Live Free Or Die Hard Part 2 - Chandramowly

Creating wealth by ignoring health and expending wealth to regain the lost health is the irony of work-life imbalance, resulted by neglecting the balance scorecard of life, writes M R Chandramowly in a two part series. This is Part II. First part appeared in last week’s DH Avenues.

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here is nothing new or old on this earth. It is always the combination of both. “Old are the Sun, the Moon, the Earth and Water. Ancient are the Himalayas, the Ganges and the annals of pedigree. What can you delete from this ancient and old? Is not the old present in the new? Exclaims DVG (Kagga - 141)”. The princi-

ple is holistic and perpetual. Problems prop up if this natural principle is neglected. Applying this to a business scenario, what is the purpose of Business? Brand Leadership? Success? Contribution to mankind? Or in simple terms ‘to make more money’? Whatever may be the purpose, in order to achieve that purpose, a business system must follow the principle of

holistic approach. The principle of Balance Score Card is based on this holistic approach.

Balance Score Card Balance Score Card is a tool to ensure equilibrium among the four perspectives: Customer - Financial - Internal Business Process - Learning and Growth. To achieve success, how

should you appear to your customers? To succeed, how should you appear to your stakeholders? To satisfy your stakeholders and customers, what business processes must you excel at? To achieve your vision, how will you sustain in your ability to change and improve? The BSC method is a strategic approach and Performance Management system that enables organisations execute to convert vision into reality, works in balancing around these four perspectives. Nothing among four are superior to the other three. Using the thread-beads simile, the organisational success is a hidden thread, which balances the four perspectives of Customers, Finance, Internal Process and Learning. Ignoring any one or over focus on any one of these results in organisational failure. All the four perspectives are important and there must be a balance amongst them, which is monitored, measured and nurtured. Success in human life is also based on this holistic approach.

Balance Score Card of Life A person aspiring to be successful would first identify the macro dimensions of what he or she wants to achieve in life and also the micro dimensions of day-to-day activities, ensuring the connection, continuity and interrelatedness of holistic approach. A successful life is a product of balancing the four dimensions of life. Physical - (fine tuning body and senses), Mind - (witnessing the wanderings on desires and needs), Intellectual (discriminating and prioritising focusing on bigger picture of life) and Heart (enjoyment, contentment, happiness and joy). In the Balance Sore Card of Life, who are the customers? Self, Family, People at work place and society at large. What is financial perspective? Your desires, dreams and what you would like to accomplish in the life journey. Internal Processes? It is how you keep your body fit, how you sharpen your mind to be alert and watchful, how you make your intellect as a razor’s edge. The Learning? How do you ensure to adapt to changes in different arenas of life. We need to work on all four dimensions, simultaneously and balance our actions around them. If not, we may lose the worklife balance. Body has the energy and the energy depends of food. Food is not just what we eat or drink. It includes air, sleep, rest and relaxation.

Successful people maintain a conscious balance between work and personal life so that neither is neglected nor damage the other. They know that life is not one-dimensional. They attend to both and get the desired from both, the work and life. Leaders, who live work-life balance, operate on the principle of this holistic approach. They know that energy batteries drain and use their own methods to recharge them. They look at family stress levels, stress levels of people whom they work with and try to strike a balance. An unskilled loses the balance and he could become a workaholic. Many fail to keep up multiple and mixed priorities, going at one time, failing to apply the essence of universal principle of co-existence. In the final stages they carries troubles from one area to the other areas of life only to become paranoid.

es, they are also concerned about the alarming rate of work-life imbalance. A young HR head of a BPO recently shared with me about his stress to reduce the attrition of 73 per cent. Reason? It is accumulated. It did not happen overnight. The downsizing trend of 80’s, productivity based initiatives of 90’s and the technological changes of the present are adding up. We are now ‘connected to work’ irrespective of the time and place or name and space. Many companies have a strong desire to improve work-life balance and create work-family initiatives, but often implement programs with limited effectiveness. The business processes are generating excessive work schedules and life balance conflicts. There is a need to redefine work processes to utilise advantages of employee demographic requirements without compromising the goals of an organisation as a whole.

The imbalance We are living in a time of tight supply of talents. While companies look at hiring committed employees who work without looking at their watch-

The author is former corporate vice president - HR and currently HRD and Leadership Competency Building Consultant. E-mail: [email protected]