National Work Life Week - does your workplace encourage balance?

National Work Life Week is underway from 7th to 11th October and it’s an excellent opportunity for leaders to open up conversations about balance within the workplace.

It's a good prompt for organisations to review their policies and practices, and (be honest!) to consider whether bad behaviours have crept in that are not just tolerated but expected.

Work life balance chit chat can often centre around parental challenges but the conversation has to move out of that space to make things fair for everyone. Anyone who books out holiday leave will be familiar with this age old challenge.

There are many ways in which we can redefine our working habits.

- Reducing our use and reliance on tech after hours is one.
- Agreeing firm boundaries and respecting these is another.
- Defining work by quality over output is a game changer.

This is admittedly in my gift but when I set up my own business I unlearned classic workplace behaviours and - with joy - waved goodbye to the traditional nine to five. These days you might find me at the gym at 10.30am on a Monday or working on a growth plan at 2pm on a Saturday. This suits me, my family and my clients.

Talking about flexibility and productivity, listening hard and agreeing a way forward with your talent is a must. Going to work should be enjoyable and something you want to do, right?

The wonderful wheel of life

Many of my executive coachees talk about work life balance and are trying hard to find the answer within the office. Often the solution lies elsewhere.

This is when I introduce the Wheel of Life, a fantastic tool that anyone can use for free, at any time. I personally use it when I feel like things are out of kilter. You should too.

By scoring eight areas of your life (you can title these any way you like) you can sometimes find that one or another is dominating and that others need attention. For example, perhaps you've given yourself a low score for romance. Maybe a regular date night will bring that number up and stop you working until 10pm every Tuesday. Win-win.

You literally only need a pen and paper, and time to yourself. There are many examples on the internet - I’ve shared an image we use at Wadds Inc. Have a go and let me know what you think. You'll thank me for it.

And if you'd like help with talent management or are interested in executive coaching, please just drop me or Stephen Waddington at Wadds Inc. a note or give me a call.

The image is of a Wheel of Life to show how easy it is to do. The Wheel is a circle divided into eight parts. In this example, each section has been titled as follows: Career; Finances; Health; Friends & Family; Personal Growth; Fun and Recreation; Physical Environment; and Romance. Score yourself out of ten and then decide on three actions that can nudge the low numbers up.

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Managing interpersonal issues in the workplace