Why is “round-the-clock” work in an office anthill dangerous? How to achieve success and remain effective without sacrificing your personal life?
Modern business needs effective people - they are the ones who create effective companies. But often the obsession with the career leads to "professional burnout." Why is “round-the-clock” work in an office anthill dangerous? How to achieve success and remain effective without sacrificing your personal life?
On the concept of balance
First, let's find out what is efficiency? Efficiency is often confused with performance. Efficiency is the achievement of the maximum result with the minimum of funds in the shortest possible time, i.e. Efficiency. Whereas efficiency is the ability to constantly obtain the required result in the long term. What is necessary for you to work with the same enthusiasm in 10 years? First of all, there is a balance between the result obtained and the expended resource (energy, time).
To achieve any goals, we draw strength within ourselves, but if we overestimate our capabilities, this source will very quickly dry up. There is also a downside to the coin. A person cannot be effective if he is fixated on his problems, not result-oriented. That is why in the field of personal efficiency in the West today the concept of work and life balance is very popular. According to this theory, a person strives to be successful in work, family life, and in relationships with friends, as well as not forget about health and devote part of his free time to interesting hobbies. In other words, he knows how to prioritize.
People often complain that time management doesn't help them, they can't build a clear life plan. The problem is, they don't plan that way. It is necessary to start with priorities and an understanding of the ultimate goal (in this case, we will talk about the goal in the field of business). Making a lot of money, buying a house or a car is a tactical goal. And money can be just a means, not the very end. The ultimate goal is “forever goal”. It is necessary to realize why you are doing this or that and what role does the realization play in society in your life?
About social roles
Each of us plays several social roles: professional / team leader, father-mother, lonely soul of the company, and so on. And each of us needs to determine what set of social roles is important for him, what goals he wants to achieve. And you don't need to strive to succeed in several areas at once.
First of all, it is necessary to assess how well you managed to realize yourself in the role of a professional parent, etc. There is a good exercise that I noted for myself from the seminar on the leadership program of M. Norbekov: try to formulate what you would like to hear from your children when they grow up. When we understand where we are in "here" and "now" and where we need to go, then we realize our true ultimate goals and desires. Ineffective people are dominated by one social role. An effective person has five-seven social roles, in each of which he develops harmoniously, striving for his ideals. If there are more roles, this is already a sign of spraying and low efficiency.
About a career.
I have never met a single person who does not dream of becoming a leader and wants to achieve success. Why? No, not because it may be interesting or important to him, but because this role brings a higher income, gives more freedom in monetary terms, status. As a result, professionals in their field become bad bosses, since in their essence they remain performers, but of a higher status. Often such managers do not understand the main tasks of the leader - to make your team work without you, to develop their potential in subordinates. There is a lack of understanding of their ideal.
One of the key moments in my life happened when, having reached the level of the Head of Department in one of the major Western banks, I realized that I did not need to be a leader. I spent a lot of energy on it, but I did not get satisfaction. When I realized that ambition led me to this role and was attracted to it by freedom, status and income, I found the opportunity to get all this without striving to be who I did not want. But it also happens the other way around, when the leader continues to be a performer and does not realize himself.
We are all afraid of change, some more, some less. Self-confidence relieves of this. You need to develop your abilities - professional and personal - and not be afraid to solve non-standard problems. The most obvious sign of inefficiency is when a person believes they should do something differently, but does not change the "trajectory of movement". If we say to our colleagues - this is, of course, wrong, but we must do it - we are ineffective and we need to take action.
How to become an "effective" person
If you have determined for yourself that you are an ineffective person, you should start working on it. How? Georgy Melik-Eganov, a coach, business coach and partner of VTB Group, invites you to keep track of your way of thinking, your goals and results. It's important not to be afraid to change your mindset, to ask yourself unpleasant questions and to put aside the “I already know this” attitude. In particular, before starting any business, it is very useful to ask yourself: “Why?”. Why go to these courses, why prepare this report, etc. Do I need it? Yes, others do it, but I am me. With what intent am I doing this? Will it benefit me, my family, people?
The question "Why?" important both in simple things and in complex ones. Often parents and leaders ask children and subordinates: "Why didn't you do it?" By forcing a person to make excuses, they teach him to be irresponsible - to shift his inefficiency to circumstances or other people. The correct question is: "What are you planning to do to get it done?"
A coach or coach can help you understand the problem (and this is half the solution!) And understand that the consequences of our actions can be unpleasant for us and for the business. But any change and increase in personal efficiency is always and only the work of the person himself, his constant work on himself.
Social stereotypes
But at the same time another question arises - how to deal with stereotypes: “while young, you need to build a career”, “in order to achieve something, you need to give up (at least temporarily) your personal life and hobbies, etc.? All this is, in fact, called "social manipulation". A person obeys them, because he thinks that he is not free to choose and the external environment forces him to behave this way.
The main thing that distinguishes an effective person from an ineffective one is freedom of choice and awareness of responsibility. A person can give all his best if he understands why and for what he is doing it, what result and when he will get it. And the statement “I sit at work until midnight because my boss doesn’t go home” is irresponsible, because the person is disclaiming responsibility, it’s supposedly not his choice. In general, “I have to”, “I have no choice” are the words of ineffective people, even if they show good results in the short term. An effective person understands that he has the right to choose in any situation and not succumb to social manipulation.
Time management
To start working on yourself, I recommend introducing such a concept as time management into your life. Define several tasks for a month, a week, a day and carry out them calmly, without strain. Yes, there are "breakdowns" (here I do not mean nervous breakdowns, namely, breakdowns in the implementation of one or another planned). It is necessary to learn to determine the "cause" of the breakdown, which served to get just such a result, learn a lesson, "shake off", "get up and go" further. And always remember about rest - it can be trips abroad, walks in the fresh air, sports, sleep.
Any business requires a creative impulse, both for work and for rest. How to get inspired, find a fresh idea? I prefer tools to change perception. For the development of creative thinking, I really like the lateral thinking techniques of Edward de Bono, much more complex and interesting than the familiar brainstorming methods. One of de Bono's tools, the Challenge, calls for questioning conventional wisdom. For example, why does the qwerty keyboard have exactly this sequence of letters? Few people know that this was done to complicate the set. On older mechanical typewriters, adjacent letters could sink when pressed simultaneously, so frequent letter combinations were blown to different ends of the keyboard to slow down the typing speed. Facts like these open up the subconscious, and the Challenge tool allows you to rethink traditional approaches.
There are many different methods - individual lessons with a coach, attending trainings, various seminars, reading books. But at the same time, the personal work of each of us on ourselves is always important. I wish you success on a difficult but interesting path.
Photo: Jonathan Mueller flickr.com/jonomueller
