At a company meeting last March 1st (at Notre Dame), I had a chance to talk with the team about the whole Work-Life Balance thing.
To me, it has always been way more about INTEGRATION … rather than BALANCE.
For me, it was always about the entrepreneurial adventure and the integration of family and boxing and travel and good health.
Stew Friedman, who is a Wharton School Professor, has just come out with a new book called LEADING THE LIFE YOU WANT: SKILLS FOR INTEGRATING WORK AND LIFE.
I saw this post at Forbes from Dorie Clark and am just starting the book.
Two great teaser quotes:
“That was the big motivating idea: to cut through the common wisdom that you have to give up everything in order to be successful.”
I fought the work-life balance thing for a long time. ‘Balance‘ time with family, work, travel, working out, six weeks at Notre Dame, etc.
It finally dawned on me that having family members work with you in business, taking grandkids with you on trips, taking a mini-sabbatical at Notre Dame to coach allowed great time for writing and thinking, etc. or way more about INTEGRATION. Friedman talks about the term ‘work-life balance’ needs to be overhauled and the implication that we can (or should) appropriately balance our personal and professional lives all the time is faulty.
It’s probably worth ordering the book just to get the thinking behind this pretty big idea.
One last quote:
“The people who are most successful are those who figure out ways of bringing the different pieces together in ways that are mutually reinforcing.”
