Successfully Managing the Personal Aspects of Your Transition

A Difficult Balance

Successful leaders face many challenges on their personal lives. Balancing work and personal life seems many times to be impossible. As I developed my career as an international senior executive, my family and I went through many challenges on our personal lives. Being an ambitious person, I worked many hours, travelled continuously, and was obsessed by achieving professional success. We moved to different cities and countries several times. This led to difficult situations at home with my family, which required maturity, understanding, love and many hours of therapy to overcome. And I have known many work colleagues who face similar challenges; some of them feel great at work and miserable at home - a shattered life.

Job transition periods generate additional stress. They mean more responsibility, more working hours, a new environment, many times a geographical move to other region or country – a challenging situation for the executives and their families to deal with.

Expatriation

Job moves which require expatriation are the most challenging and complex. It is very hard for the executives and their families to adapt to a new culture, a new language, a new school, a new professional environment.

I have seen many leaders failing as they move abroad. The cost of failing is enormous, for the executive, the family and the company. The leader and the family will require support on both the professional and personal levels to maximize the chance of success on this kind of transition.

A Team Approach

This is why I partnered with Noelia Leite, PhD, LMFT, a successful psychotherapist, to create Essentia Integrative Solutions. By working together, we have developed a holistic solution where we can support executives and their families navigate through the transition period, successfully managing the tensions and stress which will inevitably be part of that transition.

The emotional aspect of a transition cannot be minimized; it can severely impact the executive’s ability to perform in the new role. Providing emotional support to the executives and their families during this stressful period is a key enabler of a successful transition.