Work-Life Balance: Pulling Your Own Strings

1. Presentation to Ruby Tuesdays October 17, 2006 Bryan Hiebert Work-Life Balance: Pulling Your Own Strings Faculty of Education Division of Applied Psychology

2. Overview • Stress revisited • What is resilience? • Resilience comes in people • Some environments are more easy to be resilient in than others • Leaders are responsibility for creating an environment conducive to resilience and balance 2

3. Demands ≠ Stress DEMAND Appraisal Nature - Demand Intensity - Coping Resources - Consequences

4. Appraisal Nature - Demand Intensity - Coping Resources - Consequences Coping Demand Demand Coping What is stress? – Revisited DEMAND

5. Avoid self-blame

6. What is resilience? The ability to bounce back (recover) when hit with unexpected demands out of out of the blue Take things in stride

7. Resilience Model • Stressors • Environmental contexts • Person-environment transactional process • Internal resiliency factors • Personal agency • Peoples’ beliefs in their ability to control their own functioning + control what occurs in the environment

8. Creating Resilience: Who’s job is it? • It’s a leadership job • BUT don’t wait for your boss • Learn how to train your boss • Approach your boss with solutions, not problems • Stroke your boss, what goes around comes around • You can make a difference in YOUR emotional climate

9. Who is in charge of your life anyway? • It depends on how you look at it • Can you count on others to look out for your best interest? • Usually not The answer needs to be MEI’m in control

10. Work – Life Balance:Who’s in charge? The answer needs to be ME I’m in charge

11. Watch your perspective

12. Creating a Sense of Control • Start small • What you eat affects how you feel • Be hydrated • Give yourself permission to negotiate demands • Be self-directed

13. Perspective is Important

14. Giving yourself voice If you ask me and nobody has… Don’t wait to be asked

15. Creating Resilient Communities • 3 factors are predictably difficult to deal with • Intense and unpleasant demands • Uncertainty (about outcomes) • Ambiguity (regarding expectations) • Not all demands are reasonable

16. A Starting Point All things To all people All the time is All over

17. Plan for Balance • If you are a schedule person • Schedule your leisure time • Start with the small stuff • Create non-work-like balance points • Listen to your body • Before it sends you a message you can’t ignore

18. Keep your priorities on track

19. Plan for Balance It’s fun to have funbut you have to know how

20. Creating A Positive Climate • Say something nice to colleagues • Every day • Message seen is stronger than message spoken • Need to model what we are trying to accomplish • Walk the Talk • Create slogans to keep a positive focus

21. Slogans to sustain a positive focus • No one can insult you Without your permission • Stop Psychosclerosis (hardening of the attitudes) • I will not should on my self today • Change is inevitable Growth is optional

22. Say NO! to zero tolerance Zero Tolerance A little tolerance is a good thing

23. Creating a Resilient Workplace: Who’s job is it? • It’s a leadership job to create a healthy work environment • Model the goal – set a good example • Jump on mistakes OR jump on successes

24. Bosses want motivated employees 2 key factors for motivation • The goals must be valued (valuable) • The goal must be perceived as achievable (achievable) • Create a motivation-oriented environment

25. A New Approach to Leadership • If it goes wrong, • say “I did it.” • If it goes sort of OK, • say “we did it.” • If it goes really well • say “you did it.” • Reduce “Look at me, look at me.” • And replace it with “Look at us” • or better yet, “Look at them.”

26. Control and Choice • Lobby for structural changes • Some people always will feel they have no control • Many workers feel that the clocks are controlled in head office • Consider ditching the clock? • Demands gravitate towards competence(so be prepared or be less competent) • Basic assertiveness helps keep balance • Bottom line …I need to be pulling my own strings

27. Summary: Tell them what you told them • What is stress? • Stress comes in people • What is resilience? • Resiliency comes in people • Work-life balance • I’m an active player in managing my life • How do you contribute to your own balance? • How do you interfere with it? • Some environments are more conducive to being resilient and balanced • What have you done to make your life more balanced?

28. High above the hushed crowd, Rex tried to remain focused. Still he couldn’t shack one nagging thought, he was an old dog and this was a new trick.

29. Presentation to Ruby Tuesdays October 17, 2006 Bryan Hiebert Work-Life Balance: Pulling Your Own Strings Faculty of Education Division of Applied Psychology