Tag: worklife

  • Work-Life Balance – Why it’s so Important and How to Achieve it

    All work and no play can lead to burn out and serious health problems.

    Working too much can cause you to feel irritable and impact your mental, emotional and physical well being to say the least. Ever heard of under-promising and over-delivering? I bet a lot of people reading this do the exact opposite of this. Over-committing is one of the leading causes of stress and burn out in the workplace. This is why finding the perfect work-life balance is so important.

    When demands and expectations are too much for you – speak up. It’s hard to say no to your boss when she/he is asking for something to be done yesterday. Especially when there are 60 other people who would love to have your job. Competition might be fierce, and you might really want a raise or a promotion. The good news is:

    It is more than possible to find a work-life balance that allows you to set boundaries in the workplace while still advancing your career.

    Assertively Say No and Set Boundaries

    So how can you improve this skill? Find assertive ways to communicate your needs and set boundaries. Here are a few examples: If someone asks you at the end of the day to do something for them right away tell them you will work on it tomorrow during business hours. If your boss is piling on work and deadlines, ask them: “would you rather I complete project A or project B because it isn’t possible to do both in the given timeline”.

    If your peer asks you to take on an assignment as a favor for them but you can’t handle the additional workload: “I’d love to help you out but I’m swamped with task A, task B and task C and two of them are due tomorrow so I wouldn’t have time to work on that for you”. Or maybe you have a team assignment with members not pulling their weight: “Lets divide and conquer this project. Would you like to do task A or task B?”.

    There are a lot of great ways to kindly say no and set boundaries that help you achieve and maintain balance without jeopardizing your career or relationships with others. Learning assertiveness skills is key to work-life balance. A therapist or career coach can help you learn this essential skill.

    Unplug

    An easy way to help you find work-life balance is to just simply unplug. Checking emails or even thinking about checking them is a constant trigger for stress as it alerts us to any number of things that could have gone sideways and require our immediate attention. Always being connected to work increases our chances of worrying all night and weekend long.  Set specific times for when you will not work or engage in any other work-related activities. For example, after 6pm and on the weekends I will not check emails.

    You can also unplug mentally by not thinking about work. Distract yourself every time you start ruminating about work. Quiet and solitude allow us to be fully present and connected to ourselves and others. It allows our brain and bodies time to recuperate for the next day. It provides a time when our bodies can be free from cortisol and adrenaline that can be at high levels when we ruminate on workplace issues. Unplugging provides a break from rumination and will help you come back to work relaxed and recharged!

    Stay Organized

    Having a schedule, and/or a to-do list is a great way to stay organized and will reduce the amount of time you spend planning each day. Make sure you have an accessible overview of any due dates, meetings, or other events you may need to prepare for and set aside specific time to prepare. A very common mistake is overestimating how much can be done in one day.  It’s easy to lose motivation to continue your routine of scheduling and writing to do lists once you realize you can’t complete your to-do list. It’s much easier to create a smaller to-do this, and once you finish all the tasks, you can keep going and do more. This way, you feel like you’re overachieving, rather than underachieving.

    Make sure to schedule personal time as well and don’t let anything get in the way of it. Make “me time” your number one priority. Write set times to cook, shop, exercise, schedule, strategize, be creative, be social, read, be alone, plan what you will cook and shop for, time with friends, time for doing nothing. Try to take care of your mental health during your personal time.

    Prioritize

    So you’ve set up your calendar, made some to-do lists, and now you’re staring at this endless list of tasks that may feel impossible to complete. Take some time to decide what tasks need to be completed first, such as whatever presentation, meeting, or project that appears first in your calendar. A lot of highly productive people feel the need to do just about everything at once, but you need to set limits for yourself as well to avoid a burnout.

    Limit Your Distractions

    When you start a task, do you constantly check your phone, emails, or other unrelated content? These types of distractions will double the amount of time it takes you to complete your tasks. You’ve probably heard of study smarter not harder, try to work smarter not harder.

    If you can improve your efficiency at work by assertively saying no and setting boundaries, staying organized, prioritizing, and giving yourself time to unplug and unwind, you’ll have much more time for a personal life! Achieving this level of work-life balance will not only have an amazing positive impact on your mental and emotional well being, but will actually make you more productive and effective in both professional and personal pursuits.

    Original Content Created By Psych Company Team

  • Do Great Leaders Work Hard or Work Smart?

    The answer is – Yes.

    As leaders we invest a tremendous amount in our work, and there are two ways that we can approach it. We can work harder than everyone else, and we can work just as smart as we work hard. Both are equally important. 

