What Does-Work Life Balance Actually Mean?

Hi there, I'm Ben Morton, and welcome to The Leader's Kitbag, the podcast that delivers practical leadership insights in less than 10 minutes. Each episode tackles a real challenge faced by leaders and managers with simple ideas and tools you can take away and apply immediately. And because leadership doesn't happen sitting behind a desk, Many of these episodes are recorded outside whilst I'm walking and thinking. They're informal, unscripted, and straight to the point. So, wherever you are, let's get started and sharpen your leadership skills one episode at a time!

If you're someone who's striving for better work-life balance, or perhaps feel as though you never quite achieve it, then today's episode of The Leader's Kitbag is for you. Because work-life balance is something we hear and talk about all of the time. Many of us say we want it or chase it even, but I'm not sure how often, if at all, we actually pause and ask ourselves a really important question. What does good work-life balance actually look like for you. I really do get the sense that so many of us are chasing this idea of balance without ever really pausing to define it for ourselves, and that creates all sorts of problems. And I think there are two things that make the pursuit of work-life balance particularly difficult. The first is that we often try and measure it or achieve it over far too short a period of time. It's often the case that we'll look at one week or even a day and then make some sort of judgment about how balanced things have been and whether or not our work-life balance is correct.

But the reality is leadership and life don't really work like that. On some days, work will absolutely dominate. And on others, family, health, or something else in your personal life might need more of your time and attention.

So, for me, work-life balance isn't something to be measured over days and weeks. It's something I look at over a much longer period of time. And for me, that's roughly 3 months, because over that time, you really do start to notice the patterns around how you're spending your time and your energy.

And the second challenge with work-life balance is even more important. You see, you can't really define balance unless you're clear about what matters the most to you. In other words, understanding your core values. Because balance isn't about splitting your time evenly between work and life, or work and everything else. It's about allocating your time and energy so that it's in line with the things that matter the most to you.

And that will be different for each of us.

Here's a really simple exercise I use with myself and share with all of the leaders I I coach and train.

So start by getting really clear on your 5 or 6 core values, the things that truly matter the most to you in all aspects of life, not just work. And once you've done that, every 3 months carve out a small period of time to pause and reflect, asking yourself one simple but really powerful question. How well have I done at living up to my core values over the past 3 months? And give yourself a score out of 5. That's not designed as a tool to judge yourself, but just to help you understand where you might be drifting off track. For example, if health is one of your core values, and when you look at it over the past months, you scored yourself a 2 out of 5, then that's data, that's insight that tells you you need to make some changes to course correct over the coming 3 months. And that way you can start to get work-life balance over that longer period of time.

The way I tend to think about this is a bit like how pilots navigate on long flights. When a plane flies from London to New York, it isn't perfectly on course the entire time. In fact, it's slightly off course quite often. But the pilots use predetermined waypoints to make small continual adjustments and bring the aircraft back on track. And I think our core values can work in exactly the same way. Our values become the waypoints that help guide how we spend our time, energy, and attention.

So, if you are striving for better work-life balance, perhaps the goal isn't a series of perfectly balanced weeks. Perhaps the goal is simply this: to work out and understand what truly matters to you most in life, and course correct every few months or so to make sure that your energy and focus is going in the right place. That's it for this episode of The Leader's Kitbag. As always, I hope it's been useful. Look after yourself and those you've got the privilege and responsibility to lead. And until next time, lead on.

Before you head off, if you enjoy the ideas we explore together here on The Leader's Kitbag, And you'd like to go a little deeper, then I've created a new leadership programme designed specifically for busy leaders and managers. It focuses on the practical side of leadership, the mindset, skills, and tools that help you support your people, make better decisions, and get the results you're accountable for. The programme is delivered live and online over several half-day sessions, making it practical and perfect to fit in around the day job. If that sounds useful, you can find out more details via the link in the show notes. That's it for now. Hopefully, I'll see you in the next programme very soon. And until then, look after yourself and those you've got the privilege and responsibility to lead.