Work Life Balance

The concept of work-life balance is not something new. It has been around for ages but it is only recently that people have become much more aware of having a good balance between work/career/profession and personal life. Not only the individuals but the organizations are also waking up to the fact that they have a role to play in helping employees maintain a good work – life balance.

It has been observed that the high stress levels or an imbalance between these two aspects in any employee negatively affect his quality of work, increases problems related to his health and causes decline in productivity and efficiency. Moreover, it also affects his personal life which again causes more stress in work life. So, this is basically a vicious circle which affects both the spheres of our lives.

There is a life at work and at home and also a life having space for leisure. Of late, we have been seeing an increasing number of social issues such as high divorce rates, infertility due high stress levels, more frequent nervous breakdowns etc. in young people. This is all due to the increasing importance of one’s career over personal life. Young people are falling prey to working 24 hours a day and hoping to get to the top very soon and in the process they totally neglect their personal lives which ultimately create such an impact on their lives that they lose out in work sphere as well.

Thus it is necessary that people exercise some control over when, where and how they work. True, work is important but not at the cost of health and personal life. Just as a good job is necessary to boost our self esteem and self worth, a good family and personal life is necessary for a happy and peaceful mind. A good balance in work and life can play a phenomenal role in the attainment of personal and professional goals.

The core of work life balance could be defined as the achievement with enjoyment. If an individual goes on working his or her best at work place without enjoying it, they will never be able to sustain it for long. Sooner or later, the performance will fall. But if you enjoy what you do, you will sustain your work motivation and excel in whatever you do. But most of us are not so lucky to get a job which we enjoy doing. There are many more concerns such as money, family etc which are involved. In such a case, though it may seem difficult, if you have a personal life to fall back on in tough times, it will help. Having something to look forward to at the end of a boring day at work can help lift your spirits and make you ready to face another challenging day at work. The key is to relax and unwind before commencing another grueling day at work.

It is quite possible that you do not enjoy what you do for eight hours a day , but you do look forward to what you do for next three four hours and that will energize you and de- stress you and let you enjoy your life. When you are relaxed and not totally dependent on your job, you have a better chance of managing your job better. Infact, you will see that you will find ways to motivate yourself and create a much better atmosphere at work too. Your productivity will increase and this will help you get better opportunities at work. Hence, it becomes absolutely vital, that you give equal importance to all the spheres of life. A person who is a workaholic and does not enjoy his family life cannot be termed a successful person.

Today the deadlines are getting tighter and an individual's job is not only to match that deadline but also to give quality output. Due to this work pressure it becomes exceedingly difficult to maintain a family life. It becomes very difficult to have the right mix of work and pleasure. While you strike a work life balance, you are not merely balancing your profession and family, you are also balancing your mental and status quo and thereby balancing your emotional intelligence, which is the worldly ability to manage you and to handle others.

According to Sarang Panchal, Nielsen’s managing director, customized research, Asia-Pacific, India, China and Greater China, “A booming economy has resulted in better jobs and salaries. However, this has brought in long work schedules, leaving individuals with very little time to balance their work and life,” It is not surprising that most Indians consider work-life balance as their biggest concern since demanding careers are taking a toll on their family lives.”

The organizations are also doing their bit by helping employees have a healthy work life balance. They have specialized training and awareness programmes and also allow their employees to actively pursue a hobby and a healthy after work life. According to Shantanu Banerjee, Director HR, Xansa , “Employees tend to feel motivated when they feel that the organization is putting extra effort in providing a healthy balance between work and life." It has been seen that there is a strong link between work-life balance policies and reduced absenteeism, increased productivity and job satisfaction. Other benefits include improved recruitment and retention rates with associated cost savings, a reduction in employee stress, greater levels of job satisfaction and loyalty and an improved corporate image.

The benefits of a healthy work life balance are there for both the individuals and the organizations. Hence, it is not only important but also better to give equal importance to all the spheres of your life.

Emotional Intelligence – How important it is in workplace

Emotional Intelligence as a necessity in workplace is fast gaining popularity these days. It has been observed and shown that because of their wide range of abilities, people with high emotional intelligence tend to be more successful in life than those with lower EQ (emotional quotient) even if their general IQ is average.

But before delving into its importance, let’s consider what it is all about.

Emotional intelligence as a concept was made popular by Daniel Goleman in his world famous book -- 'Emotional Intelligence: Why it Can Matter More than IQ', which is based on research by various eminent scientists such as Peter Salovey, John Meyer, Howard Gardner, etc. In simpler words, Emotional intelligence is the innate potential to feel, use, communicate, recognize, remember, describe, identify, learn from, manage, understand and explain emotions.

