Today I want to reflect on the concept of Work-Life Balance (WLB).
Back when I was doing my MBA, I remember talking to my professor and former Baxter CEO Harry M. Kraemer who said “this phrase (WLB) sounds like you are either working OR living, and if work isn’t part of living, we may have a problem!”. Daphne Scott from DS Leadership Life has humorous spin on it: “The phrase "work-life balance" implies that you're either at work and dead, or you're living”.
Semantics aside, Mr. Kraemer further reflects on that in his book “From Values to Action” and refers to WLB simple as Life Balance. The book outlines his framework in which work and career is just one of the six buckets that each one of us must manage to achieve life balance. The other buckets being: Family and friends, spirituality, health (including sleep and exercise), fun and enjoyment, and being a “best citizen”, that is “making a difference” in the world.
While today I don’t want to advocate for semantics changes, I do think that the rationale behind this criticism is worth discussing. The first being that work is part of life and secondly that balance is open to interpretation.
It comes down to the fact that work is not just a means to an end. More and more employees are looking for jobs with meaning, purpose and aligned with their values. Our work is not separated from our lives, but it’s part of it and it needs to be balanced in face of the other important things in life (all buckets).
What about balance? Oxford defines balance as “a situation in which different elements are equal or in the correct proportions.” The key words for me here are “correct proportions”. The challenge is that everyone has a different version of his/her own proportions. There’s no “magic bullet” to solve it. You can only achieve Life Balance if you know what balance means to YOU. The proportion that you assign to each bucket is unique to you.
Whether you use the term work-life balance (I hope you don’t) or a substitute, the point is that high performance is driven by aligning our work with our values and higher purpose. You need to understand your core values, purposes and priorities so that you can create your own life balance which will include your work and career.
Back when I was doing my MBA, I remember talking to my professor and former Baxter CEO Harry M. Kraemer who said “this phrase (WLB) sounds like you are either working OR living, and if work isn’t part of living, we may have a problem!”. Daphne Scott from DS Leadership Life has humorous spin on it: “The phrase "work-life balance" implies that you're either at work and dead, or you're living”.
Semantics aside, Mr. Kraemer further reflects on that in his book “From Values to Action” and refers to WLB simple as Life Balance. The book outlines his framework in which work and career is just one of the six buckets that each one of us must manage to achieve life balance. The other buckets being: Family and friends, spirituality, health (including sleep and exercise), fun and enjoyment, and being a “best citizen”, that is “making a difference” in the world.
While today I don’t want to advocate for semantics changes, I do think that the rationale behind this criticism is worth discussing. The first being that work is part of life and secondly that balance is open to interpretation.
It comes down to the fact that work is not just a means to an end. More and more employees are looking for jobs with meaning, purpose and aligned with their values. Our work is not separated from our lives, but it’s part of it and it needs to be balanced in face of the other important things in life (all buckets).
What about balance? Oxford defines balance as “a situation in which different elements are equal or in the correct proportions.” The key words for me here are “correct proportions”. The challenge is that everyone has a different version of his/her own proportions. There’s no “magic bullet” to solve it. You can only achieve Life Balance if you know what balance means to YOU. The proportion that you assign to each bucket is unique to you.
Whether you use the term work-life balance (I hope you don’t) or a substitute, the point is that high performance is driven by aligning our work with our values and higher purpose. You need to understand your core values, purposes and priorities so that you can create your own life balance which will include your work and career.
