Work/life balance is a key issue today. Is it a dream or can we achieve it?
Here’s some initiatives I’ve seen or made that seem to add value.
Add your suggestions through the Comment facility below and I’ll publish them.
- Get rid of corporate voicemail systems…they frustrate stakeholders and customers
- Walk thirty minutes a day in a park…it improves your outlook… and how you look
- Take regular breaks throughout the year; particularly with your kids in school-free time…there’s very little benefit to your employer or you in getting burnt out
- Meetings are for decisions not wide-ranging discussions. Necessary prelim can take place offline beforehand.
- Spend half a day a month offsite just thinking through key issues and options
- Do some volunteering with your family. It’s fun. And corporates are likely to support you.
- Get a work intranet link at home…for those times when there’s no point in an hour’s drive or more in heavy traffic just to mail or get messages
- Ban cc’s and bcc’s on FYI emails to you between your direct reports
- Read your kids a short bedtime story by phone everynight you’re away
- Make sure information systems are appropriate, not cumbersome and practical
- Schedule a full annual health check
- Hire people better than you were in the role you’re filling. Your team EA/PA should be an organisational genius and fantastic at detail and deadlines
- Life partners need to know what’s going on at work. Don’t shut them out.
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Here’s an interesting article worth a squiz…
Simple Questions… but what about the Answers?…a dynamic balance for balance
by Glen Fisher CEO at Peripheral Vision, Brisbane Australia.
As we continue our work with individuals and organisations on the concept of performance and balance… we are amazed at the struggle for meaningful answers to a few simple questions.
The first question is…
How come we know so little about ourselves…and our bodies… our own performance vehicle?
We know a lot of corporate operational data . . . yet we have little or no clue about the value of nutrition at work and home; the influence of movement & fitness on performance and emotional management; the science of resting heart-rate and the resulting impacts of continuous and rising stress levels…and so on.
The second question is…
Why is it that we almost always need a crisis before we change?…particularly when we are considering changes to our lifestyle?
In the corporate world, we invest in strategic planning, in-depth analysis of strengths, weakness, opportunities & threats, investigate obstacles for execution and set about building investment budgets and plans for change projects.
And yet… when it comes to the health and well being of these individuals, we struggle to consider equivalent approaches.
We hear time and time again… “people are our most valued asset”… and still we can find little evidence that this is genuinely true. The question is… how come? And who’s going to implement plans for our people’s health?
The third question is… why is it so hard to change?… and even when we do… why do we frequently fall back into old habits?
Learning and personal adjustment is a very individual process.
The process for changing one’s attitudes and behaviours must respect that fact deeply… if a desired outcome is to actually materialise.
For example, the shared dream of balancing my work with my life and my health is a challenge of integration.
If we are truly ever going to get into a genuine space where we make the balance dream plausible, we must view the process to be undertaken as an integration of factors… not parts.
To this end, PERIPHERALVISION has developed the
“5 f… elite e n e r g y performance system”
which both respects individual styles and effectively integrates the key factors for personal adjustment on the way to improved health, balance and performance.
The system places a great deal of focus on how to prevent things from getting broken… preventative habits if you like.
Please contact them for details at the website below…
www.peripheralvision.net
making energy matter
Publishers Note:
My thanks to Glen Fisher and his team for their contribution.
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Reb Balloon Days blog worth a visit
Naomi Simson is the founder and CEO of leading online gift retailer RedBalloon Days
and writes an interesting blog at http://naomisimson.com/
Her company’s products and services deliver value for organisations and individuals who are exponents of the work/life balance experience
