“The world is full of willing people, some willing to work, the rest willing to let them.”
Robert Frost
So, can you have it all?
In the last Blog I shared an interesting new research study on 9,627 leaders in 33 countries and those who were rated as being more “balanced” significantly predicted career advancement potential ((Lyness, K. & Judiesch, M. (2008). Can a manager have a life and a career? International and Multisource Perspectives on Work-Life Balance and Career Advancement Potential. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 789-805)).
I thought I’d share some of our own research using two assessments of ours that get at these concepts: Our Career Profile Inventory that measures Career Stage, Career Path Preference and Political Style Orientation and our Emotional Intelligence View 360 (EIV360) that has a single item that measures work-life balance. Here are some interesting findings:
Career Profile Inventory
The Career Profile Inventory is an interesting assessment of values, interests and motives and measures three very different concepts: 1) Career Stage; 2) Career Path Preference; and 3) Political Style Orientation. The assessment asks respondents to rate a series of questions both in terms of “How Things Are Today” versus “How They Would Like them to Be Ideally” and this “gap analysis” provides some insights about current and future state.
The Career Stage scale is based on the theoretical work of Donald Super and measures four stages that are not linked to age including: Entry (new to position, company or role), Development (self-development stage characterized by professional and personal growth), Balance (a stage focusing on work-life balance and self-fulfillment) and Exploration (stage characterized as a mis-match of skills, abilities and possible conflict resulting in self-reflection and career actions).
We analyzed recent data from 207 leaders in diverse organizations who have recently taken ther Career Profile Inventory. We found the majority of leaders endorsing that they were in the Development stage (mean 7.29) followed by the Entry stage (mean 6.42), Balance stage (mean 5.85) and Exploration stage (mean 5.13).
When we looked at the “future” state or the stage they preferred to be in, leaders rated Development again as being highest (mean 7.66) but Balance the second most important (mean 6.89). These results support the interpretation that leaders are certainly interested in career and professional growth but work-life balance is also very important.
Emotional Intelligence View 360 (EIV360)
Our EI assessment is a “view” of the concept of emotional intelligence based on Dan Goleman’s construct (a point of disclosure that I serve as a research member of the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations). Our EIV360 measures 17 competencies divided into three major EI areas: 1) Self-Management; 2) Relationship Management; and 3) Communication.
One important question that we ask (1 to 7 frequency scale) in the Adaptability/Stress Tolerance competency is: “Maintains an effective balance between work, family and personal life.” Both the respondent and his/her manager (or others) also rates this same question as part of the multi-rater feedback process.
We have recently analyzed and compared self-ratings of leaders in diverse organizations (n=1,456) on this work-life balance item to those of the boss (n=1,579) and found that leaders report less work and life balance (mean 4.82/SD 1.38) than how supervisors perceive them to be (mean 5.45/SD 1.18). These differences in perception of work-life balance were statistically significant (F(1,3033)= 188.03, p < .01) suggesting bosses have a somewhat inflated impression about just how “balanced” their direct reports actually report being.
Taken together, it does raise the question of whether leaders can have it all and at what cost to their own health and well-being. There is no doubt that every executive I am currently coaching tells me that their organization is asking them to do more with less and less resources stretching all of them to their upper limits of both time and energy.
It will be interesting to see if the research suggesting the work-life balance has some advantages will continue to hold true for both men and women. As Gloria Steinem once commented, “I have yet to hear a man ask for advice on how to combine a marriage and a career”….Be well…
Ken Nowack
Kenneth Nowack, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist (PSY13758) and President & Chief Research Officer/Co-Founder of Envisia Learning, is a member of the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations. Ken also serves as the Associate Editor of Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research. His recent book Clueless: Coaching People Who Just Don’t Get It is available for free for a limited time by signing up for free blog updates (Learn more at our website)
