My Blog

I attended a conference yesterday that I must admit, I was a little apprehensive about attending. It was a wellbeing conference that addressed the balance between ones professional career and personal life. Like many others, I know that my balance is muchy skewed and like others, I honestly thought that there was nothing I could do about that as that was life. But I am wrong. We are all wrong.

As it turns out, we can change the balances of our lives and with a little time to stop and review, it is actually a very simple process. I learned that at this conference that there are many stresses that one experiences. Some are intrinsic whilst others are extrinsic. And identifying each of them may not so simple. One may affect the other and deciphering which stress leads to greater impact can be rather difficult. Educators face many types of extrinsic stresses that stem from the workplace itself, from parents, students and much more. There is recent research that suggests that teachers are experiencing similar levels of anxiety from external testing situations as do their students. For example, teachers are feeling just as anxious their students who are sitting a HSC exam.

So, how do we measure our wellbeing? This can be done by self calculating points in the 5 elements of wellbeing which is also known as PERMA. They are:

1. Positive Emotions
2. Engagement
3. Relationships
4. Meaning
5. Achievement

It is found that most individuals only see success in 3 of these elements. Further, Australia is ranked 23rd in the work as being a Country that offers wellbeing to their citizens. Why arent we much higher? We live in a society which defines us by the main role that we participate in our daily lives. Thus, it is quite important for individuals to be invovled in a number of activities that are separate from one another as this permits individuals to departmentalise themselves from negative situations and this actually acts as an outlet for individuals to overcome these issues. More interestingly, purchase experiences such as those by Red Balloon etc, are one of the most positive ways one can participate in (as well as donating and giving to charities).

I was extremely interested to learn about women in leadership. What makes a female leader so successful? Much of it has to do with whether they are a natural leader or a trained leader. Those natural leaders are those that will always seek opportunities to succeed regardless of the obstacles they face. They possess the confidence to challenge, the skillset to improve efficiencies, as well as lead and engage staff effectively. These are the leaders that we see advancing in MNC. So how do you measure up? Which areas in your life are you thriving in?

These main areas that contribute to your success as a leader are:

1. Purpose/Career
2. Financial
3. Community
4. Social
5. Physical

Collectively, by succeeding in each of these areas, individuals are able to contribute to the 10 top skills of good leaders as described by Forbes. This list supported with the actions of leaders and the way in which they interact with others. Thus, I challenge you to self-reflect and determine your wellbeing and identify which areas in your life can be tweeked to make it even more successful for yourself and for others.