How to Throw More Balls Up Higher: Juggling Work-Life Balance in Demanding Times
FountainBlue's January 16 When She Speaks, Women in Leadership Series event was on the topic of How to Throw More Balls Up Higher: Juggling Work-Life Balance in Demanding Times. Below are notes from the conversation.
We were fortunate to have a wide range of panelists to cover our work-life integration topic. They had different educational backgrounds, career paths, and family choices. They each lead from a different role, in a different tech company. Yet they also had much in common: 1) they chose to work in tech companies and rose to positions of influence within these companies; 2) they chose to complement their work life with a full calendar of responsibilities and commitments outside work, including family; 3) they made tough choices when they needed to; and 4) they freely and generously shared their stories and words of advice with us.
They told us collectively to:
Make the Right Career Choices
Choose a job and role for which you have a passion and have skills to contribute.
Work with managers and companies which would help you achieve your personal and professional objectives.
Continue to Grow
Seize every opportunity to learn and grow. Be open to experiencing new things and new perspectives. But be realistic about managing the time and responsibilities to ensure that you can succeed if you take on *too* much.
Manage life like a roller coaster – things go in waves, in ebbs and flows. Give a little here, take a little there, and choose to intentionally coast sometimes.
Learn from your mentors, sponsors and others around you.
Lower your standards and broaden your perspective if that would help better integrate work and life.
Learn to ask for help. And be prepared to also help others. Above all, don’t judge yourself or others for needing help.
Make and take the time for yourself, so that you can be more ‘present’ and ‘prepared’ for the other things of importance.
Surround yourself with the network of people who will believe in you, be there for you, and accept you. Beware those who would judge you for the choices you make.
Get the Support You Need
Enlist the help of others around you, especially for delegating the less important things.
Clear and transparent communication between work, home, community, parent, and other parties will help you navigate a path to success, even when circumstances are difficult.
Set clear boundaries and expectations on all sides, and live by those boundaries, while also remaining fluid about them as your priorities will evolve and change.
Leverage technology to facilitate efficiency and communication and results.
Leverage Employee Assistance Programs, and other corporate offerings which may help you navigate a particularly difficult time in your life.
The biggest takeaway is that we are not alone. Nobody has it all, all the time. But investing in yourself and getting support for all that you do will help you manage your work-life integration objectives.
Please join us in thanking our hosts at Dell and our speakers for FountainBlue's January 16 When She Speaks, Women in Leadership Series event was on the topic of How to Throw More Balls Up Higher: Juggling Work-Life Balance in Demanding Times:
Facilitator Jerri Barrett, Vice President of Outreach, SENS Research Foundation
Panelist Maryam Alexandrian - VP Global Sales, Channels & Field Ops, Dell Inc
Panelist Serpil Bayraktar, Principal Engineer, Chief Architect's Office – Development, Cisco
Panelist Sondra Bollar, Software Development Director, Oracle
Panelist Niki Hall, Vice President of Corporate Marketing, Polycom
Panelist Vijaya Voleti, Senior Engineering Manager, PayPal