"You are the CEO of your life; you and nobody else. You can establish the new rules that will help you to achieve true balance between work and the rest of your life. And if you don't do it, nobody else will." - Ellen Kosek
OAR kicked off the first professional series workshop of 2017 with the workshop ‘Work Life Balance – Myth or Reality?’ on 12th January. The session was the culmination of a three-part series of the Professional Development Series for Alumni Mentors, with the earlier sessions on ‘Managing Self and Others’ and ‘Coaching’, taking place in September and November 2016 respectively. All sessions were led by Ms Ruth Chiang, Head of Corporate & Community Alignment at SMU's Centre for Management Practice.
The workshop started off with fast facts on work-life balance, presented demographically by jobs, industries, countries, age and gender. This provided for much good and open discussion amongst the participants, as many were able to relate to them on a personal and professional note.
Next, Ruth launched the class into the flexstyle inventories developed by Dr Ellen E. Kossek and Dr Brenda A. Lautsch, leaders of North America's largest research projects on work life balance. Participants underwent self-assessment and group activities, to best understand each person’s inclination towards being an Integrator, Volleyer or Separator. To put theory into practice, participants engaged in group activities with much gusto.
Above: group activity during the workshop
|
Well Being / Happiness Level |
Integrators |
Volleyers |
Separators |
|
Feeling in control: work and personal life have positive relationships |
Fusion Lovers |
Quality Timers |
Firsters (work / family) |
|
Overwhelmed, overworked, out of control; work and personal life often feel at odds |
Reactors |
Job Warriors |
Captives |
Source: Flexstyles from ‘CEO of Me’ by Dr Ellen E. Kossek and Dr Brenda A. Lautsch
The three-hour session also engaged the alumni participants in much networking. Challenges faced, how to overcome them, and the guiding principles of decision-making were discussed and deliberated. For both the alumni employee and employer, Ruth also shared schemes on how to help companies to attract and retain talent in Singapore.
The SMU Office of Alumni Relations hopes that Alumni Mentors have found these topics in the series particularly useful, when applied to mentoring student mentees. We also hope that alumni at large have enjoyed learning alongside with Alumni Mentors.
Upcoming in the Alumni Professional Development Series
Career Transition: Are you Ready to Take the Leap?
(2 March 2017, Thursday, 6.30 - 9.30 pm, Function Room 6.1, SMU Administration Building)
Register here.
For queries, contact jeaninechen@smu.edu.sg