Many times in my work as a consultant I hear my clients making choices between two strategies to achieve results.  Often time the choices they are making are artificial and not mandated by the situation. Lets look at one example that we all face in our work relationships. Do we focus on the task or the relationship. The right answer is both! If we focus purely on the task and ignore the relationship we run the risk of shutting down what the other person brings to the “task”. If we focus purely on the relationship we may lose focus on getting the work done. So what is the choice we are making? We are chosing where to spend our time. If how we spend our time is out of balance by focusing too much on either task or personal we may feel we are forced to choose between the task and the personal. So what is the solution? Finding the balance. when I work with clients who are struggling with this issue I ask them to make the conversation about how we spend our time explicit.

I am curious how are others finding the balance?