The A-Z of Leadership: Balance
The term "Work-life balance" came into use in the 1970s and 80s, as stressed baby boomers strove to achieve a balance between career, family and other areas of their lives. But this term seems to suggest that there’s «life» and then there’s «work» whilst I believe that «work» is just on aspect of «life» as a whole which is multi-faceted.
The founder of individual psychology, Alfred Adler believed that for all people there are three basic life tasks: work, friendship, and love or intimacy. The work task is realized when one’s work is meaningful and satisfying. The friendship task is achieved through satisfying relationships with others. The love or intimacy task is addressed by learning to love oneself as well as another.
I use a three legged stool as an analogy for these life tasks; It’s easy to keep ones balance on a three legged stool, right, but if one leg is missing things start to get difficult, let alone if there’s only one leg... it’s hard work not to fall over... I personally knew two managers for whom this ended tragically and several that that have sacrificed their marriages and or health (physically or mentally) for their careers.
Now, actually contemporary Adlerian theorists have outlined three additional tasks, suggesting a need to master the recreational and spiritual tasks of life as well as the task of parenting and the family. Mentally healthy people strive to master each of these tasks, which ultimately represent the challenges of life.
Millennials appear to be more interested in finding a career path that will support their 'lifestyle,' which in this context means their life outside of work. This generation think in terms of what lives they want to live and then find a job and employer which will support this. This is the opposite of the more tradional approach of finding a job and then building a life around what that job's hours, income and other factors permit. I don’t think either approach is right or wrong, but I do believe that if you can find a job which is a «vocation» then work is not just a means to an end.
Life happens, and it’s not possible to have all areas of our lives in balance all of the time, I think most of my the audience can relate to that but it is important to find fulfillment in all areas of life over time.
If you can’t lead yourself, you can’t really lead others either and I am certainly of the opinion that the best leaders are those who lead balanced lives.
Cheers, Nick