Are you a convert to the air-fryer yet? I was amazed to hear Jamie Oliver reveal on his latest Channel 4 programme that almost half the homes in the UK now own one. I’m tempted, but cautious. I love cooking but with a 6′ x 9′ kitchen I have to be convinced a new gadget will earn its place.
Except, that is, for my traditional balance scales, sitting squat, solid, but largely unused, on my limited shelf space.
That’s because it’s actually quicker to grab my digital scales, but I bought these from a charity shop when my kids were little because I think they’re lovely (it might be my love for maths influencing that!). Heavy black cast iron, the shiny, funny shaped pan, and the little pile of weights ranging from the big 1kg down to the tiddly 5g for people who love accuracy! 😆
As well as being a traditional symbol of the home kitchen, it was a more concrete way for my boys to learn about weights and measures than electronic scales. Numbers in a digital display are abstract. Adding ingredients to a pan on one side to balance the weight on the other is very real. It makes what’s happening visible.
Measured insight into the imbalances in life
Balance is important to me. “All things in moderation” was a phrase I was fed growing up and it’s one of my five business values.
Clients often come to me when life is out of balance: work is squeezing out home life, they feel an imbalance of power in a relationship, or they’re stuck viewing a situation from just one side.
A coach’s job is to help the client make these imbalances visible, and build the awareness, confidence and capability to redress them. Analogies like weighing scales are handy to visualise what’s going on.
Take for example, the whole work-life balance thing. If you imagine weighing, or weighing up, what you do at work on a digital scale, there’s a tendency to feel you’ve always got to add more, give more. It’s only showing one side of the equation, and the weight of expectation is probably going up.
Whereas weighing up your current work situation as if you and your employer are the two sides of a balance scale, brings more insight into what’s happening, and greater perspective on whether this is reasonable and sustainable.
Are the scales currently tipping one way? Is that OK? Is it just temporary, an unusually challenging time that will, however, reward you by the end with rich learning opportunities? Or are the scales stuck, with you or your manager unhappy and resentful that one person perceives they are giving more than the other?
Maintaining a fair exchange
A visual analogy like this helps us remember that work is about a fair exchange. Each party signed a contract creating explicit and implicit expectations of their contribution: you provide skills, expertise, time, commitment, loyalty, and your employer provides pay, benefits, learning, career development, a sense of belonging.
So next time you feel out of balance, ask yourself what’s weighing so heavily on the other side of the scale? What ingredients might be missing? What could you add or stop doing to change this, and what conversations need to happen to facilitate that?
And if you’d like a compassionate listener to help you think through practical action you can take, please get in touch. We can work with whatever analogies you like!
