Healthy work-life balance is critical for everyone – especially those operating in a family business... including YOU!
For many, that statement challenges work ethic. But I maintain that we all understand that our personal effectiveness is enhanced when properly managing our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual energies. Our overall well-being matters more than most of us appreciate.
Focusing on well-being implies that we engage in healthy self-awareness, self-regulation, and goal-oriented intentional action, and working towards Work-Life Balance. Work-Life Balance is not a destination. Instead, achieving it is a journey, a marathon!
A Gallup poll provides compelling statistics to illustrate the importance of successful businesses investing in their own well-being and that of their employees.
Employees who strongly agree that their employer cares about their overall well-being, compared with those who don't, are:
- 3x more likely to be engaged at work
- 69% less likely to actively search for a new job
- 71% less likely to report experiencing a lot of burnout
- 5x more likely to strongly advocate for their company as a place to work
- 5x more likely to strongly agree that they trust the leadership of their organization
- 36% more likely to be thriving in their overall lives
Understanding the value of well-being and Work-Life Balance is critical in any business, especially the family enterprise. The lines between work and home are often gray or non-existent in the family business. Work seems never to end. Many small family business members define themselves as the business, and they lose track of themselves. To support this valuable delineation between work and home, a personal mission, vision, and values statement may be of high value.
If you do not have a written personal Mission, Vision, and Values statement providing you with strategic course direction, you might begin one now. Without one, you are at a significant handicap and will never align your personal, professional, and organizational work-life balance journey. One cannot begin any journey without guidance; a GPS, a map, or a compass are helpful devices when underway to keep on course when navigating. Your personal Mission, Vision, and Values Statements are similar, and these thoughtful and well-crafted documents help keep you aligned on your Work-Life Balance journey.
Understanding what you want is paramount for anyone through this journey of life. The clarity in understanding personal, professional, and organizational desires is significant in what work-life Balance means to you. For each of us, this term means different things! Define what work-life Balance means to you.
By now, you know you need to get busy to be in Balance with sound well-being; one more thing to do, right? This effort in defining clarity for you is well worth the effort.
I came across these perspectives of what work-life balance means, and I find them quite insightful:
A good work-life balance: meeting your deadlines at work while still having time for friends and hobbies. Having enough time to sleep properly and eat well. Not worrying about work when you're at home.
Sep 21, 2021, mentalhealth.org.uk
Work-life Balance is typically defined as the amount of time you spend doing your job versus the amount of time you spend with loved ones or pursuing personal interests and hobbies. When work demands more of your time or attention, you'll have less time to handle your other responsibilities or passions.
Jun 15, 2023, coursera
Having clarity on the term work-life balance helps to do it intentionally better. I have noticed that when this tricky subject of work-life balance gets out of control for me, it happens so slowly I do not see it until something goes wrong and illuminates it. By this, I mean, a relationship gets unnecessarily strained; a project receives too much or too little attention; I pop a fuse, I see I am eating poorly, and I am not being myself. The clues are everywhere, but they are in my blind spots. Sound familiar?
The first step in helping yourself is intentionally monitoring your critical performance indicators to live the life you wish personally, professionally, and organizationally. This is not someone else's responsibility, and you do have control. The business will be there tomorrow. It starts with you helping yourself. You must keep your eye on the ball by managing your energies and maintaining self-awareness.
As human beings, we are good at rationalizing almost anything to justify ourselves and our behaviors. Our motivation usually begins healthy, but the lines in the sand become windblown. The next we know, we are significantly out of balance. If we are lucky, nothing overly challenging erupts, but we all know and wish we had a few do-overs.
So what is your role in staying on course and maintaining work-life balance as you define it? Here I offer a few Jeff Rogers Coach-approved tips:
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Intentionally work smarter, not longer. |
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Communicate clearly your needs up and down the line. |
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Identify your boundaries between work and home. |
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Take a break regularly to maintain your energy. |
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Keep track of your work hours. |
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Avoid drama in both work and home environments. |
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Manage your time effectively – learn to say no to the unimportant. |
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Prioritize your goals. |
Working with these identified self-help fundamentals as front-of-mind behaviors, you will filter out some noise and stay on course. The traditional family business mentality is that work never ends, and we are the business. These ideas are from the past and will not serve you or your family members well moving forward. Instead, live a healthy, balanced life where your family members, friends, and loved ones get the best of you! Not the scraps left over after going through the daily family business meat grinder. I know that was harsh, but I am making the point.
The journey never ends with a work-life balance and family enterprise. Working in a family business has enormous rewards and can be very fulfilling. Being out of balance is fixable, and you can fix it. Once you figure it out, something new develops and attempts to throw you off course, but this is natural. Like anything, the fundamentals always work, they will ground you and help you to maintain top-of-mind – work-life balance requirements in the family business.
Healthy work-life balance is critical for everyone – especially those operating in a family business - including YOU! You know what defines work-life balance in the global sense. Now define what this term means for you personally, professionally, and organizationally. When to ebb and when to flow. The rhythm of your life helps form a healthy work-life balance for you.