Work is Hard - and yet most people work and many of us are driven and ambitious.
In this introduction Jean describes why she is interested about how we can all Make Sense of Work in order to have more happy and fulfilling work lives.
Hi, I'm Jean Balfour and welcome to my podcast. Making sense of work. I am founder of Bailey Balfour, an accredited coach training company based in Singapore and operating globally. And I'm also a leadership and life. Coach work is a constant for everyone. We all work. Even those who don't really need to work often find themselves working. Think about the retired people, you know, and the different types of voluntary work they're doing. And those who don't find a way to work or are unable to work often suffer unfulfillment as a result. And this is the cause. Work gives us meaning in our lives. We get satisfaction from doing a good job. And yet, despite this meaning, we often complain, struggle and resent work. When I think about the people I've coached, I'm often working with corporate leaders who are struggling to find themselves because they're so busy or teachers who are really thrilled to be educating the adults of the future that are really exhausted. I've coached a lot of doctors. So I've trained sometimes 20 years to be in a healing profession. And yet they're drowning in paperwork and bureaucracy. And I've worked with academics who are passionate about their field and the impact their field is making on the world. And yet they're struggling in a competitive and political work environment. I'm launching this podcast during COVID-19, this of course is also throwing up big challenges for us in our working lives. Lots of people are asking fundamental questions about the meaning of work and in the podcast, we're going to explore these questions. For me, I've also struggled in how to make sense of work. All of my career has been in helping people to be happy and successful at work. I've been developing leaders and facilitating teams, and most recently training people to coach. It's often said that you work in the area that you need to resolve in yourself. That's certainly true for me. I don't always find work easy and I'm constantly looking for ways to make it more fulfilling, easier, more enjoyable. I remember when I first started working on my own, I left a job, which I blamed for making me unhappy. About six months into working on my own. I realized I was just as unhappy here. I was, I had full control over my working life. I was doing work, I enjoyed, but I was still unhappy and I realized that the problem hadn't completely been my old role. Some of the problem was me. Sometimes now people say to me, wow, you seem to have a dream job. Well, it's partly true. I've been very intentional about creating a working life, which is good for me. I've created a good working environment and I have fantastic colleagues. I do fulfilling work, and yet I still struggle at times more times than I would like. And I know this isn't just me. So many times when I'm sitting with people in my role as a coach, I hear their own struggles and challenges to make sense of work. Even these people who are in roles, others really aspire to be in. And so in this journey, I'm keen that we can explore some of these things and look for ways to both make sense of them and see if we can move into being happier and more fulfilled. This podcast is about that, about our love, hate relationship with our working lives. We'll discuss some of the challenges that we experienced and we'll look for new and refreshing ways of approaching this. I'll explore topics related to work and to finding ways of not only making sense of work, but also find ways for it to be enjoyable. I will share my learning about this question. From the books I read from the podcasts I listened to, and I'll have conversations with others who are grappling with this and together we'll explore and learn how to have more meaningful, enjoyable work. I really look forward to going on this journey with you and together learning how to make better sense of work.