Winning - Jack Welch [112]
Your boss is fully aware that most competitors in the global marketplace do not invite their people to decrease their productivity in the name of work-life balance.
That’s why, when your boss thinks about meeting your work-life balance needs, he is guided by the question: How can I accommodate this person and still keep him or her totally riveted to the job?
The truth is, your boss wants 150 percent of you and, if you are good enough, he will do almost anything to get it, even if your family wants 150 percent too.
It’s not that bosses want you to give up your family or your hobbies or any other interests. It’s not that diabolical. They’re just driven by the desire to capture all of your energy and harness it for the company.
In most cases, bosses see a good offense as their best defense against life’s yearnings—and that offense would be to make work so exciting and so much fun that people don’t actually want to go home for dinner, let alone play amateur chess or write the great American novel in their attic.
For many years, Gary Reiner worked for me as the head of Business Development in Fairfield. Although he never advertised it, Gary had clearly made a work-life balance choice where time with his family played a large role. Every day he showed up early at the office, but he was a stickler about leaving at six, and he rarely engaged in the banter that slowed work down. He was about as cool and efficient as you could get.
But Gary was a star in every way. His performance in a corporate staff job year after year opened up huge operational opportunities for him, but he always said he liked what he was doing, his travel load was manageable, and he didn’t want to move. That was OK with me. I loved what he was doing, and the whole company was benefiting.
But I worried, as I’m sure Gary did, about how long we could keep a staff person fresh and engaged. I didn’t want Gary to leave GE or just check out mentally.
For the next decade, every time we launched a major initiative—from Services to Six Sigma to e-business—we asked Gary to take charge of organizing councils, comprised of leaders from each business, to transfer best practices around the company. Along the way, he took on the role as chief information officer for the company. Gary stayed put, but just about every couple of years, he expanded the scope of his job, bringing great value to GE while remaining true to his work-life balance choices.
Gary’s story is an example of thousands like it that take place every day—a boss pulling out the stops to keep a star performer hooked and excited. I knew what Gary needed and what the company needed, and fortunately, with his intellectual curiosity, commitment, and energy, we found a solution where everyone won.
So every time you think about your work-life balance issue, remember what your boss is thinking about—and that’s winning. Your needs may get heard—and even successfully resolved—but not if the boss’s needs aren’t met as well.
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2. Most bosses are perfectly willing to accommodate work-life balance challenges if you have earned it with performance. The key word here is: if.
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Admittedly, there are bosses out there who think, “I never got any kind of special help with my work-life issues, and I’m not going to give any. Each person has to make it on his own.”
Moreover, there are people who don’t have children who frankly resent their coworkers who are parents who ask for a “special pass” because of their family responsibilities. I have heard these individuals say things like, “They wanted to have children. Now they want us to make it easy for them!” That perspective is not particularly charitable, but I can understand where it’s coming from.
Actually, the reality of the workplace is that there are very few special passes.