Free The Confidence Myth by Helene Lerner

such thing as “balance.” Rather, she thinks what we do each day is navigate between work and family life in a constant series of shifting priorities. 7 Some days you give more to the office, other days it’s more about your family’s needs.
    Call it whatever you want, the seeming tug-of-war between work and family will continue to be a challenge, particularly for women. Though balancing the demands of family and a career is something that men are beginning to grapple with as well, child care is still a responsibility that falls more heavily on women—not to mention housework, elder care, and other related duties.
    Years ago work-life balance was considered a soft issue by some executives, secondary to the hard issues that deliver profits. But more and more, people are coming to realize that flexibility is one of the most important issues related to business. If corporations want to attract and retain talent, flexible work arrangements (such as job sharing, working from home, and flexible hours) are necessary. Many companies have these accommodations in place, and some organizational cultures have shifted so that employees are encouraged to take advantage of them. But a lot of institutions still have an unspoken culture that requires face time and very little deviation from the norm. Changing this will take time and a commitment from top-level management that is communicated to all levels of the organization. Creating a new norm needs to be seen as a priority tied to bottom-line profits as well as individual paychecks.
    As you progress in your career, you will have trade-offs to consider, and how you deal with them depends on your personal situation—no one way is right for everyone. When my son was young and I had to juggle the responsibilities of work and family, I decided to leave the corporate workplace and start my own business. I thought I would have more control of my hours, which in some ways I did. But when you start a business you have to invest a great deal of time and money. There is no easy solution, but we can learn a lot from women leaders who are handling an enormous amount of responsibility as well as creating their power parameters around family.
    I know a woman at an international finance company who was asked to take a top global job. She, her husband, and their two small children resided in the United States, and she didn’t want to move or have to travel three-quarters of the time. She knew if she hired the right team, they could do the bulk of the traveling and report back to her. In discussions with top management, this woman expressed her excitement for the assignment and presented her plan to have her team do the majority of travel. That was her power parameter.
    To make sure that management understood her commitment to the job, she explained that she would definitely lead the larger, more-critical meetings where strategy was rolled out internationally and her presence would be necessary. In the end, she received the promotion on her terms, and she did an excellent job in her new role. And when her children were older, she actually did take a plum position overseas.
    Jill Campbell of Cox Communications is another powerful leader who was able to set boundaries: “I don’t work a zillion hours. I can separate the work and the play part of my life. The time that I have with my daughter is most important tome. I have to create those chunks of time. We have a nice breakfast in the morning, I drop my daughter off at school, I’m home at a decent hour, and we have dinner as a family.”
    Her negotiation is that she has her phone with her 24/7 to stay on top of what’s happening. “I feel better if I can check my e-mail to keep connected.”
    There is no road map for how to manage our family and work commitments. We learn as we go along and accept that things change over time as our needs and the needs of our loved ones change.
Saying yes to