Similarly, Emotional Quotient is defined as a set of competencies demonstrating the ability one has to recognize his or her behaviors, moods, and impulses, and to manage them best according to the situation.

Actually, it is not hard to see what we are talking about here. Leaving aside the management jargon, it is as simple as being strong both physically and emotionally and to withstand emotional pressures at work. Even in our day to day life, we all are aware of certain people who simple cannot get hold of their emotions. They are too emotional to talk to. We avoid talking to certain type of persons who react rather strongly to things.There are some who cry at slightest trouble (especially women), some lose their temper at slightest provocation (especially men) and some who react even violently to certain situations.

This is exactly, what is being termed as emotional intelligence. That is intelligence to know and understand your emotions and not only understand but also being able to control them. So, when a person can understand his/her own reactions to situations and people, they are able to behave in much more appropriate manner at the workplace. And they are considered as more “matured” and reasonable to work with, for obvious reasons. Add to this the ability to understand other people also; relate to their situation, show understanding of their particular problem or issue , from their point of view and you get a person who can deal with people, understand their moods and issues and work accordingly. Who would not want to work with such people?

So, How does this behavioral intelligence translates into workplace success?

An employee with high emotional intelligence can manage and control his or her own impulses, communicate with others effectively by understanding others better and listening to them more effectively, handle unexpected changes easily, adapts to various situations, and solves problems. These employees are generally optimistic and do not react too overtly to any situation. The clarity in thinking and their composure in stressful and chaotic situations separates top performers from weak performers in the workplace. Obviously such people are a boon for any organization, but the vice versa is also true. That is, many people who are otherwise of average intelligence and good technical skills but emotionally weak lose out in career growth because of their weakness in controlling their emotions.

Experts have identified some emotional intelligence competencies that have been proven to contribute more to workplace achievement than technical skills, cognitive ability, and standard personality traits. These are but not limited to:

1. Empathy: Our awareness of others' feelings, needs, and concerns. This helps to understand other people’s feelings and perspectives, and showing an active interest in their concerns and interests. Also those in customer handling positions are able to anticipate, recognize, and meet customers' needs.

2. Social Skills. Getting other people to respond to you in a certain way or getting the desired responses from others. This is especially useful if you are in leadership position and can use these skills to influence subordinates and get desired results.

3. Personal Competencies: These skills help to manage our own emotions through self awareness, preferences, and intuition. Being aware of one's strengths and weaknesses leads to self-confidence and allows such people to effectively use their strengths while trying to improve on the weaknesses.

4. Restrain negative feelings and Reinforce positive behavior: the ability to control negativities such as anger and self-doubt, and instead focus on positive ones such as confidence and congeniality.

5. Maintaining good balance between work and family: Another important skill is to have a healthy work –family balance. As human beings it is good to have a cushion against negativity in any one sphere of life. We need to have a good strong family support system to help us enjoy both aspects of life.

Therefore, it is a good idea to spend some time getting to know one self and our responses in typical situations. Getting a better handle on your emotions will lead you to have a better control and progress in your careers.

Self Motivate yourself to overcome tough times.

Motivation is the most discussed and least understood phenomena. Right from Maslow’s theory till now, there has been an unending debate on how or what motivates an individual. But what has definitely emerged form this debate is that self motivation or intrinsic motivation is the one that stays a long time.

Extrinsic motivation is caused by external factors where someone else tries to get things done in a certain way and gives out rewards/punishments for adherence. Needless to say that intrinsic motivation comes from within where in the person really wants to do his/her work.

During the tough times such as the current economic recession, even keeping one’s job is getting difficult. Thus there is no question of high rewards or incentives for employees during these times. But it is still important to keep your motivational levels high because this can help you tide over difficult period.

So, what exactly is “motivation”? Motivation is a psychological process that gives behavior purpose and direction. Or it is an internal drive to satisfy an unsatisfied need.

Staying motivated is a constant struggle even in good times for most of us. We as humans are constantly exposed to negative thoughts from others as well as self induced doubts and depressions. And this is what separates the highly successful from the others. Although there is no simple solution for a lack of motivation, it is important to sustain it to stay afloat in the current job scenario. Keeping employees happy and motivated is one of the key challenges of Human resource people. Actually, sometimes it is more important for an employee to be recognized for his good work rather than be awarded. Little gestures of recognition and understanding can ago a long way in producing self motivated employees.

Let us look at some common tips to help one self motivate himself during slump times. But before that let us understand why we lose our motivation. It could be because of external factors such as bad vibes in the workplace or situation such as that of today of economic recession or they could be internal such as Lack of confidence, direction and focus. Out of these, there is not much we can do about external factors, but we can definitely control our internal motivational factors. And this is how we can do it --

1. Set Goals -- Short and long term goals - Use both short and long term goals to guide yourself to your ultimate aim in life. Keep reminding yourself of these goals as and when possible.

