By Cedric Lefebvre (Belgium)
Personal growth is more than a right, it is a priority. However, considering private and professional lives as concepts between which everyone should find their own balance is not as sustainable as finding a way to integrate them with a holistic view. In such a context, coaches have a key role to play.
While the first mention of the term workaholic dates back to the 1940s, it wasn’t until the seventies that related terms began to be heard, such as burnout and work-life balance.
This balance between ones professional and private lives is still often portrayed as the manifestation of a serene, “economically stable” lifestyle where the individual is able to assign the appropriate importance and thus, the true value to each of these two fundamentally distinct entities: career and the sphere of private life. The Hudson Agency designed a typology of companies based on their wish to encourage a harmonious balance between professional and private life, demonstrating how employees who are able to attain this balance in their lives in turn add great value to their company. An illustration of this can be found in the Gallup study that reveals how an employee’s satisfaction level increases by 50% when they have a close friendship with a colleague at work.
Source: iCN Issue 12 (Personal Coaching); pages 50-52
About Cedric Lefebvre
Business and Career Coach, Cedric Lefebvre has a proven track record delivering a range of complex projects covering business and leadership development. He approaches coaching with 25 years experience within leading international organisations as an executive, a team leader and also an independent consultant. Today he supports companies and individuals’ growth and flourishing, aligned with their own values and mission.
Cedric is a registered psychologist, graduated from Université Libre de Bruxelles, specialised in applied psychology. He is also a photographer whose works have been featured, exhibited and published internationally. He is based in Brussels, Belgium and coaches internationally.
