The business environment has always been demanding and more so today. Companies want to “hire the best” in the market so that they can have flatter and “cost-efficient” organisations. Many executives I’ve coached struggle hard to fulfil the responsibilities they are charged with. They work at work and they work at home, weekdays, weekends, nights, public holidays. They are far too busy and too stressed up to step back, learn from their experiences and make changes, let alone devote time and energy towards their own development. Work-life balance is elusive to many executives.

If they are too busy and too stressed up, does it not make you wonder – how is their life outside of work? What is it like at home? How are they with family, with the people they love? Do they have a social life and do they have time to pursue their hobbies and passions? No need to wonder I think because we’ve all been there, done that.

The Problem is Not the Problem

Work-life issues are a common underlying problem which affects an executive’s or businessperson’s effectiveness at work. Inevitably, though, during coaching, many of my clients discover that the problem is not the problem. The work problem or issue that is the subject of a coaching session can turn out to be a personal or life issue, which when resolved, helps the client overcome the work issue.

Drawing the Line

Do we have to draw a line between “work and business” and “life, family and relationship” issues? Isn’t it true that life is indivisible?

An executive’s issue that he thinks his boss “doesn’t like him” and is bypassing him for promotion turns out to be a communication issue. He wasn’t able to deliver on his deadlines because his wife just had a baby. Arriving home daily, exhausted from work, he takes over from his wife to care for their new baby. Two nights in a row, the baby was fretting and on the third night, they had to take the baby to the hospital and arrived home at 5 am. His boss wouldn’t accept his reasons because they were “family” issues and so he never told the boss.

An entrepreneur’s issue of how to improve his cash flow so he can meet his personal financial obligations turns out to be his inability to collect large outstanding sums from 3 clients who are his friends and family. “I don’t like asking them for money,” he laments. He doesn’t want to cause a rift in his relationships yet money-worries affects his motivation and performance in his business.

A senior executive tells of his problem that he was overwhelmed at work because he had too much to do and his direct reports were “incompetent” and the real issue was his inability to focus at work because his wife was leaving him.

It’s common to hear bosses saying, “Leave your personal problems at home!” And family members saying “Leave your work problems at work!”. That is easier said than done. If anyone says that he or she has been able to do just that, he or she has achieved a pseudo sense of balance.

Achieving Balance

Is it necessary to sacrifice one part of your life in order to succeed in the other? Should you go through life always having to make compromises in one aspect or another? Is work more important than home and family life? Than your health? Than your emotional wellbeing? I believe that life is indivisible and to be happy is to be able to achieve balance in all important areas of our life.

Coaching is not about telling people what to do. Instead, it focusses on what you as the client wants – it’s about giving you a chance to examine what you are doing in the light of your intentions and facilitating self-discovery, helping you to learn and find your own answers. As your Coach, my focus is always on your agenda, to bring you on your path to excellence and a happy life, to help you discover what you truly want and how to get it.

Work-life balance means different things to different people. One thing’s for sure though – if you want it bad enough, you will discover what it truly means for you. And I help you do that, just as I’ve helped many clients resolve work-life balance issues. We have worked at the core of what’s important to them instead of compartmentalising work and life.

A life well-lived is a life of growth in all areas of your life – there’s no such thing as “work” or “personal”. What happens in one affects the other and in the end, it is about having a vision of what and who you want to become.