What do you do if your work-life balance as an executive is suffering and coaching isn't helping?

Reassessing goals is 1/2 of the job. Delivering in a complex environment that is putting balance at risk, requires first to reassess self or imposed expectations. Goals are some times a metric, a commitment that sits in our yearly review. Something tangible. Self or imposed expectations requires a formal and deep reflection. Sometimes to trade off or accept things that are not in your control. Balance between life and work requires an on-going self awareness exercise, leave personal agendas and egos behind.

One clear time drainer is meetings. We all have too many meetings, and it gets worse as you become senior. A simple algorithm to cut this load by a factor of >2: 1) make every recurring weekly meeting biweekly, every biweekly monthly, and every monthly quarterly. In order not to slow-down decision making - allocate 2 x 1 hour slots in the week (Tuesday and Friday) as "office hours" - ask people to pre register with background on the decision need in advance. 2) Don't go to large forum meetings, unless your contribution or decision is needed. Just read the notes. 3) Don't go to any meeting without agenda 4) proactively allocate time in a clear format for critical stuff. 5) be available and responsive on more efficient channels

It's time to take a good look in the mirror and be honest with yourself. Life's all about the choices we make, and even not choosing is still making a choice. Defining what success means to you is a crucial exercise because where we direct our energy, attention, and effort illuminates what really matters in your life. Let's ditch the idea of "work-life balance" and switch to "work-life integration." Trying to find a perfect balance just stresses us out. Instead, let's focus on blending our professional and personal priorities together. With a redefined definition of success, articulated personal and professional boundaries, and intentional decision making, work-life integration is an attainable goal.

I have designed my life (not work or personal; it's my life) around three principles so that I don't need balance - I only need alignment. 1) I spend more time learning than doing, 2) I include my family in my work, 3) And if it doesn't make alignment, it don't make dollars (that's a remix for the young folk).

All seven of these have merit to help you balance where you spend time in your daily life. I am not an advocate of work life balance concept. Life simply includes work. Many people love their work and prefer to spend time working. Others prefer less work and focus on other aspects of their daily lives. God put me on this earth to use my skills to make his kingdom better. That can include my work. It can include educating myself or others. It can include philanthropy. And so on. I start with prayer. What am I being called to do? Then set my day accordingly. My work obligations are one part of that day. One part of my daily life.

Establishing and honoring boundaries is essential, yet not easy for many. In Western culture, we are generationally trained to do whatever it takes, be available 24/7, multi-task until the wheels fall off, and other unhealthy behaviors. In Eastern culture, they take breaks and uninterrupted vacation. Be sure to set boundaries on if/when people can contact you after hours, when you will respond, ensure you're given adequate time to complete projects and everything isn't always an emergency. This is easier said than done depending on your style, your leadership and company culture. However, be encouraged to take the strategic and necessary steps for your sanity. We teach others how to treat us by our acceptance or reframing of actions taken.

Setting boundaries is great, staying committed to them when you get pulled into things is hard. Knowing where the weak points are in your boundary setting is just as important so you don’t beat yourself up when boundaries can’t be honored all the time.

One way to set sustainable boundaries is to reflect on how setting boundaries helps you achieve what is important, both at work and in personal life. For example, taking time off for a run during the day, might give you that extra energy boost you need to finish an important presentation for a client. So taking time for yourself is a very good investment of your time, as it will result in increased performance at work.

Not only delegate tasks but just stop doing things . See if anyone notices. I am adept at finding new things to do. So I have to ruthlessly stop doing some of the old ones. Prioritise meeting people face to face above everything else and getting time to get off the treadmill to get time to strategise and recover. Stop worrying

Delegation is important. Do the things you are the best at or things that the team has agreed to be your responsibility and delegate the rest. I imagine that being able to do this means that you have built your team to have complimentary skill sets

Effective delegation is not just about offloading tasks but empowering your team to excel and thrive. By delegating strategically and nurturing a culture of trust and accountability, you can achieve a healthier life-work balance while driving organizational success.

There are many empowering moves you can make. And these are not listed in order. Consider them in the order that makes sense to you based upon your situation. Reassess your goals. Are they still in alignment with what you truly want from life? Look at your coaching relationship. Is your coach still the right coach for you? Look at peer groups. The article touched on this. Excellent suggestion. Well-facilitated peer groups are NOT coaching. Instead, members are sharing experiences, resources, giving fresh perspectives, and giving you the confidence to try a new direction. In a peer group, the ideas are coming from your peers, not your coach. Look at your activities. What is missing that will bring your joy? What can you take away?

Delegation is an essential skill for leaders. Develop rapport and trust with your team, find out from them what types of things they enjoy doing more than others, and carve those things out from your list of responsibilities. Trust them to do it right and ask them for improvements in those aspects of your role they think would make a difference. Most of all, then give them credit and visibility in the organization. It should be more important for your team members to shine than for you to do so!

The best investment one can make is in their body, mind and spirit. Working out regularly, even daily in addition to meditating and journaling is the perfect combination for building and restoring mindset, confidence, self value and vitality. Journaling and meditation only require as little as 5 mins each, and if done daily the compound interest equals amazing productivity and happiness.

Be accountable for yourself! The American Declaration of Independence assures the right for everyone to pursue happiness. But it would help if you pursued it; happiness does not come to you. The more I think about life balance, the more I understand that it is about my decisions about when I will begin to work, finish, and when to say no or yes. It is related to when I let my right brain take care of me and when I have to obey my left brain. Blain others for a lousy life balance it is not the better way to deal with it.

I strongly believe in work life balance. Once you are very clear about your goals and you practise mindful Ness and you are self-aware The problem of work life balance will not disturb you. Yet when there are unforeseen circumstances or something unexpected happens, keep your mind strong and do you love is that it is a part of life and you have to face all those difficulties which you can fees by ensuring your complete work life balance.