2. Make Work fun - Work is most enjoyable when it doesn’t feel like work at all. Add activities that you find most enjoyable and create positive environment to get better results.

3. Create challenges – you will be happy when you are progressing towards a goal which is not only attainable but requires you to be more creative. Winning small battles gives the motivation for tackling bigger issues.

4. Finish what you start. A half finished project is of no use to anyone. Quitting is a habit. Develop the habit of finishing projects.

5. Keep self learning or learning new things. First this will help to reduce dependency on others for knowledge and second it will open up new worlds of opportunities and most importantly, it will keep you interested in doing something new.

6. Align and Harmonize natural talent with interest that motivates. Natural talent creates motivation, motivation creates persistence and persistence gets the job done.

7. Learn to take risk. Failure and bouncing back are elements of motivation. Failure is a learning tool. No one has ever succeeded at anything worthwhile without a string of failures

Keeping track of your most important tasks will direct your energy towards success. So, keep yourself occupied with step by step goals and see how it takes you to the ultimate one.

Goal Setting: An Important Exercise

All of us who have worked in professional environments have faced this word very often. Goal setting and measuring has become a very important part of corporate work cultures. Infact, it has been termed and described as one of the basic reason of enhancing productivity in organizations. So, what is so special about it?

Goal setting is a not a new management funda or anything which has been unknown. We all have been doing it for ourselves everyday in our lives or at some point in our life. We all set our sights on something important in our life – it could be any particular object that we want to buy, a latest car, a play station, a house, a laptop . So, getting that thing is our goal and how we go about getting it is our action plan. The only difference here is that we do not actually acknowledge it as a goal and end up not achieving it.

This is where the process of verbalizing and writing down your goals can help. Writing down your goals is important. You are able to clearly define what you want. Secondly, it will make it simpler to review and follow the goal.

The written word is the difference between a real goal and a dream. But there are some things which need to be kept in mind when writing your goals:

1. Set a goal which is really important to you and not which others tell you are good for you. – usually we follow what others (parents, friends, peers) tell us to be good. And this is why most of us fail to reach our goals. The reason is that we are not at all passionate about such goals because they are not our goals at all.

2. Make SMART Goals – This is the most commonly used acronym used in connection with goal setting in business environments. But the fact is that it makes sense in personal sphere as well. Let us look at them one by one.

a. Specific – Each and every goal you set should be specific. A general statement such as “I want to be successful” is not a goal.

b. Measurable – Though this comes straight from business environment, it is important for any goal to be measurable; otherwise you will not be able to identify its success or failure properly.

c. Achievable – Do not set a goal which is impossible to attain. You will never even try to achieve it because you know you cannot do it.

d. Relevant – This is important because goals which are against your core values or wishes are irrelevant. This attribute also makes sense when we talk about having smaller goals which take us to the ultimate goal.

e. Time-based – The goals should be time bound. You cannot set a goal and hope you will achieve it one day. There has to be a specific time period in which you must attain it otherwise it may lose its significance.

3. Make them prominent – display these goals at all possible places within your home and office so that you can see them easily. They should serve you as constant reminders of what you are supposed to do in your life.

4. Review – Last, review your goals very often. Check out the progress you are making. Set smaller sub goals to reach your final goal. Not only these sub goals motivate you further on achievement, they also let you monitor the progress you have made till that point.

Another important aspect here is to be Flexible. Sometimes we seem to hit a rock barrier and it seems like we cannot go any further. In such cases, be open to modify your goals to suit the current scenario. Or it may also happen that the situation changes dramatically and the goals you set are no longer as relevant as they were then. Again, be flexible enough to revise them rather than leave them altogether.

But this flexibility should not be used to cover up the deficiency or under-achievement of goals.

Goal setting is the foundation for personal and workplace success. But it is not a simple writing down of some ideas on a piece of paper. Goal setting is a roadmap to your success. Therefore, put in some effort to set your goals and achieve what you want in life.

Be Responsible

Taking responsibility, Being Responsible, responsibility -- we have all heard these words very often in our life. And we use them quite liberally too. But, how many of us are actually doing it?

If you are thinking that doing your job properly makes you responsible -- then you are wrong. Politicians who claim to take moral responsibility for accidents and tragedies are simply faking it. No one take responsibility of other people's actions. And this is precisely the problem of 95% men/women/children.We equate responsibility with care, effectiveness and efficiency.

