Career Women Coaching

A New Kind of Normal – Shifting from Work/Life Balance to Integration

By Guest Author Erika Kauffman

Work-life balance is a dichotomy that career women have been discussing for as long as women have been in the workplace.  But in today’s day and age, given all the advancements in technology and the growing notion that one must always be “dialed in”, this balancing act has shifted.

Today, a more appropriate label for this concept might be work-life integration: blending together the personal and professional, as opposed to positioning one vs. the other.

This new binary concept is something I have embraced over the course of my career; as a result, I find that I am more apt to accomplish everything I want, both professionally and personally.

My work doesn’t stop when I decide to leave the office at the end of the day, and it would be fair to say that the majority of women today don’t unplug when the clock strikes COB.  My clients’ and agency’s needs are 24/7, every day of the week; something dozens of professions outside of Public Relations can relate to.

But likewise, my life outside of work does not disappear for the hours spent within these corporate four walls (again, preaching to the choir, I know).  In my own experience, I’ve found that being able to identify exactly when I am able to best perform is key, which often changes depending on the day/week etc.

If I know when I am going to be at the top of my game, I focus on my work regardless of the time or location.  I have also come to terms with the fact that minor personal activities/necessities do not have to be solely restricted to nights and weekends.  If they help to break up your day, and allow you to be more productive when you are in fact dialed-in, that’s a win-win in my opinion.

Integrating professional and personal together might sound foreign (perhaps more so to boomers, and less so to millennials/Gen Y) but has ultimately become a new kind of normal, and will become more and more common for how career women manage their personal and professional lives each year.

About the Author: Erika Kauffman is Executive Vice President & Group Director at 5W Public Relations http://www.5wpr.com  Facebook.com/5WPublicRelations | Twitter.com/5W_PR

 

For more on Work/Life Integration, check out these career women self-coaching guides:

  When Doing It All Won't Do: A Self-Coaching Guide for Career Women (eBook)

 

  When Doing It All Won't Do: A Self-Coaching Guide for Career Women--Workbook Edition (paperback only)

 

  Women and Time Management (eBook and paperback editions)

 

  Women, Know Thyself: The most important knowledge is self-knowledge (eBook and paperback editions)

Jackie Revisited

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis lived her life with poise, grace and zest regardless of any pain or disappointment.  In her words, which are quoted in Andrew Roberts' essay on self-awareness:

But I have had lots of happy moments, as well.  Every moment one lives is different from the other.  The good, the bad, the hardship, the joy, the tragedy, love, and happiness are all interwoven into one single indescribable whole that is called life.  You cannot separate the good from the bad.  And perhaps there is no need to do so, either.

This First Lady's leadership skills are often overlooked.

A commemorative edition of "WHAT JACKIE TAUGHT US: Lessons from the Remarkable Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis" by Tina Santi Flaherty was originally published in 2004.  A new and expanded edition not only includes the original lessons drawn from Jackie's life about how to live but also features new essays with insights and observations from many notable individuals sharing the ways in which Jackie's life influenced them--and society at large--over the past several decades.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy's special tribute to his sister-in-law at her funeral on May 23, 1994 included these words:

"She was always there, for all our family, in her special way.  She was a blessing to us and to the nation--and a lesson to the world on how to do things right, how to be a mother, how to appreciate history, how to be courageous.

No one else looked like her, spoke like her, wrote like her, or was so original in the way she did things.  No one we knew ever had a better sense of self.

No one ever gave more meaning to the title of First Lady.  The nation's capital city looks as it does because of her.  She saved Lafayette Square and Pennsylvania Avenue.

Jackie brought the greatest artists to the White House, and brought the arts to the center of national attention.  Today, in large part because of her inspiration and vision, the arts are an abiding part of national policy.

And then, during those four endless days in 1963, she held us together as a family and a country.  In large part because of her, we could grieve and then go on.  She lifted us up, and in the doubt and darkness, she gave here fellow citizens back their pride as Americans.  She was then thirty-four years old.

Afterward, as the eternal flame she lit flickered in the autumn of Arlington Cemetery, Jackie went on to do what she most wanted--to raise Caroline and John, and warm her family's life and that of all the Kennedys. 

She once said that if you "bungle raising your children nothing else much matters in life."  She didn't bungle.  Once again, she showed how to do the most important thing of all and do it right."

Source:   Tina Santi Flaherty: What Jackie Taught Us: Lessons from the Remarkable Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

 

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"A Day in the life of Jackie" by Ron Galella

New Book Explores Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis's Book Publishing Career (PHOTOS)

Making Family-Friendly Money

The Life of Margretta

 

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Your Next Big Thing

So you have a great idea.  And whether it's been percolating in your head for a week or marinating in your mind for years, the key to transforming this idea from concept to profit is action.

Acting on that idea is what will differentiate you.  But arbitrary action leaves too much to chance.  That's why two things need to happen from the beginning: creative thinking and becoming a student again.

Part of getting into the entrepreneur mindset is to utilize creative thinking.  As a mom, this is a skill that can help you tremendously when you are juggling priorities and dealing with your unique work environment--a workplace that's seldom quiet and doesn't come with a standard eight-hour day.

Plan on tapping into these creative thinking abilities as you go through the entrepreneurial process.  What truly sets a successful entrepreneur and inventor apart is how she handles potential obstacles and embraces tough steps during the process.  Believe in the skills that you already have, and be willing to become a student and listen to the information that you find about your product or service.

Many entrepreneurs avoid evaluating their products/services and conducting market research as a first step to see whether there is a big enough market for their product. 

After working with hi-tech entrepreneurs for several years now, one major failing keeps surfacing — too many have a fatal marketing "blind spot". 

These entrepreneurs thoroughly understand their technology.  They may well be on their way to mastering the engineering and operational issues involved in delivering their product or service.  Yet they persist — often until it is too late — in believing that the marketing issues are relatively simple — because everyone will surely love their new product or service as much as they do. 

Only after that product or service is "ready" — or worse, after early sales attempts have bombed — will someone like me get a call.  Of course, at that point most of the money's gone.  Sometimes huge amounts!  There's neither time nor money to do a competent marketing plan, let alone execute it — and the venture fails — needlessly. 

In my experience, this marketing "blind spot" is the single most common cause of hi-tech startup failures — in fact, I'm starting to believe, more common than all others combined. 

The most important piece of advice that I can give hi-tech entrepreneurs — and it's probably not limited to hi-tech — is to get a marketing "reality check" early on — like at the beginning, before you even know that your technology will do what you're hoping it will do. 

Hire an independent objective professional to take a look at your intended market.  Is it really there?  Can it be penetrated (or developed) by a startup and what's likely to be required to do so?  This is just a "look".   It doesn't have to be an expensive, complicated project.  In fact, at this point, it shouldn't be.  But it's absolutely certain that it will be much less "expensive" than if it's done downstream.

Sources:   Tamara Monosoff: The Mom Inventors Handbook, How to Turn Your Great Idea into the Next Big Thing, Revised and Expanded 2nd Ed

 

  John Agno: Ask the Coach

 

  When Doing It All Won't Do: A Self-Coaching Guide for Career Women