I had been forewarned that my coaching client was likely to be emotional in our coaching session. What I didn’t expect was for the tears to start rolling from the start of our conversation.
I was reminded of this coaching session recently. I was having one of those days. You know, the ones that happen to us all from time to time. My husband and I had had ‘words’ and my shoulder was hurting. Everything felt hard to do and I was only one conversation away from bursting into tears. Unfortunately, I had a full day at work ahead of me and hibernation wasn’t an option. It was obvious to me, and anyone around me, that I wasn’t going to be firing on all cylinders and my productivity and performance was going to be a lot lower than par. Luckily for me, I didn’t have that many important sessions planned. This is a scenario that many of us face in our professional lives. We HAVE to be on top form as ALL of our meetings are important. The deal still needs to get done and we need to be fully functioning to get the most for our clients.
You can’t keep your work life and home life separate
Many people think you can keep your home and work lives separate. They are wrong. What happens at work impacts our home life and vice versa. My argument with my husband had been triggered by him working the last 7 days. So, you could blame his work on the disruption to our home life. The knock-on was that the home life disruption was clearly impacting my work.
Don’t neglect to build emotional reserves
Due to his focus on work, my husband had neglected his relationships at home with me and our children. His attention had been elsewhere for the past week, and without realising it, he’d left me feeling like a single parent, also holding down a full and important career and without any support or time away from responsibilities. Given how many hours most of us are forced to work just to hit our chargeable time targets, this is possibly a situation you have experienced as well. What are you doing to make sure you build the emotional deposits in the bank balance with your other half and children? Given how many of us are married to our work is it any wonder that divorces and affairs are rife in the professions?
In summary
To be at your best at work you need a strong support team both inside and outside of work. This means you need to actively take the time to create strong and supportive relationships with the people who matter in your home life. Taking your partner and family for granted too often could be a quick way to jeopardise your future happiness and career prospects.
