Whether you're a project leader, director, manager or team leader, do any of these expressions ring a bell? "Excessive workload", "unrealistic deadlines", "tight budgets", "pointless meetings" ... I could go on but I'll spare you the rest. You're probably ahead of me anyway.

And that's just some of the problems in the upward direction: as a leader, you can face continual battles to balance conflicting personalities while trying to form a motivated work group. You have to pull together the less capable, the self-centred, the downright unhappy members of the team and sometimes deal with rivalry and suspicion on the way to the latest performance targets. It can feel as though you're investing more and more energy for smaller and smaller returns.

Have you, like many managers, experienced working in companies where there is a blame culture? Many fear their own obsolescence in the face of growing demands for new skills. Often, following mergers or acquisitions, they have to take on more and more work as positions are combined or eliminated and find that any reading, writing and reviewing tasks have to be taken home because there just isn't time in the working day.

What you can't take home, though, is the stress of, say, laying off employees. You can't dump that on your family. But there's no one at work you can talk to. You may be equally short of a sympathetic ear if there are family issues worrying you: do your bosses assume you come to the office with only work on your mind?

Perhaps you feel that this is how it must be and nothing short of a coronary can get you off the treadmill. After all, you have commitments - to your family, your mortgage, your career. And, once you're on the ladder, it's not easy to step off. Could you go it alone? Could your age be a barrier to getting another job? Will you have to take a step down? Is your pension portable?

Or perhaps, however pressured it is, nothing else quite gives you the buzz that work does when it's going well. Our working lives can (and should!) give us a sense of purpose, pose challenges and bring appreciation and financial rewards. Maybe all that's needed is some time and space to step back and take a good look at where and how to reorganise. And find the support to put the plan into practice.

Here's a thought: will you look back in 5, 10 or 20 years and wonder why you didn't put a little time and effort into taking back control of your life? Do you want to have to get to know your kids through your grandchildren? Will you look back and realise you had a closer relationship with your laptop than your partner? Did you have to go the accepted route of "onward and upward"? Could you have gone forward and outward instead? Learnt to play tenor sax? Gone scuba diving in crystal waters? Lived whatever dreams you had?

Here's another thought: what if you could balance your life and work - have a satisfying career and a fulfilling relationship with your family? What if you could get the buzz and the financial rewards and have time for a personal life? What if you knew what it would take and how to make that idea a reality? What if you had the independent and objective support to go for it now?

Call me on 01223 811913 or email me for a free initial consultation to see how we can work together to:

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