Juggling Glass Balls and Rubber Balls or Should We Spend Our Lives At Work?

It is easy to get wrapped up in what's going on at work and get totally focused on your job. However, it is very important for managers to maintain a balance between work and the rest of their lives (and make sure their people do the same).

The article Employee Benefits as a Management Tool begins with a quote from Brian G. Dyson, former President and CEO of Coca-Cola Enterprises titled "Glass Balls and Rubber Balls". I encourage you to read it.

Here are some additional Work/Life Balance resources from this site.

Also known as Pareto's Principle, the 80/20 Rule says that 20 percent of something always are responsible for 80 percent of the results. Twenty percent of the agents sell eighty percent of the properties; twenty percent of the products have eighty percent of the flaws. Quality Management pioneer, Dr. Joseph Juran, called the phenomenon "vital few and trivial many". The article Pareto's Principle - The 80-20 Rule explains the 80/20 Rule in more detail and tells how you can use it to more effectively manage many different aspects of your life.

It is important for a manager to know how to recognize a discouraged employee and to know what to do to help them return to their former level of production. Read Helping A Discouraged Employee to find out how you can help the employee, your team, and yourself.

And if you are an experienced manager, this list of the Top 10 New Manager Mistakes is a good refresher for you too. As you develop as a manager, check this list occasionally to make sure you aren't sliding back into some bad habits.

You can reduce the cost of employee turnover by managing the employee life cycle. Read Hire, Inspire, Admire, Retire to learn what you need to do.