They say that life is like riding a bicycle – in order to keep your balance you must keep moving – and the same goes for your career and business.  But what can often happen, when you’re busy dealing with the day-to-day, is that you forget to have an all-round approach and instead get entrenched in particular duties and tasks that leave the rest of your job wobbling.  If you do that for too you’ll find yourself in trouble…

Stabilisers

My 3 year old daughter is currently learning to ride her balance bike and it’s an interesting, clumsy experience.  When one foot comes off the ground to focus on moving forward, she topples and stops.  We all know that when she can keep both feet going at the same time she’ll find her balance and move forward effortlessly.  And that’s what we need to aim for when it comes to our jobs and businesses, but unfortunately the balance is often out of whack as we become consumed by the daily detail and dedicate little or not time at all to the activities that actually move us forward.

So the first step to finding your professional balance is to get clear on what will give you balance in the first place.  Here are some key starting points if you want to make sure your career continues to move forward: –

Career Balance

• Networking: This isn’t just for job-seekers!  You should be building and nurturing your professional network on a consistent basis otherwise you’ll feel very unbalanced when you need it and realise your professional circle is stale
• Marketing Collateral: Make sure you keep your LinkedIn profile, resume and any other on/off-line marketing collateral up to date so that it’s fresh and current whenever you need it
• Development Plan: This isn’t something you do once a year when you have a performance review!  Build a strategic career plan and work on it every month to keep your career moving forward
• Your Board: You do you have on your board to help you progress, challenge your thinking, and advise you?  Build a circle of trusted advisers that you connect with regularly
• Productivity: Continually review the way you do things and how you manage your time.  By working productively you will create more time for balance in your role.

Business Balance

• Business Development: This is the first thing that tends to go out the window when you get busy but is critical to developing a strong, sustainable business.  Make time for it, and do it consistently.
• Face-to-Face Networking: Are you getting out and meeting real people? This is where alliances and referrals grow most successfully.
• Creative Thinking: If you want your business to evolve you need to work ON it as well as IN it, and that involves taking time out to think creatively.  This isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity.
• Customer Loyalty: What are you doing to keep your customers loyal and happy?  It’s six times more expensive to find new clients so make sure you are looking after your current ones well
• Strategic Planning: Knowing what direction your business is going in and HOW you’re going to get there is critical so make sure you’re clear on your goals every single week and stick to them

When you make time for these tasks that take you away from the normal day-to-day duties of your role, you’ll allow your job and/or business to keep progressing.

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Written by Faye Hollands – Director at Outshine Consulting

Faye is an accomplished Career Coach, Small Business Coach and Productivity Specialist who has successfully coached countless clients on how to create a career they love, get more done in less time, and achieve personal and professional success.

To receive your FREE MP3 download of Faye’s popular teleseminar ‘How To Create A Career You Love‘ and weekly articles to improve your career, business and time management skills click here.

You can contact Faye on +61 2 8323 4335 or email fayehollands@outshineconsulting.com