Steal This Idea: Forget Work-Life Balance; Aim for Purpose

    Brian Mohr
    Brian Mohr
    Brian Mohr

    The corporate world is susceptible to fads. Work-life balance, a push to properly prioritize work in relation to lifestyle, features the kind of fad-ish thinking that can lead gifted people down the wrong path, according to talent expert Brian Mohr.

    “Think of those who love their job – for them, it’s not exactly ‘work’ as they exercise their capabilities fully toward a goal that they believe in,” says Mohr, co-founder and managing partner for Y Scouts, a purpose-based leadership search firm in Tempe, Ariz.

    Mohr is co-founder and managing partner for Y Scouts, which operates under the belief that people are the only real competitive advantage in business and the best employer/employee connections start by connecting through a shared sense of purpose and values.

    Y ScoutsPreviously, Mohr worked as a talent strategist and in leadership management for major corporations, including P.F. Chang’s China Bistro and Jobing.com. He is a graduate of the Advanced Executive Program at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

    “Finding the right fit – whether an organization is searching for leadership or an individual is seeking the right job – is more important than people realize. The problem of work-life balance starts farther upstream. When the appropriate person is aligned with the appropriate goal, balance is natural.”

    • Don’t buy into the notion of the “work you” as being separate from the “real you.” American workers spend 8.8 hours of each day working, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics – the largest amount of time spent in any single activity (sleeping is second at 7.6 hours). Work-life balance enforces a strange notion that you are essentially different on the clock than off the clock, which hurts both employers and employees. “Costumes are for Halloween,” Mohr says. “In my line of work, I want to offer a leader who is authentic and not some impostor version of who they really are.”

    • Not everyone is working for the weekend. Rather than work-life balance, it’s more helpful to think of your role in a company or nonprofit as work-life symbiosis. Just do the math. Working nearly nine hours in a role that you do not like doesn’t stack up well with two days that quickly pass by – assuming you hate your job. How many years of your life do you want to waste not doing what would make you happier?
    “Most importantly of all is aligning the right people with the right role,” Mohr says. “That means aligning the purpose and values of an organization to the purpose and values of the right people. Everyone owes it to themselves to find the right organization.”

    • Take a cue from your technology. In today’s world, we simply cannot compartmentalize different areas of our lives like people used to. You can communicate with your spouse at any time and know people better through social media than through real-life interaction. And, for work, most of us carry our work around in our smartphones. If not text messages, then we get emails sent to our phones. “Whether through our technology or the software running in our brains, we don’t simply turn off work when we leave the office,” he says. “We should drop the idea that ‘work’ and ‘life’ are somehow separate. They’re not.”

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    Karen Dybis
    Karen is an editor and writer for Corp! Magazine. She graduated from the University of Michigan and has worked at The Mackinac Island Town Crier, The Kalamazoo Gazette, The (Adrian) Daily Telegram and The Oakland Press. Karen was a Detroit News business writer with stints in retail, workplace issues and personal finance. Dybis also was a blogger on Time magazine's "Assignment: Detroit" project. She is author of four Michigan history books, including "Secret Detroit" and "The Witch of Delray."