People in the workforce seem to spend most of their time at work. Those who are entrepreneurs and run businesses tend to spend even more time working than the average worker, which can throw off their work life balance. No matter what position a person holds, maintaining a good work life balance is important as it allows people to spend more time with their loved ones and doing the things they enjoy. A good work life balance can also have a positive impact on job performance.
In this episode of Brothers, Battles and Bounty, the Gfesser brothers discuss the importance of maintaining work life balance and the benefits maintaining this balance can have on the personal lives of workers as well as their job performance. As business owners, the Gfesser brothers understand how entrepreneurs and those who run businesses can end up investing most of their time at work. It is important for business owners and entrepreneurs to find a good work life balance and make time for themselves and their families.
You can watch the full episode here:
Finding the Right Balance
Anton starts by explaining how the Family Business Council at DePaul University taught them that there are three main areas of our lives, our personal life, family life, and professional life. While there is some overlap between these areas, they are largely focused on as separate entities as people look to develop themselves and resolve their issues within each distinct area. However, what happens within each area affects the others as people may allow a bad day at work to affect their time with their family, or a problem within the family to affect work performance.
A great place to start in maintaining a better work life balance is to try to manage each of these areas, personal life, family life, and work life, individually. Once you find a way to manage these areas individually, then you can think about how to integrate these areas of your life in a way that each area helps support the others.
Stefan shares that what helps him maintain the balance is to have intentional conversations. When speaking with customers or prospects at work, Stefan is deliberately intentional with his conversation and the way he communicates. He points out that this hasn’t always translated to his family and personal life as he is not always intentional in his conversations with his family and friends. Giving your family and loved ones the same intentionality and attention that you give to people at work helps strengthen and maintain your personal relationships. This also helps separate your family life and professional life.
Martin adds to Stefan’s point be explaining that it is more common for people to not separate their professional life from their family life in this way. If someone has a bad day at work, they are likely to bring it home with them, which affects the way they communicate with their spouse and children. This can lead to negative interactions that strain relationships. Andreas mentions that there was a point in time when he was so heavily invested in working that every time he hit a wall, he thought the best way to manage this was to keep working. He admitted that this approach threw off his life balance and affected his relationships with his family.
Encouraging Work Life Balance
One of the best ways business owners can help improve the work life balance for employees is by providing vacation days and encouraging them to take time off. Martin explains that at Trendler, they have been encouraging their employees to take their time off because it is not healthy to always work and never take time away. They have had a history of employees telling them that they would rather not take their time off and some even expressed concern about the amount of work they would have to manage when they come back from their time off.
As a result, the Gfesser brothers implemented a policy in which employees must take their vacation time and if they do not take their vacation within the year, it will not roll over. This has helped encourage employees to take their time off, allowing them to recharge and maintain their work life balance so they can be more effective when they return to work.
Another important part of maintaining a better work life balance is taking care of yourself. Andreas explains that he used to decompress after work with a cocktail to help get him into a different mindset. He then realized that getting more sleep, eating healthier, taking time to exercise, and staying hydrated are all important for maintaining a good balance.
Andreas also touched on another important point when it comes to maintaining balance. There are only so many hours in a day and so many people feel the need to spend most of their time committed to work and other obligations. This causes people to avoid taking time off because they feel like they simply don’t have the time to take off or they feel guilty taking the time off which only adds to the stress. However, finding the balance to take time away from work can make you more productive and also help improve how you manage your personal and family life.
Good Habits Start Early
If you notice that you are engaging in habits that may throw off your work life balance, especially habits that can impact your health like poor diet, not getting enough sleep, or not exercising enough, it is important to change these habits as soon as possible because they are harder to change as time goes on.
Anton puts this issue into an interesting perspective as he explains that he has adopted a mindset of wanting to live to the age of 125. While most people expect to retire in their mid-60s and live 10 to 15 more years, Anton has the mindset of wanting to live decades past retirement. What this does is help him evaluate his habits and change the ones that are not sustainable when the goal is to be healthy and live long past retirement.
Stefan adds to this idea by explaining that these unhealthy behaviors done over a period of years eventually impact health. Health issues are usually years in the making, they do not occur overnight. He points out that it can take 20 years to become unhealthy with these habits, and it can take 20 years to get healthy after breaking these habits. Looking at managing health within this timeframe can help people create long-term goals that are more effective and sustainable.
How Maintaining the Balance Improves Performance for Entrepreneurs
Stefan poses the question of how building healthy habits and maintaining a balance between personal life, family life, and professional life impacts the performance of entrepreneurs within their business. Martin explains that it takes a lot of physical and mental energy to run a business because entrepreneurs need to be able to make important decisions quickly and adapt to consistent changes. If entrepreneurs are not mentally or physically sharp, it can impact their performance and the performance of their business.
Entrepreneurs should also find ways to create a positive atmosphere that helps employees feel good about coming to work. This not only fosters good workplace socialization, improves performance, and positively impacts the mental health of the staff, but also helps employees maintain a work life balance by minimizing negative feelings from work that could affect other areas of their lives.
The Gfesser brothers acknowledge throughout this episode that many of these approaches and strategies are easier said than done. It can be difficult to keep negative emotions from work from impacting your family life and it is never easy to break unhealthy habits. The journey to find the right balance is also different for each person as what works for some may not work for others. However, being aware of the need to maintain work life balance and evaluating what can be done to achieve this balance can result in better health, improved performance, and a more sustainable balance between your work and personal life.
If you want to see more of the Brothers, Battles & Bounty podcast with the Gfesser brothers, visit Trendler’s YouTube channel. You can watch the complete episode about maintaining work life balance here: