Dr Edward Gifford – April 2007

Without exception, when I work with organisations, work-life balance is a major personal "want" of people trying to find meaning in their daily lives. Enlightened employers also understand how essential this is for an organisation's purpose, productivity and performance.

'Hurry sickness' is increasing as people struggle to manage their private and professional lives. Employers and employees are struggling to balance day-to-day work and family pressure, learn new and challenging technologies, stay fit and healthy, maintain relationships and cope with personal financial pressures. And they are failing. People's lives are filled yet unfulfilled and these realities are impacting families and the workplace. Burnout is rife and the ripple effect on personal and professional life is alarming.

We see in our Life Coaching and Life Planning work and in our On-Purpose Business consulting, the despondency, depression, and dissatisfaction as people struggle to give time to the things that matter most in their lives.

Working hours are increasing and more than ever before, managers lead employees who battle insecurity, face downsizing, and are more stressed as they are expected to deliver at very high levels. Furthermore, while technology has allowed working styles to be more open and flexible, it has led to the intrusion of work into the home via mobile phone and emails creating a work/life tension that is feeding discontentment. All of this on top of the rapid pace of change is seeing people yearn for some balance or life integration. (We prefer to use life integration rather than life balance as balance to many infers "equal" both in terms of time and importance. there are some areas of our life that are more important than others even though we spend less time on them. We strive to "integrate all of life" not "balance all of life").

We believe that more than ever, leaders need to recognise this need for integration in the lives of their employees and for themselves also. The consequences of inaction are burnout and high staff turnover on both sides. Coaching for work/life integration is as essential in the corporate sector as it already is in the Life Coaching area.

Personal Responsibility

In my previous writings and teaching on this issue, I put the onus on individuals to achieve work-life balance by taking personal responsibility and ownership for their lives.In our Power of Your Purpose Workshops, and coaching, participants are led through a process which identifies and actions their "core wants" across each of their seven life "accounts" (vocational, family, spiritual, intellectual, social, physical/health, financial). They then develop visions, missions, and values for each of these in alignment with their Life Purpose. This process is powerful and effective in assisting with work-life integration. However, it's surprising how few people are prepared to invest time into planning their life in this way and to pay the price to determine what really does matter most in their life. Once you replace clarity with confusion, you are in a much stronger position to say 'yes' to the truly meaningful and important things in your life. (Remember the old adage – "When I say yes to something, what am I saying no to?"). Once you have a burning "yes" inside you about what truly is important, it's very easy to say "no" to the unimportant.

Corporate or Organisational Responsibility

I am increasingly convinced that organisations need to assume far greater responsibility in ensuring work-life integration for their staff. This is not the responsibility of just a few enlightened leaders but the responsibility of all business owners, employers, corporate leaders and CEO's in all organisations.

One of the ways to ensure that a strong alignment of people with the organisation (Pp<->Po) is to create a workplace culture where work-life balance is encouraged and facilitated.Espousing it is one thing but to action it becomes an enormous challenge for organisational leaders. And it won't happen unless the example comes from the top and there is a culture of trust.

Work-Life integration for most workers will be a 'pipedream' unless organisations take a serious look at how they are operating. Without doubt, they are struggling.

Stephen Covey echoes this in a recent publication (Work-Life Balance: A Different Cut in Forbes 21/3/07). He believes that when you get beyond the personal, there is another profoundly pervasive cause for work-life imbalance."It is to be found in the painful and surprisingly ineffective way most organisations work."

FranklinCovey recently polled 23,000 U.S. residents employed full time within key industries and in key functional areas. Consider a few of their most stunning findings which I have summarised and adapted in the table below:

Covey goes on to say:

"The data is sobering. Despite all our gains in technology, product innovation and world markets, most people are not thriving in the organizations they work for. They are neither fulfilled nor excited. They are frustrated. They are not clear about where the organization is headed or what its highest priorities are. They are bogged down and distracted. Most of all, they don't feel they can change much. Can you imagine the personal and organizational cost of failing to fully engage the passion, talent and intelligence of the workforce? Can you imagine the waste of time, energy and resources?

