I was going through articles on Harvard Business Review blog network and came across a very interesting article. It was entitled 'Leading People In An Anxious World'. Basically the author, Karen Firestone was saying that there is so much anxiety today in the workplace that people who lead/manage, need to be able to know how to handle this kind of anxiety levels that are creeping into the workplace, that really have nothing to do with the workplace. The statistics that come out of WHO survey says that the United States leads the world in anxiety. I looked for something on India but wasn't successful.
Basically, she started by saying that safety is now Americans' overriding concern. She says, "Several years ago, as I sat in a secondary school board meeting, the visiting headmaster of a K-8 school was asked what he considered the highest priority for parents in choosing high schools. I was astounded when he said 'safety' rather than, for example, 'quality of education.'" Imagine that! More and more people in the US are thinking of whether their children will be safe in school/college, rather than the quality of education. I don't think that has got to India as yet. I think we still look at which would be the best college or school for our kids.
But it made me think about the anxiety levels that are prevalent in a society and that begins to impinge on the workplace. All of that comes in as extra baggage when we walk into our places of work.
Peter Ellis, architect of Jaypee Sports City, has an interesting interview that he gave to Forbes India recently. The article is entitled 'Its hard to maintain work-life balance in India.' This is coming from a non-Indian who has come into India and is experiencing our work culture. It was an interesting article and I would encourage you to read it. He says, "It's an incredible challenge to work in India. The whole process of working in India is chaotic. In India, you never really know what's going to happen next. Going to a meeting is like stepping into a roundabout. Everybody is going in the same direction at the same time and somehow miraculously you come out the other side and you don't know how you did it."
He says, "I was always exhausted. I had very little personal time. I would virtually collapse after going home. I was always surprised how chaotic every city was. It amazed me that cities could run like this, but they did. In India, there's a sense that no period of history is ever forgotten. It is not replaced, but another history comes up and lives along with it. You have the ox cart and the buffaloes and the autos and the Mercs; and everyone lives side by side."
In all of this, what caught my eye was his statement – "It's hard to maintain a work-life balance in India." This made me wonder how we are all doing in terms of work-life balance because if we don't have good work-life balance, then we are going to be increasing our anxiety levels. This in turn leads to high stress levels and you know what a slippery slope that is.
So how do we look at good work-life balance? Interestingly, when you look at the Indian work force, most analysts will divide it into two: - People born after 1985 called the millennial generation, whose thinking is completely different. They don't talk about a work-life balance. Millennials look at work-life experience. An article in the Indian Express says that they believe in YOLO (You Only Live Once). Therefore everything they do is an experience. The more experiences they have, the more they value it. Even a job is looked on as an experience. Personal lives are looked on as experiences. Things they do elsewhere in society are looked on as experiences. There's a better ability in this group of millennials to be able to have a work-life balance because they don't look at things in a very myopic way.
But not many of us are born after 1985. Many of us are born much before that. How do we handle the incredible stresses and anxious thoughts that invariably come our way?
Christine Riordan, writing in Harvard Business Review, has an article that says, "Work-Life 'Balance' Isn't The Point." She says, "We need to be able to handle work-life from a different perspective." She offers 3 areas that we can bring into our lives.
1. Strive for work-life effectiveness – not balance. We need to strive for a situation where work fits with other aspects of our lives. She quotes researchers Jeffrey Greenhaus and Gary Powell who expand on this concept and recommend that work and personal life should be allies and that participation in multiple roles, such as parent, partner, friend, employee, can actually enhance physical and psychological well-being – especially when all of the roles are high quality and managed together. Basically they are saying that we should put everything in the same container. Doing so can reduce work-life separation. In fact, Richard Branson, CEO Virgin Airlines, has noticed that some of his best ideas have come from engaging his children in conversations about work. So try for effectiveness in work-life.
2. Define success in all categories of your life. Ryan Smith, co-founder of Qualtrics, manages his success by doing the following: "Each week I examine the categories of my life – father, husband, CEO, self – and identify the specific actions that help me feel successful and fulfilled in these capacities." Do we have goals for every aspect of our lives, not just long-term goals but weekly goals? This is what I'm going to do as a spouse this week; this is what I'm going to do as a parent this week; this is what I'm going to achieve in my work this week. If we have those goals then we are pulling together in all areas to be able to achieve those things and bring a little more harmony.
3. Maintain control. People experience high stress when they feel out of control. One of the things I stress on when I do a seminar on handling high stress or adversity in corporate spaces is that you have to be in control. Stress comes when you are out of control of a situation. So take control of your career – explore your own history, biases, motivation and preferences. Take control of your personal life. Don't just let it drift. A quote by the CEO of Starwood who said, "It's important not to be so immersed in your work that there isn't anything else. Taking care of your body and your mindset, carving out time to be with your family, doing things that recharge you – these all make you more productive in the end."
As we look at work-life balance and trying to bring harmony and equilibrium into our lives, it's so clear that it's the way we were made to be. Good health comes when all areas of our life – physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual – all are in complete harmony. That makes for a healthy life. That's the way God intended us to be. Sometimes we end up doing everything that other people want without having the kind of balance that will give us a sense of satisfaction.
Anna Quince observes, "If your success is not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart, it is not success at all."
How true! We shouldn't be doing all the things that will make other people happy. We need to be happy in the process as well. We need to be successful in the things that we do. Work-life balance will go a long way in achieving that for you and for me? My prayer for us today is that we will do what we need to do to have harmony and equilibrium in our lives.
Let me pray for you. Almighty God, You are the one who made us. You are the one who built into our lives the ability to live in perfect harmony. We ask for that harmony today. Give us wisdom to know what things are out of sync in our lives, what new perspectives we need to have, how we need to realign with actual things rather than the expectations of others, how we need to be able to look at our own lives and those of our families and bring quality of life back into those areas. Give to each of us the ability to see our lives from your perspective and through your eyes, through this day and week. I pray a blessing on each one on this call in the matchless name of Jesus. Amen.
• "It's hard to maintain work-life balance in India," Interview with Peter Ellis in Forbes India. http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/features/its-hard-to-maintain-work-life-balanceindia_695488.html
• Karen Firestone, "Leading People in an Anxious World." http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2013/06/managing_in_a_world_of_safety.html
• Christine M. Riordan, "Work-Life 'Balance' Isn't the Point," http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2013/06/work-life_balance_isnt_the_poi.html
"For Young India, Life-work Balance New Mantra, Work-life Balance Passe," http://www.indianexpress.com/news/for-young-india-lifework-balance-new-mantra-worklife-balance-pass--survey/1105252/0
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