Achieving Work-Life Integration Through the Power of Relationships: My 3-Pillar System to Work-Life Flow

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Today’s episode is all about my approach to finding a work-life integration that’s right for you and your family. I think in terms of these 3 Pillars: the first pillar is YOU, the second YOUR FAMILY, and the third YOUR WORK. When trying to reach work-life integration these play into each other, as they are the biggest moving parts. Depending on season one might have a higher priority than the other. 

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Most approaches to work-life balance talk about setting priorities and time management. And while these are definitely skills that help you become more efficient, I believe that the key to unlocking work-life integration is to leverage your leadership skills. By showing up as a leader, with a clear vision and values you can inspire the people around you to achieve their highest potential. My preferred leadership style is one of using your emotional intelligence to create better relationships because empathy and compassion will create belonging and result in better communication. 

Once you’ve worked through my approach you’ll know how to re-adjust should priorities change. Are you ready to dive in?

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When we start to look at the first pillar - YOU - This is where it all starts. You create a Vision for yourself and your life. In this step, it’s important to turn inside and think about what is important to you, your values so to speak. This is the time to get brutally honest with yourself. What do you want to do or have more of in your life? What is it time to let go of? What are your professional goals? What do you envision as family time? What qualities do you want your children to exhibit as adults? Where do you see your relationship with your partner in 3, 5,10 years? My approach is to look at your real-life circumstances (your work, be it part-time, full-time or self-employed, your income, your expenses), then integrate your values and take your vision to start building out a process to get you moving towards your vision

When I talk about your family (the second pillar) I want you to think about them as your team. I want you to look at each person in your household and think about their strengths. This is what you want to focus on, you want them to be able to shine their genius or give them work they enjoy. Chores can be seen as teamwork, helping each other lighten the load and free up some of my time to spend with my children. So they can see the direct effect their help has on my ability to be with them.

The second part regarding the family pillar would be asking them for their vision. including them in the creation of your family time. One of the tools would be to have family meetings, where everyone at the table gets a voice, you can check in with them, make a needs assessment, and plan out your days or weeks.

The third pillar in my framework is work since it evidently is the source of income to build your lifestyle around. 

The questions you might wanna ask yourself is what is your professional goal? Income goal? The same would apply to your partner. Do you need to be working full-time to make your family vision a reality? Would flexible hours be an option? Remote working? Etc… Are you just working to keep up appearances or to keep up with the Joneses? To drive the big, expensive car? Can you let go of extracurriculars and free up money for couples time? Or a cleaning lady?

What we’re talking about...

  • Why I believe that work-life balance is more about thriving relationships (yourself, your family, and work) and less about time-management.
  • What questions to ask yourself when defining your values and achieving work-life integration in the process.
  • That as a parent you are a leader and it is up to define what type of leader you want to be. Being a mom is the most difficult leadership position you'll ever have.
  • Why increasing your Emotional Intelligence will benefit you not only at work but also in life.
  • That once you get clear on your values there is generally enough money for the things that you need and value.
  • How Emotional Intelligence training is beneficial in finding the strength to ask for support.
  • The importance of investing in Emotional Intelligence training for companies that want to emerge strongly from this crisis.

LINKS MENTIONED

www.kerstinkirchsteiger.com
Work-Life Flow FB Group
www.myworklifeflow.com
Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter


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