The scenario is similar in Australia. According to a SEEK Survey (The 2003 SEEK Survey of Employee Satisfaction and Motivation) approximately 75% Australian employees say they are unhappy or have no feelings either way about their work!

Even more damning are the findings of a survey of 900 major Australian organisations conducted by international development firm Human Synergistics (Report : Organisational Culture Inventory, July 2004) involving more than 130,000 employees. According to the report 90% or Australians work in a negative culture of blame, indecision and conformity. It found that management styles and bosses' actions were out of touch with espoused values of most organisations and that most managers worked under the misguided assumptions about human behaviour.

In our own work with a variety of organisations we have had similar experiences to the above. While the "bosses" and leaders generally want employees to have far greater work-life balance, they also want employees to get the work done even if this means consistently long hours at 'the coal face'. Here's the crunch. Despite the good intentions of employers and the commitment of many staff, less than 10% of these organisations had a clear purpose and vision for the organisations. Espoused values were not aligned with the purpose and visions of the organisation nor were they consistently being lived out. Departments did not have clear goals that were in alignment with the corporate plan. People were not empowered to be On-Purpose and few knew how their purpose was aligned to the organisational purpose. Clear systems were not keeping up with the changing face of business and the pace of technology, performance KPI's were rarely centred around the purpose, visions, missions and values of the organisation and very few staff could confidently describe their customers and the key stakeholders associated with the organisation.

In order to help facilitate a greater sense of purpose, alignment, integration and clarity at the organisational, departmental and individual levels, we have worked to develop and implement The On-Purpose Service Model (See The On-Purpose Business by Kevin W. McCarthy). This addresses all the issues raised by FranklinCovey and provides for clear answers to where the organisation is headed and how each individual is empowered to meaningfully contribute. It ensures that each person can become a TOP (The On-Purpose) Performer. By doing this they will take responsibility and be accountable, have a long term perspective, seek to add value at all times, and adopt a sales and marketing mindset.Can you imagine what this would do to the bottom line and to peace of mind?

In other words, implementing the model will ensure that staff will have a clear understanding of the organisational purpose and goals; be enthusiastic about the directions they are heading and about their teams goals; develop greater trust of and within the organisation; feel good about their productivity; foster respect and open communication; establish procedures for ongoing accountability; and ensure high trust cooperative relationships.

Develop these within the workplace and you will be astounded at the increased performance and productivity and the smiling faces that go with these. This will make organisations more effective and efficient. The clarity and performance achieved will allow greater time to find integration.

In summary, if you want to have greater integration between your personal and professional life you will need to a least do the following.

Secret One – Determine what matters most (your core wants) in each of your life accounts, develop action plans for these and stay focussed on them. By taking small action steps each day, your will achieve the really important things in life. Not to achieve these would mean that your life is off-purpose. The result is burnout, depression, anxiety, frustration, meaningless activity and a troubled spirit.

Secret Two - Discover your Life Purpose (not your job) and align each of your life "accounts" to that.You will then learn to live "in the now" as you focus on your purpose moment by moment and day by day. In time, you will unconsciously live out your purpose both personally and professionally.

Secret Three – Look for opportunities at work to be On-Purpose even if the organisation is Off-Purpose. You can still make a difference but the long term effect of little or no alignment may mean you will look for an organisation that does value its people.

Secret Four – Become a person of influence in your organisation.Develop The On-Purpose Service Model for your team and for yourself. Establish at least one clear goal in each layer of the Service Model so that you are crystal clear about the most important priorities of the organization the team and yourself. Prioritise your work around those top priorities.

Do these and not only will you be more purposeful and productive, but you will discover that you will begin to have more time for those things in life that are most meaningful to you.Instead of being frustrated, anxious depressed and unfulfilled you will discover what On-Purpose is really all about – Having a life of meaningful balance and integration.

Dr Edward Gifford

Co-Director On-Purpose Life Academy and Principal, On-Purpose Partners.