    Those who are in a position to assess other leaders will usually take note of a leader who is putting in 30% or 40% more hours than their colleagues, while showing the same results.  These leaders are typically the subject of conversations that call into question exactly what they are doing with all those hours.  

    Working hard without working smart does you no favors.  So, do both.      

    Let’s examine what it looks like to work smart.  When you work smart you are continually looking for efficiencies and the kind of simplicities that help you get things done effectively and efficiently.  It means you are building a vast and varied network of resources and people that you can call on to help you accomplish the three or four dozen things you need to achieve each day.  And to reciprocate as you find as many ways as you can to help these good people accomplish what they need to in return. 

    Smart means understanding the nuances that help leaders in your organization and your industry be successful.  The leadership competencies that we call organizational savvy and leadership agility go a long way toward describing this leadership quality.  I lean on these two competencies most often, as I coach leaders to be their most productive.  Within our organizations, we spend our time determining which levers to pull, who we can lean on, which approach works best in the culture, and those that don’t.  

    How We Achieve is as Important as What We Achieve  

    When we’re presented with challenges to resolve, we have two things that we need to focus on.  We are expected to deliver on what it is we need to deliver.  And, just as important, we are responsible for cultivating relationships with those we partner with along the way.  The reason the relationships are so meaningful is that the people we get to work with are the ones that help us get things done. Pretty simple.  The other reason they’re important is that we are going to be working with those same people tomorrow, and next week and next year.  It helps if we enjoy working with each other.   

    So the relationships we establish and enhance are as much of a commodity as the deliverables we achieve.  As we go about delivering on our goals, it’s vital to demonstrate our organizational savvy and focus on both what we deliver and how we deliver.  We need to be constantly aware of how we build relationships, sharpen our leadership intelligence, and cultivate our leadership brand.

    John Wooden
    “It isn’t what you do, but how you do it.”

    Author: Scott F. Burns

    Visit his website:  leadership-scottfburns.com

  • Is Your Business Ready for the Post-Shutdown ‘New Normal’?

    If you lived through the trauma of 9-11, you know that the way we do some things –such as travel – changed forever. The reality of doing business post-COVID-19 will be no different, and its reach will be far more impactful.

    Unlike the sudden shutdown, reopening may happen gradually and with various caveats, such as wearing masks, moving work spaces further apart and checking employee temperatures at the beginning of the work day. Regardless of what government and health guidelines require or suggest, now is the time to prepare for doing business in the new world of coronavirus, which likely will be with us for many months – or perhaps years – to come.

    As you plan for re-entry, evaluate your current practices during the shutdown and consider which are applicable when you re-open. Create workflows that consider the following questions:

    Questions to Ask Yourself and Team

    1) What changes have the virus forced upon you?
    2) What processes are you doing differently? Which are working? Why? Which are not working? Why not?
    3) How is the virus and shutdown affecting each product or service? Are there special considerations for some and not others?
    4) How are you communicating with employees? Is it the same? Different? Better? Worse?
    5) How are you keeping your team engaged and motivated?
    6) What is causing your and your team’s stress? How are you handling it?
    7) What innovations has your team developed during the crisis that could be implemented post-shutdown?
    8) How well have you – and team members – handled change? Have new “stars” emerged who showed greater leadership?
    9) Has remote working been a positive experience? Should you continue it at some level in
    the future?
    10) Has providing flex-time hours been a positive experience? Should you continue it?

    Working through these questions and developing new “rules” for each scenario will help you anticipate your business life in the future. Depending on the size and type of business, you may need to consider different procedures for each division, department or individual employees.

    Once you have evaluated your situation and developed your plan for the various scenarios, you may want to consider reopening your business in phases on a priority basis. Here is one possible re-entry schedule:

    3 Phases to Work Through

     Phase One: Return employees onsite who aren’t able to effectively or efficiently work remotely because they don’t have all the necessary tools or need to be more
    closely managed.

     Phase Two: Employees working well from home are returned onsite as needed and work on a flexible schedule.

     Phase Three: Employees working extremely well at home can continue working remotely longer, or they may never need to come into the office daily.

    While this unplanned shutdown has been painful and will require us to work differently, it is providing an opportunity to reassess business practices and make changes that will create a more positive company culture. With the right changes, your team can become more productive, and your business can become more profitable.

    For More Information

    About the Author: Shelley Smith is a company culture curator, author and president of Premier Rapport www.premierrapport.com. Culture isn’t built in a day; it’s built every day.