CEO of Me

Work/Life balance was a big topic in business books, this year. A new book about the topic just came out last week: CEO of Me: Creating a Life that Works in the Flexible Job Age by Ellen Ernst Kossek and Brenda A. Lautsch. Here's what the authors lay out in the preface: By reading this book you will be able to

• Learn how to take charge of your life to implement new ways for using flexibility to make life work better.
• Better evaluate the different choices you make, either consciously or unconsciously, that shape how your work and personal life fit together.
• Develop more positive relationships between your work life and personal life.
• Get practical diagnostic tools and self-assessments to determine how you are currently using flexibility in your working life and how it may be getting in the way of the life you really want.
• Identify the barriers that block you from making true personal changes.
• Get practical tips and tools for making changes.
• Identify which of the three flexstyle types you use to manage work and life relationships and determine whether you use flexibility to make your life better or worse. By finding your flexstyle, you will discover whether you're a Captive or a Work or Family Firster, a Fusion Lover or a Reactor, a Job Warrior or a Quality Timer.
• Learn tips and tools that you can use to improve the quality of your working life.
• Find strategies that work to negotiate a better deal (based on leading negotiation principles) that consider the interests of other parties, such as your bosses, coworkers, and family, who are invested in how you are currently managing work and personal life relationships to develop win-win solutions to work and life conflicts.
• Learn how to make it easier for you and the people you work and live with to have more effective working and personal lives.
• Get a refreshing new spin on the work-life dilemma.
• Make better choices and create a life that works on your terms.

The book includes a few worksheets and assessment tools for finding out more about yourself and how well your work goals and personal goals are meshing.