Despite experts’ predictions that many of us will now live to 100 and work well into our eighties, a survey by London Business School has found that only 40% of senior executives rank work/life balance as a high priority when considering their development for the next three to five years.
This contrasts with the priorities of their Generation Y employees. Earlier this year London Business School revealed the results of a five-year survey of participants from its Emerging Leaders executive education programme. The survey found that Gen Y puts work/life balance at the top of the priority list leaving promotion prospects in third place behind organisational culture.
Experts suggest one explanation for the gap is that first-time general managers are most at risk of burn-out. Richard Jolly, Adjunct Professor of Organisational Behaviour, London Business School explains, “It’s what we call the ‘Double Crunch’. At this stage many people are starting families and first general management jobs at the same time. The demands from work and personal life have never been greater.”
He continued, “If senior executives fail to create the sort of environment our Gen-Y talent wants to work in, they will neither attract nor retain the brightest and the best, and company performance will start to suffer. Today’s emerging leaders, especially in professional services, are looking at the life of senior partners and articulating with increasing confidence that they don’t see them as inspiring role models and that their personal lives won’t always come second to work.”
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
