If you looked up to working mum Kate Redding as role model, I suspect you’d come to the conclusion that work-life balance is a pipe dream. Kate, the mum played by Sarah Jessica Parker in the film I Don’t Know How She Does It, does a fantastic job taking on responsibility for everything and everyone, leaving little time to do anything for herself. Just watching the film tired me out! But does it have to be that way? Are there no alternatives if you decide on a career AND a family?
At a recent women’s networking event I was horrified when I heard that one of top tips for getting ahead was to “work harder than your male colleagues, partner, husband, or brother.” Really? Is this what we are teaching the up and coming women in business? Aren’t we creating this burden for ourselves by promulgating such superwoman behavior? It’s not about working harder. It’s about working smarter and doing the keys things that matter in building a career. Since we’re not superwomen, we’re only humans, setting that as goal surely results in a lack of work-life balance.
Work-life balance is NOT a pipe dream, but there are 3 key ingredients which are often overlooked in making this aspiration a reality:
1. Keep yourself motivated and challenged
WorkingMothers.com revealed in a survey that the number one factor in determining whether a working mother was happy and felt she had balance was job satisfaction. Once we lose the buzz we get from our careers, the whole work-life dynamic falls apart.
How many women do you know who come back from maternity leave, feel side-lined, and subsequently give up. “What’s the point?” they begin to wonder. If they’re going to leave precious little ones in someone else’s care, the job has got to turn them on. I remember bumping into a neighbor on the train home from work. Her and her husband were amazed to see how chirpy and energetic I was at the end of a long day. The secret? I felt challenged in my corporate career – the things I was learning made life very interesting.
2. Map out a routine for maximizing your individual level of performance
Organize your easy and tough tasks and challenges around those peak performance times. Tackle the tough challenges when you feel at your best. For me it’s the first thing in the morning. My confidence and patience levels are up and my head is clear.
I learned this by trial and error and being aware of how productive I was (or not as the case may be) at which times. But, a key ingredient needs to be added here. In order to be at your peak at work, you also need to figure out how much exercise and other activity you need to do to keep your enthusiasm up at work. And not just https://premier-pharmacy.com/product-category/adhd/ that, you need to find strategies to make them really happen too. Take time to consider and experiment with what you really like to do in your personal time that re-energises you.
There’s so much focus on time management. However, it’s misplaced. We need to be focusing on managing our energy rather than our time.
3. Think Like a Business Owner
Point 2 leads really nicely into this point. At the end of the day, what does a good manager really care about? That’s right, performance. I recently gave a talk about how important it is to invest and enrich in both the personal and professional dimensions of our lives, highlighting that it’s having both parts that can help you achieve optimal performance in each. Huh? Simply put, by having a varied life you avoid getting burned out, whether it’s caring for an elderly parent, over-active children or a demanding career.
Dipping in and out of both lives makes you appreciate each part of your life and the benefits it brings. At the end of my talk an eager member of the audience asked, “But Christine, if I tell my boss how important my personal life is, he or she won’t get it, they won’t care.” I replied, “Well, your boss may or may not care, but that’s not the point. As your manager, your boss expects you to organize your life so you can be at your best. That’s YOUR responsibility. Your boss wants to know where you are on your projects.”
The best rule of thumb to use when thinking about how to blend our increasingly complex professional and personal lives is to think like a business owner. A business owner wants you to be as productive as you can and to manage your life to achieve this. Working 24 x 7, losing your enthusiasm, creativity and motivation isn’t good for you and it’s not good for the business.
Work-life balance is not a pipe dream. Like anything though, you’ve got to be strategic and focus on the most important parts or you’ll get lost in the detail.
Author: Christine Brown-Quinn. As a former managing director, wife and mother of 3, Christine Brown-Quinn shares her 20+ years experience in banking (as well as recent experience as an author and entrepreneur) and offers practical strategies on how to get the most out of your work & life. Christine’s recently published book Step Aside Super Woman… Career & Family is for Any Woman offers professional women time-tested advice on how to create work-life balance. She is also co-founder of the Women in Business Superconference series.
This blog is Part 4 of a 5-Part Series: ‘I Don’t Know How She Does It’. Sign up for our monthly update to receive them directly into your mailbox – just enter your name in the top-right-hand box to sign up.
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