Today in our A to Z of Leadership Success we are going to be looking at the letter B.

B for me is all about:

• Building a great support team
• Believing in yourself
• Bringing out the best in others
• Balancing work and life

What favourites would you add to the list?

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to achieve success and realize their professional potential through being highly effective leaders and managers. For more information and to sign up for his free audio e-course click here

Work life balance is often seen as an area of challenge by managers and leaders.  As we progress with our careers, move up the hierarchy it is all too easy to become so focused on our work and lose sight of other important things like family, exercise, sports and hobbies.  Work life balance for me is about having a mix of things in our life.  By nature it will be fluid rather than something that is fixed once and forgotten about.  At a very simple level, achieving work life balance comes down to the 3Cs – clarity, choice and control.  So let’s explore each of these in more detail.

Clarity

If we are honest most of the time we just bob along from day to day without giving much thought to what we want. Getting clarity on what we want is the first step in getting results in terms of work life balance.  List out the common areas of your life such as money, career, health, family, fun, relationships and contribution to the community.  Armed with this information, write out what you would like that area of your life to be like.  In doing this, be as specific as possible about the outcomes you want.  For example, earning an annual salary of $100,000, working a maximum of 45 hours, spending 3 hours a week exercising are all specific outcomes.  So the first step in improving work life balance is getting clarity on what you want.

Choice

We always have choices.  Even choosing to do nothing is a choice.  Yet when it comes to work, we can often fall into the trap of being passive when it comes to choices.  Getting work life balance requires you to make choices around how you spend your time, the meetings that you attend, how you deal with telephone calls, how you handle e-mails, what you keep doing and what you delegate are all choices.  To start improving your work life balance determine what you do best, where you have the greatest impact and then make choices based on this criteria.

Control

Are you taking control or are you a puppet on string?  Those that excel in work life balance take control of their schedule rather than let others dictate it.  We have all probably worked with people who are always late for meetings or worse still cancel at the last minute because they have over committed themselves.  Taking control is not about being difficult but setting out boundaries that you work to and look others to work within.  It makes it easier all round.

Bottom line – work life balance is a fluid state rather than something that you fix and forget about.  Addressing the 3Cs, clarity, choice and control can make a huge difference to improving work life balance.  So what’s your next step in improving your work life balance?

When it comes to expenditure, the biggest single item for the vast majority of businesses is salaries and related costs.  In view of this, one would think that looking after that investment would be a high priority.  Many see it this way but many others don’t.  So why does people management matter?

Cost

It is not uncommon for 60% of the total expenditure of a company to be on staff.  If there were any other investments of this scale on anything else in the business, don’t you think it would be getting a high level of attention?

Talent shortage

Much has been written about talent management over the last few years about the war for talent.  For example, in response to The Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD) eighth learning and development survey, 47% of respondents identified that there was a shortage of high quality talent in UK organisations.  In some professions these numbers are even higher.  Against this backdrop of talent shortage, people management takes on increased importance.

Without People There Is No Business

While there are some business (such as internet based businesses) that may be less people dependent, the vast majority still are highly dependent on people to:

• Attract clients or customers
• Make sales
• Provide the product or service
• Physically ship the product
• Manage customer relationships
• Keep on top of the finances
• Look after legal aspects
• Set policies
• Innovation
• Sourcing supplies and services

Without people in the above and many other areas of the business, the organisation would simply not function.

Retention

As well as the challenge to attract staff, retention is also a huge issue for many businesses.  The employment landscape continues to change.  Industries are consolidating which means that even big employers cannot give long term guarantees.  There is much greater mobility in the workforce.  Many more people are able to go and work overseas and keep in regular touch with people back home through the use of technology.  All of the above add to the retention challenges that businesses face.

Expectations

Our parents might have been happy just to have a job but those entering the workforce have much greater expectations.  They are looking for and expecting:

• Opportunities for progression
• Challenging and enjoyable work
• Work that has some meaning for them
• A good work environment
• A balance between their work and their life

At the end of the day, if you are an employer who wants to get results and is dependent on people to deliver them, people management needs to be given a high priority.