We as a society has been taught to take responsibility for everything except ourselves. But we do not take responsibility of our own actions and emotions. Everything is blamed on someone else or something else. For us, the government, the politicians, the rich, the bosses, the neighbours, the in-laws, the spouses, the kids -- everyone is to blame but our own selves.

Why is it so hard to look for shortcomings and faults in ourselves? We all know we are not perfect -- but still we all struggle to accept our faults. No wonder the, without acceptance, there is no way we can move forward to correct them. And when we learn to look at our own shortcomings and try to improve upon them -- we are being responsible.Let us look at some tips on how we can be responsible to ourselves --

1. first of all, acknowledge the fact that you are not perfect. And you can make mistakes. And there is nothing wrong in making mistakes -- but it is wrong not to own them up.

2. When confronted with a conflict, think about your own role before analyzing others. Most of the time you will find, that you could have done things differently.

3. Do not blame others for your problems. Look for solutions. Blaming others will not solve the problem.

4. Take action to improve things you are not happy with. Do not expect others to do it for you.

5. Fulfill your promises to yourself. Take time out for your own self and treat yourself with respect and you will find others will follow suit.

6. Do not allow others to make you feel bad. You are not what others think you are. You are what you think you are.

The idea is to be responsible first to your own self and then think of taking responsibility for others.

Importance of Team work and Team Building

Team work is all about working together for a common goal or objective. It is obvious that no one person is capable of doing all the work. It is for this purpose that teams are formed.

Teams can not only work faster but also more efficiently. Sometimes, when confronted with a somewhat difficult problem, managers form a team to look into its different aspects and find a solution. The idea is that “Several heads are better than one”. The discussions, ideas that flow between the team members have better opportunity to be explored. Thus it is a common practice to use team or group to solve a particular problem.

From an individualistic point of view, an individual has to interact with different people. As a new comer, you are always part of one team or a group. In a department, individual goals are always linked with the team goals or the departmental goals. Hence it becomes imperative that you should know how to work in a Group or a team.

But the question is : How does an effective team work help an Individual?

Simply put team goals generally have more weightage than the individual goals. Underachievement of team goals do not go well with the top management as they will not bring the desired results. Although individual goals are equally important, organizations do not thrive on individual brilliance. Organizations are not individuals – they are a collection of individuals. Therefore, companies stress on good and cohesive teams and try to encourage a team spirit in their employees. A cohesive team can fulfill all its goals and objectives which in turn will benefit each and every individual in the team.

Even from an employee point of view, working in good teams helps to bring out the strengths of each employee. No one wants to work in a team where members backbite or try to discredit each other. Every one is looking for an environment which is conducive to work and where there is a degree of mutual respect and trust for each other.

Companies look for this very quality when recruiting new people.

Thus to be effective in a team and become a good team worker you must:

1. Encourage and display a friendly and cooperative behavior.

2. Treat everyone as you want others to treat you.

3. Work as per the team requirement and not for or at your own convenience.

4. A helpful attitude goes a long way in fostering team spirit.

5. Be open and be willing to contribute

6. Develop a relaxed climate for communication

7. Establishes clear goals and targets

Email and Phone Etiquettes

E-mail and Phone etiquettes are part of the communication skills. They are also one of the important ways of communicating and sharing your opinions and views with others.

All of us use emails for writing or sending personal messages to friends and relatives but when it is an official email , make sure to follow these points:

1. It is a good idea to use a signature line with contact details when writing to clients or customers. But this can be ignored if you are writing to persons who know you well or to people within your own group.

2. Your message should not be too long or too short. If you need to provide more information, attach a separte file or a document.

3. Never send attachments which are great in size. This not only clogs the servers, they are difficult to download. Large documents should be placed on server and a link should be provided.

4. Do not use emotions and abbreviations in business and official mails.

5. Add disclaimers while sending mails to clients as it helps to protect the company from liability.

6. Send your mails only to persons who require it. Do not mark a copy to all just for the purpise of showing off your work.

Similarly, While on Phone,

1. Introduce yourself with your name. And start with a formal Hello.

2. In a business environment most people do not want to chat just for the sake of it. Before you try to get their attention ensure you know exactly what needs to be discussed.

3. Duriang Official calls, do not crack jokes unless the other party initiates them, And even if you do, do not go overboard.

4. Speak softly and avoid disturbing your co-workers. If possible walk out of the work area before you attend the call.

5. If you are in a meeting either switch off your mobile or put it on the silent mode. Avoid answering calls or responding to text messages. If it is absolutely necessary to do so, be courteous and explain the situation before excusing yourself from the room.

6.If you are with colleagues or clients inform the caller about the same as s/he may prefer a more private set up.