Perhaps many women are tired of answering the question of "how to balance work and life", but it is undeniably an important challenge for many working women, especially when most women still have more family responsibilities. To that end, BeautyInc interviewed nine female executives and entrepreneurs, and their answers may inspire you in the dark.
Becoming the first female Group President of The Estée Lauder Companies is a proud moment in my life. In the face of the responsibilities that come with it, I understand that to achieve career success and maintain personal happiness, it comes down to three things: be very organized; Have good people to support you in your personal life and expertise; Always find opportunities to be creative. What I've learned in my career is that it's not more important to have a work-life balance, but to integrate work and life across the board – setting aside "my time" to think, build big ideals, and look to the future.
Many years ago, I heard a P&G leader make a very convincing assertion: At any given time, a person can play five different roles in their life, and with the investment of time and effort, all five roles can be meaningful. This doesn't mean we don't have other roles in our lives, but these five roles are the primary ones and they also form the structure we use to prioritize the allocation of time, resources, and energy.
Executive is a different role than entry-level positions, and it will be more demanding. As I grew in the company and moved up to higher positions, I had to think about that. But beyond my role as a global executive, I'm still a wife, a friend, and a runner. Having these characters the direction I am going and the center of my life keeps my life in balance while also allowing me to focus more on my own life.
To be honest, I haven't found a balance between my work and personal life. Throughout my career, the work I've worked on, including my current position, has been closely linked to the concept of "people." At the end of every day's work, the sufferings in the world always make me sad for a long time. My career aspiration is to analyze the work environment and increase employee engagement and productivity. I've been fortunate to have the opportunity to explore engagement from both employee and consumer perspectives.
Understanding different perspectives and applying them to my way of thinking, living, and leading has helped me shape myself. I'm always in a state of learning, so the concept of striking the best work-life balance is hard for me. However, listening to Peloton's meditation classes and taking quiet walks really helped me see my daily life better!
I've always believed that work and life can be balanced, and I've also consciously controlled a little bit throughout my career. I've turned down jobs that didn't allow me to have a personal life. Of course, even in my current role, which I love very much and can basically handle at ease, there will be times when I am unusually busy. But I'm going to try to make it up, so I think it's pretty well balanced overall.
I work for a Japanese company and often have morning meetings or evening parties. So, to compensate, I take time out of my "normal" work hours to exercise, relax, or run errands. One positive effect of the pandemic is that we have learned to work more efficiently in different ways. Currently, I have part of the time to work remotely, less time commuting, and I need to hurry up to "get ready" so that the overall pressure will be less. I also learned to say no, to personal and professional demands that were worthless to me or my work. For me, in order to live the life I want, I must actively manage my work-life balance and mental health management.
In both my career and personal life, progress and priorities are my focus. I set myself a goal: to accomplish two personal things a day, big or small, like a cup of coffee, walking for a meeting, or making an appointment to the doctor. Give yourself some physical or mental space outside of your daily routine. At work, focus on progress, learning, and experience. Change your mindset to see stress as a stimulant, failure as an inevitable consequence, and challenges as motivation to move forward.
Being a mother and a businessman at the same time is a huge challenge. However, for me, after encountering this challenge, I was able to face it and grow from it. My parents live not far away and they have been supporting me, which has helped me a lot to balance work and life. Being very organized and focused is also what keeps me balanced: every day I make a lot of checklists and set priorities. Finally, getting enough quality sleep so I can get up at dawn to exercise and have some time for myself, which is crucial for my mental state and physical state.
If I say that I have a good work-life balance in my career, I must be lying. I do consciously try to combine work and life. Whatever I do, wherever I am, I have to give it my whole heart. When I was able to do this, I found that my stress was reduced and the people around me were better off as a result.
Of course, that's easier said than done. Do I have moments when my mind wanders when I'm trying to be 100% engaged? Of course there is, but did I remind myself to be fully committed? And of course it is.
Sometimes, such reminders come at a heavy price.
Thirteen years ago, my husband of more than 20 years died of a serious heart attack, three weeks into my first role as CEO. During that time, between life and death, everything he and I didn't have time to do passed through my mind like lightning. Since I put work ahead of him, I put off a lot of things I could do with him, and every time I told him that we could do it "later." I realized that "later" it will never happen to us again ....
Today, I learn a lesson about loss and regret and remind my team to learn work-life balance. It also helps me stay focused. For most people, regret is not about spending more time at work, but about not spending more time with their families.
In fact, I haven't mastered the concept of balance yet, but I'm working on it. The first step was to recognize that I needed help in that regard. I've been coaching for five years, and together we've figured out how to focus on doing things that fill the cup—for me, living in the moment, focusing on the time I spend with my husband and daughters, and the time I spend in nature. I learned that focusing on the present moment is an exercise that brings a sense of balance.
On the business side, creating a brand and trying to expand it is a humble process. I feel fortunate that I started my career at Estée Lauder, where I learned to be clear about goals and strategies – every day, I have to think clearly about why we started and what our goals were. Working in a purpose-driven business is also a source of balance that helps me find balance. Our work wants to have a positive impact everywhere possible in terms of the environment, and all of us working together on this means a lot and gives me great joy.
My work standards are very old-school, not reading emails, unplugging, which is too hard for me. I've always been like this, and I think I'm energetic, although I do have some daily habits to help me maintain a work-life balance. My favorite thing to do on weekends is go shopping at the farmer's market, and I love to cook, so when I'm stressed, I cook a lot of different meals at once. Another way to calm me down is by cleaning and tidying. While it sounds like torture, being dirty can put me in a bad mood and keep me from thinking clearly. So I turn on the music, clean the kitchen, tidy up the closet, and the smell of clean clothes makes me happy. BINC
Written by: Editorial Office
Editor: Lee
Image source: Web