Success Tips: Integration: The Key to Unlock Purpose
I didn’t say anything verbally but had lots of thoughts running through my mind that I wanted to share.
Riley was contemplating her frustration and we had hit a crucial crossroads of understanding.
She had worked in a full-time role with a 100-person company. She wore many hats in marketing and sales and was coming back to the office after working remotely since the beginning of COVID. She was not looking forward to it.
The company had afforded Riley the opportunity to take good care of her family amidst the COVID years. She needed a bit more flex to adapt to the ever-changing school realities for her kids and the changing nature of her husband’s career.
Her job satisfaction was high as she worked from home, and her job performance was also strong. Her managers constantly commented on how well she was doing. That fact made the mandate to come back to the workplace a tough pill to swallow.
The company was struggling to find the new norm of profitability and employee retention. About 10% of their team had resigned, and they were struggling to replace the talent they lost. Change was the only constant at this company, and they were analyzing how to get the most out of the team they had. In doing so, they decided to bring everyone back into the office.
The decision was fine for about half of the now 90-person company, but there were many like Riley who were frustrated by the mandate. Deep down she knew she could continue to perform at a high level while working mostly from home, so the decision frustrated her.
I dug in a bit more as Riley afforded me the opportunity to help her identify the root of her frustration.
Riley had changed the way she thinks about work-life balance. Before COVID, she had a typical view on work: go to work 9-5, catch up on the weekends and do family time in between.
Before COVID, Riley and millions of others in America compartmentalized their work life and their home life. The two did not integrate well together. But COVID became a great teacher. Riley and millions of others realized that work and home life are not isolated. In fact, life is at its best when work and life are integrated!
We believe that purpose is the intentional integration of the most important parts of your life: at home and at work.
Gone are the days where you must isolate your plans to improve your home life separate from your work life. We are in a new era with new norms. For Riley, she did not want to go back to the old norm. She knew she could be a top performer by integrating her home life and her work life. The question for her was: could she do it within her current company?
Riley is not alone in the pursuit of integration. She also is not alone in wondering if her current employer could adapt to the integrated life of purpose that she sought.
For Riley, the conversation gave language to what she knew. It gave her the opportunity to communicate with her employer to see if she could model what a hybrid work-life could look like. In doing so, she could also model what a purposeful career looked like by continuing to invest in her best life at home and at work.
How about you...
- Are you seeking a new norm in how you integrate your best life with your work life?
- Do you know the component parts of your best life at home?
Integration of work and life is more realistic than ever once you have defined it. In order to obtain it, you must define it. It’s the essential building block.
If you need any support building your definition of an integrated life, let us build with you. Schedule a free consultation today to hear about The Purpose Promise process.