What would you tell a friend, co-worker or a child that was putting themself last and suffering as a result? What would your loving advice be to that person? How would you frame it? “Take my advice, I’m not using it?” Most people won’t tell you to take better care of yourself. Maybe your spouse will grouse at you? Maybe your doctor will give you the over-the-glasses look. George Carlin had a great line pretending to be a newscaster; “a man has barricaded himself inside of his house today. However, he is unarmed and no one is paying any attention to him”. Don’t be that guy. This is coming from the guy who, at his worst, is totally that guy ??.

Work is part of life, so the main question is: how do other areas of your life look like, besides work? The aim here is to balance everything else is important for you, so that it meets your existing goals and life context. ??

Go back to asking what issue you are really solving for. Would a different coach be a better match? Is there true commitment to finding balance? What real change is the Exec willing to make ?

Getting a new coach could also help. Sometimes you outgrow coaches and finding others for a specific phase in life works well. If there is something in particular that you’re trying to tackle, find a coach on that specific thing.

Every coach has a unique stance. Some will really be supportive and resourced to be useful to you and others will not. Seek out what YOU need for all aspects of your healing & balance. Often we get caught up in our heads when looking for balance. When to feel 'whole' we need balance in all our aspects, spiritual, physical intellectual, relational and emotional. If that feels too overwhelming look to ensure your 3 brains; head, heart and gut. These can be supported to restored to flow and eaase. Allow time with your coach to connect with each. They each have wisdom that you be resourced by to feel more balance in your work and life.

Achievement oriented people tend to enjoy personal and professional development, and yet they are also disproportionately very hard on themselves. This dichotomy can often lead Executives to focus on fixing surface "presenting symptoms", while shying away from deeper "root causes." And although a coach may be able to relate to a struggling client, a good coach will recognize when their client's struggle merits a specialist like a psychologist or psychiatrist. Treatments like CBT or EMDR, along with talk therapy, can offer a type of insight and growth that coaching alone may not. When therapy is coupled with coaching, clients can free themselves from past psychic weight, harness the lessons, and craft a plan for their future.

If your work-life balance is suffering and coaching isn’t working, find a new coach. You need a coach who will fire you as a client if you aren’t listening. Lots of love. Bobby.

As a coach, I would always advocate the use of coaching as a method for self-emancipation. There always exists a psychological contract between the coach and coachee. This is often written in the coaching contract, if things aren't working between the two it's best you part ways. At the same time, the coachee has really got to believe and be invested in wanting change for themselves. This then goes to self-reflection. Can the individual truly say they have taken coaching and improvement for a better tomorrow seriously? If so, move forward with the learnings and find a coach more aligned with what you need and fully immerse yourself in the chemistry session that you take on. Ultimately, the work-life balance will find its level.

First, I like to call it life-work balance. It's easy to get caught up in the illusion that achieving life-work balance is as simple as following a one-size-fits-all formula. I think about it in a three-pillar approach that empowers you to cultivate your unique formula: 1) Vision - reflect on your future self. What does that version of you want and need? 2) Non-negotiables- what are the essentials you need in your life? How do you want sleep, wellbeing and relationships to build your balanced foundation? These come before any other work requirements. 3) Mindset - Expect challenges to arise. Be gentle with yourself as forming new habits takes time. Remind yourself that balanced makes you a better thinker and worker.

Practicing gratitude and journaling can assist in recalling the emotions experienced during positive moments. It’s also an opportune moment to reflect and express gratitude for past experiences that brought joy. This reflection can serve as a reminder to uphold consistent actions. Consider asking yourself, “What am I grateful for?” It could be as simple as enjoying a 20-minute uninterrupted coffee chat with loved ones.

Reflecting means being able to anchor into here and now first. When reflection looks difficult, start by pausing and root yourself into the current situation: context, emotions, thoughts. And if stopping is the challenge, ask someone to help with a reminder, whether it's an assistant, a friend or your coach. You got this! ??

Balance is essential in nature. It nourishes us..energizes us.. Every animal knows it. We - the mind dominated - sometimes lose it when we lose touch with our selves. Whenever we are feeling this lack of balance..-essential to take a step back and reflect and course correct.. It is as mission critical as the engine of our car making a rattling sound- and we stopping to figure it out..

“Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy. For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man’s hunger. And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distils a poison in the wine. And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man’s ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night.” Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

The idea of work-life balance is fundamentally flawed. It assumes work and life as two opposing forces as if there is no life when you work and life only begins when you stop work. Work is not a punishment; work is a blessing. We spent the best hours of our life at work. We learn at work, we grow at work, we socialize at work. Work is an essential part of life. We are knowledge workers. We work with our brains and it is not possible to create compartments in our brain for thinking separately for work and personal life. Work-life balance is only possible through work-life integration. Both are important. It is your priorities in life that create a good balance between the two.

We talk about work-life balance; instead, to me, it's more like work-life integration. We can accept that life and work overlap instead of having it be a struggle between them, the personal and the professional life, and then see how we can align with what we want to do. We try to be present with where we are and be true to who we are in that moment, and who we want to be.

1. Identify the root cause. 2. Establish clear work/personal boundaries. 3. Focus on key tasks and delegate others. 4. Improve time management. 5. Incorporate relaxing non-work activities. 6. Seek guidance from experienced peers. 7. Consider a job change for better balance.

I fully agreed with saleem comments. Work life balance is no more, work is now part of 24 hour life. You need to prioritize what is important. There may be a situations where you need to prioritize one over another. A boss can call you after office hours and you are bound to answer. So it all depends how we integrate both together to built a synergy between work and life.