, travelling to work or thinking about it?
4.) How often do you take a lunch break lasting more than 30 minutes? Away from your desk/office?
5.) Do you ever miss out on quality time with your family and or friends because of pressure of work?
6.) Does work ever have a negative effect on your personal life?
7.) When was the last time you did something for yourself rather than for someone else?
8.) Do you ever feel anxious or upset because of what is happening at work?
9.) When was the last time you lost your temper at work?
10.) Do you ever feel tired or depressed because of work?
If you are unhappy with some of your answers it may be time to make some changes and to have an assertive conversation with significant people in your life, be that at work or home.
Is Your Life in Balance?
From time to time life can get out of kilter for all of us. You may just have a vague feeling of too much to do, or it may be more serious with a thorough rethink of your priorities needed.
Try this exercise.
Jot down the areas of life that are important to you. Your list will unique to you but it might include:
family- work
- friends
- partner
- hobbies
- spiritual life
- own development
- contributing to your community
And so on. Once you have your list, give each a rating of its importance or significance to you. 1= least important 10 = most important. This will be different at differing stages of your life so this exercise bears repetition from time to time.
Now, give each item a rating according to how it feels in terms of work life balance. For example, is work taking a major part of your life at the moment? If so, you might rate it ten. But does that rating accord with the importance it has in your life right now? If so, great, the balance is right. If not, maybe you need to think about some new strategies?
