How do I approach Work-Life Balance Challenge ?

 

Work-life balance has always been a challenge and every one of us are trying different approaches if not to master it, finding ways to balance it. Pandemic may have contributed a bit with more calls due to new ways of working from home which otherwise would have avoided a few calls with 10 minute tea time conversation at office.  Microsoft Viva gives me an insight that I spend on average 80% of my time in calls, emails and chat with little focus time left to get things done.

Is there anything that I need to improve here?

Am I not doing proper delegation ? 

No, I have written about the 4D(Do-Drop-Delay-Delegate) principle of delegation and follow it to the best of my abilities.

Am I not getting support from my leadership? 

No, I am fortunate to have autonomy and fully empowered to run my portfolio on my own.

Do I not have appreciative customers? 

No, to the contrary my customers are so understanding and helpful in defining my priorities and move calls based on work load.

How do I approach my work then ?

Here are some of the useful traits which I believe are working for me -

Acceptance - Accepting the fact that we are a busy team with 24*7 support supplying data right from the CEO to every line of business for our customers. Although my calendar is 65% busy with pre-scheduled meetings, every day is different with priorities changing on the fly based on issues and requests, so I always have to expect the unexpected. If we accept the reality, we don't carry the baggage of finishing all items as planned because we allow priorities to change and be flexible. Imperfections allow us to learn from shortfalls and adapt quickly to ever changing situations.

Emotional Intelligence - There are a lot of emotional triggers while interacting with many teams at work which can unnecessarily cause stress and impact our energy levels. Reacting to situations based on emotional triggers can block our rational thinking. I will let my brain take control of the situation instead of my heart to judge what is the right thing to do, React vs Respond remember cockroach theory ? I have been told by many colleagues several times on how I stay composed all the time, the key is to work on emotional balance.

Positive Attitude - One of my customers mentioned how I can keep a smiling face all the time despite having so many things happening all at the same time. I strongly believe that working with a positive attitude can not only improve our performance but can influence others if the environment is pleasant and energetic. Being in the moment by keeping things in perspective and thinking local and not too far can help solve problems at hand. 

Empathy - It is important to put ourselves into others shoes, listen to acknowledge the ask from others. Many times a lot of teams approach me with a strong belief to get things done. Although I may not be helpful in all situations, I will listen to see what best help can be offered that is agreeable to all parties asserting my position on priorities of work. Sometimes I just listen as that is what is needed for a colleague to let the emotion shared and felt by somebody.

Stay Focused - I try not to be at two different places at the same time although I am expected to be at more than one all the time. I delegate the calls I am not needed and rarely be seen as inactive in calls. I also learnt recently what I experienced already was “multitasking is a myth” and it was taking a toll on my ability to perform better. Our prefrontal cortex in the brain works in sequential order and can take one cognitive activity at a time, doing more than one activity like talking while driving can cause more harm to the brain in the long run. Staying focused has helped me many times to finish calls early and share valuable feedback and suggestions to the teams needed.

Building Resilience - Being in production support teams for a long time, I worked on building resilience over the years. Situations like being on Major Service Outage calls with regular real time updates to CIO, Directors and Incident teams helped me withstanding pressure and train myself to be mentally tough. COVID has brought a different challenge in 2020 with 80% of offshore teams losing access for 6 months made us build plans to provide services with minimal disruptions. I have worked on lifestyle changes to be fit and resilient to support demanding 12-18 working hours during this period. I stopped thinking about things that are not in my control like “great resignations”, losing key people in the team etc., and started working on things I can control like available resources and time with optimizing efforts to continually improve efficiency by reducing repeated activities and challenging myself on facing uncomfortable situations. Asking for help even if we get an unfavorable response, taking quick and useful breaks and letting colleagues go chase their dreams were also some other aspects that helped me in building resilience.   

Curiosity to Learn - Learning and sharing is my passion and I always approach every call and interaction to learn something new, to build a relationship. I am always open to diversified views and learning different aspects from anybody and in any given format all the time. I also firmly believe that sharing what we have learnt not only reinforces our understanding but helps us go deeper with the feedback from different perspectives. I attended a call after 5 hours of back to back meetings on Friday evening recently just to explain a process to engage our colleagues for work. When I got a compliment on one of my recent articles on positive parenting, it helped me to build a new relationship even in that 6th hour call and inspired me to write more.

Life after work should be engaging and motivating, we need to have space and time for us and family. I practice the same traits even with myself and while interacting with my family. I Accept that the kids are creative but fun loving and need to be reminded many times even for smallest things, so I maintain Emotional Balance with Positive Attitude. I empathize with them when they share their feelings and listen to them with undivided attention to give them confidence and much needed love which can instill a habit of sharing, curiosity to learn and eventually build resilience.  

I have written earlier about my structured learning experience with the 3P(Plan-Practice-Process) model, habits and lifestyle changes, putting the 3P model to test and even learning from an adventurous expedition series that I watched in prime.  However an important aspect that I realized was to find purpose in life. I want to be compassionate to all sentient beings, carry some traits with enthusiasm to learn and share so that I can touch as many lives as possible and inspire them to amplify the ripple effect with positive vibes. I feel energized with this sense of purpose and it made me a more responsible leader by applying the behaviors and skills that I learnt at work into my personal life and carry on the learnings from life into work maintaining a magical balance.

"Your purpose in life is to find your purpose and give your whole heart and soul to it"

 - Buddha