As a society, we increasingly talk about the importance of striking a work-life balance. Here at Cranfield Executive Development, we devise programmes that enable people to fit career development around their day-to-day work. But what if you want all three – a career, a life outside of work and to develop your professional capabilities? Can you have it all? And, if you can, how do you avoid burnout?

For almost two decades, Cranfield’s High Performance Leadership programme has revolutionised the way leaders achieve results within their organisations.

A generation ago when successful people reached the top of their business they were eyeing retirement. Golf and spa retreats. Now we’re working longer and reaching senior positions earlier in our lives, that’s not looking very attractive.

Standard leadership development programmes stay above the shoulders, and that’s the problem. They’re often focused primarily on the cognitive and a hard set of frameworks and matrices. People are loaded up with content and sent back into the boardroom, groggy from the weight of it.

Stepping up to being CEO, or any strategic role for that matter, is daunting and disorienting. Suddenly the organisation that looked straightforward enough when it came to running routine tasks and deliverables becomes a confusing mystery.

There are many practical reasons why we spend our working lives in offices, meeting and conference rooms, but it doesn’t mean it’s doing us any good.

I was chatting to a fellow runner recently, while on our regular 5km route, about my work in helping individuals switch jobs. They expressed the frustration they experience when their organisation changes their role from underneath them. This led me to think about transitions coaching being useful for individuals to navigate organisational change, not just those undertaking key career moves.

As an employee, when you consider undertaking learning and development, you’re most likely to be thinking about how that particular training course or new qualification is going to benefit you, whether that’s in terms of improved skills, enhanced knowledge or potentially a career boost.

Business success is a cycle that justifies itself. Having the skills and determination to deliver success is all that seems important on the way up. But when you reach the top as a CEO or entrepreneur, it can start to seem more like a trap - a bubble of habits and behaviours that’s holding you back.

Large scale organisations are all around us, having such a profound influence on our lives, and yet, they aren’t what we think they are. This becomes an essential problem for anyone taking on a new leadership role. What is this ‘thing’ they’re supposed to be shaping and providing direction for?