Striking the right work-life balance

Sunil Gujral, EVP & CTO, Quattro BPO Solutions, started his session on Adventures in IT: Work-Life Balance with an interesting quote from John Chambers, Chairman and CEO, Cisco, “Work is not where you go, but what you do,” and went on to give a fresh insight into the topic.

Sunil Gujral

When we think of work, we think of our offices. We need to know whether we’re enjoying the work or not. The work-life balance is based on your daily achievements. You need to enjoy what you achieve and find a way to enjoy your job.

Big CEOs are not really happy, as they’ve been toiling all their lives. They are successful but yet not happy. Life consists of my work, my family and most importantly myself. Unless we realise the importance of ourselves, we cannot be happy. People take up golf for enjoying the work-life balance. However, at that point they start to ignore their family, thus the balance is still lacking. The best work-life balance is different for each of us because we all have different priorities.

A good definition of work-life balance is meaningful daily achievement and enjoyment in each of the four life quadrants: work, family, friends and self.

Achieving the balance

There is no cookie cutter solution. Each person has to find his own formula defining the composition of career, family, friends and self into an integrated whole. When people’s lives are out of balance, they are unable to identify the obvious options for themselves and their families. You have to learn to be selfish. You are no good to anyone if you yourself are indisposed.

You should maximise your productivity at work. Don’t let unfinished business carry over into your personal time. Always put in your best effort, even if you aren’t playing to your strengths by operating in the area of your core competence.

Being organised is important. Try to manage your day, instead of letting the day manage you.

Make lists of things to do and use technologies like PDAs to offload stress. Lists invariably become lengthy. So you need to identify those which contribute towards a balance. Change is imminent, which means that you must be flexible. Those who accept this are productive, well adjusted individuals.

Plan, but do not run your life on a time table. Its important to prioritise, but be mindul that nothing is static. Don’t be a slave to your e-mail or phone calls. One needs ‘downtime’ to refresh mentally, emotionally or physically. I got a BlackBerry and whenever I would get up at night or in the morning I would keep checking it. It became an obsession. If you have a BlackBerry you’re expected to reply to even small, unimportant messages immediately. So I returned the BlackBerry and started using a regular phone.

You need to know your weaknesses and strengths. Improve your skills as necessary to enhance your productivity and reduce stress. You are human. You will make mistakes and fall short of the ideal, including your own. Don’t wallow in guilt. Learn from your mistakes.

Being a good employee, spouse, parent, and friend doesn’t mean blindly giving into everyone else’s demands and spending all your time and energy doing for others as they dictate. So learn to say no to people.

Choose the right team members, those who are better than yourself… invest time in the process. Know your team members, colleagues and supervisors, their strengths and weaknesses. Leverage their strengths, and provide support in their areas of weakness. Monitor (not manage) initial engagements, just like a lifeguard monitors new swimmers. Trust them and delegate—make yourself dispensable, so that you can play a larger role in strategic initiatives. Help them have their own work-life balance.

Take time out for yourself. This may sound difficult for people who believe that they are in a responsible position. But find opportunities within your busy work schedule. Take frequent, shorter breaks. I make sure that I take at least five breaks in a year.

Try working from home to address those pressing personal and family needs. Worry, but only up to a point.

Work-life management is no longer an individual concern. Large corporates are realising this as the differentiator for employee retention and performance. Best Buy, a leading electronics retailer brand in the US has embarked on a novel endeavour called ROWE (results-only work environment). Demolish decades-old dogma that equates physical presence with productivity. Instead judge performance on output.