Forget About Work Life Balance

it feels like over the past decade

it has been a race between companies to

build the culture

that employees want to work it doesn’t

take much searching on the internet to

run across articles related to the

importance of company culture

more than ever acquiring and retaining

good talent is essential for every

business

however today i’d like to shift your

thinking of not what your company can do

for you

but what you can do to feel the most

satisfaction at work

yes we all want a good job with good pay

and good benefits but many of us want

more than that

if you want a career that gives you

meaning energy

and purpose then a lot of that is on you

yes company culture is important but

this is your career

this is your journey the question that

should be raised is

are you being intentional

as a gallup certified strengths coach

i’ve had the opportunity to have

hundreds of conversations with people

about their career goals

hopes and dreams these conversations

have provided me a foundation of

research

of when employees have felt excited

drained

frustrated or even passion for their

work

and we’ve all heard the statement we all

get 24 hours in a day and if you spend

eight hours a day sleeping

another eight hours a day at work then

you get eight hours a day at life

well i probably spend more than eight

hours each day working and i don’t

always get eight hours of sleep

regularly either

i don’t believe in the concept of work

life balance

because it just doesn’t work what i’d

like to propose today

are five ingredients to blend work and

life

yes i just said the word blend not

balance

blend is an acronym that gives you the

five ingredients

necessary to building a courier

that gives you passion and purpose let’s

start with the first disrupter

build b build a life that embraces this

imbalance

when i think about work life balance i

typically think of a

traditional scale you know one plate

holds an object of known mass while the

other plate holds the object of unknown

mass

you add that known mass until your scale

finally hits static equilibrium or the

scale is in balance

think about work life on this scale

once you get everything in balance don’t

let anything move or you’re back at the

beginning trying to get everything

balanced again

so don’t get sick don’t let them change

a system at work and

definitely don’t go into management you

know

at our firm we have a guiding principle

that points to this

it states that we believe that making a

living

shouldn’t interfere with making a life

the image we use is of a boat

pulling a parasailor i

love this image why

because it represents the tightrope of

personal and professional satisfaction

and the danger of one of those pulling

too tightly or too much in one direction

yes professional and personal goals need

to have equal tension just like

the boat pulling the parasailer the

other thing i don’t like about the

work-life balance visualization

is that it seems if you have more life

and less work

that that’s equally better well

work can be hard life can be hard

there are days that work will require a

lot out of you and there are

work days that will require a lot out of

you

the sweet spot is not finding the static

equilibrium but a blend between the two

that pushes you to be your best at both

without breaking you

build a life that embraces this

imbalance

the l stands for love

now i know it is not comfortable to talk

about love in the same sentence when we

talk about our co-workers or the

the company that you work for but it is

imperative that you surround yourself

with bright and passionate colleagues

interested in seeing each other succeed

in tom rast’s book vital friends

he talks about the three friend

threshold

his research suggests that if you have

just three close friends at work

that you’re 96 percent to be more

extremely

satisfied with your life he goes on to

say

it’s better to have a friend at work

than a bigger bonus

love is all about the environment and

the people

in that environment

e stands for energy you must

understand what gives you energy in my

own career i’ve shifted from

being client service facing to leading

the training and development efforts

and many cultural initiatives for me the

moves were intentional

you don’t have to be around me for any

length of time to understand

how passionate i am about the clifton

strengthsfinder

i first heard about strengthsfinder in

2008

i took the assessment i got my five top

themes of talent read the report

and i agreed it sounded a lot like me

now a lot of times these types of

assessments hit the bottom of a desk

drawer and i may not even remember what

the outcome was

but this report was different for me

i remember seeing colleagues who were

getting

opportunities for promotion or having

success

and it usually seemed like their success

was tied

around learning a new skill or knowledge

i also remember colleagues who were

you know maybe really detail-oriented

hard to get to know

kept to themselves nothing like me

and i thought i need to be more like

them

but what the strengths report and the

string space information taught me was

is that my greatest successes would come

from being more

of who i already am knowing that i don’t

have to be

all to everyone and everything know what

you’re good at

and get help with what you’re not good

at

the question i would like you to

consider

is when you get finished with a task do

you feel

energized you know we all have those

tasks that we’re good at doing

but we can dread even starting those

tasks

for something to be considered as

strength you must be able to do it well

consistently but you must also be able

to drive some instinctive satisfaction

from that activity

gallup states people that use their

strengths at work

are three times as likely to report

having an excellent quality of life

and six times as likely to report being

engaged in their jobs

to have a career that gives you passion

and purpose you

absolutely have to know what gives you

energy

your strengths are unique to you and

your greatest room for growth

is in your area of strengths not

weakness

the fourth ingredient is needs

you must find the intersection between

the

your passion and the needs of the

organization

and this doesn’t happen overnight it

happens

one conversation at a time with managers

and mentors during your performance

evaluations and discussions related to

your goals

and i know many of you are thinking

jennifer i don’t think

i can just shape my job around what

gives me energy

i work for this company i have a job

description

it has these tasks i’d like to suggest

that you have more influence than you

think you do

i would bet there is some small piece of

your role

that you really do enjoy and if so

there is a need in your organization for

that skill set

find the intersection between your

passion

and the needs of your organization and

then

focus on the fifth and final ingredient

dedicate you must dedicate yourself for

the long term

specialize and hone your skills to

become the expert your organization

desires

every organization wants employees that

are excited

knowledgeable innovative and passionate

so what books should you be reading what

periodicals or newsletters should you be

receiving

who should you be following on social

media or linkedin

what companies are known for being

innovative

in what you’re interested in follow them

and watch them to quote zig ziglar

success occurs when opportunity meets

preparation

success almost always follows effort

think about anything that you have done

that was worth doing

it probably took your time energy and

dedication

your future success will be a reflection

of your past efforts in my own career

when things came around that were what i

really wanted to do

i raised my hand i volunteered and i

kept putting myself

out there until the those people saw in

me what i knew i had in me

so why does the fifth and final

ingredient mean so much to me well

i have dedicated myself to stenit

this past february i celebrated my 13th

anniversary

so why have i stayed at stenit for so

long

well i found an organization that will

allow me

to build a life around imbalance

i love the bright and caring people that

i get to work with

i get energy from doing my job

i have found a need that the

organization has that intersects with

one of my passions

and i have dedicated myself to being a

subject matter expert in my role

so rather than trying to balance work

and life

i invite you to take the blend challenge

begin today to blend your work and life

to build a career that gives you more

than a paycheck thank you