Having It All ... And Making It Work: Six Steps for Putting Both Your Career and Your Family First

by Mills, D. Quinn; Mattu, Sasha K.; Hornby, Kirstin

• ISBN13: 9780131440227
• ISBN10: 0131440225
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-01-01
• Publisher: Prentice Hall

Summary

Working 24x7? Delaying life until it's too late? You have the ability to help your customers stop! Having it All ... and Making it Workis a fast-paced, easy-to-use book offering readers a new pathway towards managing personal life and professional life--without sacrificing either one of them. This book isn't just more whining and exhortation: it delivers specific, bite-sized, no-fluff solutions for managing one's life, including crucial execution steps readers can take immediately. Mills teaches readers how to identify and balance what's most important to them--and give up what they don't want badly enough. Mills shows how to make the balance real, not just talk; how to make career decisions that promote balance; and how to make course corrections that refine the reader's balance over time. Mills also exposes the potentially disastrous myths and rationalizations many people use to avoid the realities of work/life imbalance--fallacies like "I'll devote all my time to work for 15 years, get rich, and then I'll pay attention to family." Mills' breakthrough work/life courses at the Harvard Business School are helping business people find the balance they're searching for. The techniques he's developed will help anyone struggling to get a grasp on the work/life balance.

Author Biography

D. Quinn Mills is Alfred J. Weatherhead Jr. Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School.

Table of Contents

Introduction: by Read this Book	xiii
Who Are We?	xv
Acknowledgments	xxi
Step 1 Commit to Wanting Both a Career and Family: Rethinking Your Priorities	1	(12)
The Leadership Challenge	7	(2)
Our Definition of Balance	9	(3)
Critical Success Factors in Rethinking Your Priorities	12	(1)
Step 2 Pursue a Process that Creates Balance. Balancing What Is Most Important to You	13	(14)
Establish Boundaries Early On	18	(1)
Know Your Priorities	19	(4)
An Exercise in Perspective	23	(1)
Define Success on Your Own Terms	24	(1)
Critical Success Factors in Balancing What Is Most Important to You	25	(2)
Step 3 Make Choices and Accept the Consequences: Giving Up What You Don't Want Badly Enough	27
Just Let It Go	28	(3)
Know Your Limits	31	(2)
Minimize Tradeoffs	33	(2)
Blind Tradeoffs	35	(8)
Say No	43	(1)
Don't Feel Guilty	44	(3)
Critical Success Factors in Giving Up What You Don't Want Badly Enough	47
Step 4 Choose a Career that Supports Balance: Making Your Balance Real	9	(64)
Choose Your Career Path Wisely	51	(2)
Three Fundamental Options	53	(15)
Four Key Career Levers	68	(3)
Critical Success Factors in Making Your Balance Real	71	(2)
Step 5 Involve Your Loved Ones in Creating Balance: Refining Your Balance	73	(14)
Four Strategies	74	(10)
Divide and Conquer?	84	(1)
Critical Success Factors in Refining Your Balance	85	(2)
Step 6 Review Your Balance to Retain or Regain It: Balance Is a Destination	87	(18)
This Journey Leads to a Destination	88	(1)
What Knocks Us Off Balance	88	(2)
Review Your Balance	90	(3)
Learn to Be Flexible	93	(10)
Your Back-to-Balance Plan	103	(2)
Six Steps to Career! Family Balance	105
Step 1. Commit to Wanting Both a Career and Family: Rethinking Your Priorities	105	(2)
Step 2. Pursue a Process that Creates Balance: Balancing What Is Most Important to You	107	(1)
Step 3. Make Choices and Accept the Consequences: Giving Up What You Don't Want Badly Enough	108	(2)
Step 4. Choose a Career that Supports Balance: Making Your Balance Real	110	(2)
Step 5. Involve Your Loved Ones in Creating Balance: Refining Your Balance	112	(1)
Step 6. Review Your Balance to Retain or Regain It: Balance Is a Destination	113