TN7: “Cut yourself some slack and focus on what works for you”. Yvonne McNulty – Singapore
Yvonne comes from Australia. She lived in the US, in China and now lives in Singapore with her “mini UN family”. After a career in the military, Yvonne quit her job 16 years ago and has been an expat partner ever since. The journey started in Chicago where she discovered for the first time the challenges of being an expat partner. That is when decided to go back to her studies and dedicate her new career path to understanding and improving the challenges of relocation.
Today she is an award-winning international business scholar specializing in expatriation and global mobility research. Her research has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, International Herald Tribune, Financial Times, on BBC and many other major international media.
She published several books and her next book the Research Handbook of Expatriates will be published in 2016.
I found Yvonne when I was myself trying to understand this phenomenon of “trailing spouse”. I dedicated a whole blog post to share with you very interesting findings on expat partners challenges in relocation. You can find this article and her research by clicking here.
Participate to a study!
If companies can understand better the needs of expats in relocation with professional research, they might be able to provide better support. Make your story count and participate to one of Yvonne’s surveys!
Glimpse on Yvonne’s great insights:
- Don’t feel guilty of taking care of yourself sometimes, of working on your own success, of needing sometimes to leave the kids with your partner for you own business travels…etc. You can’t be perfect and do it all by yourself: “cut yourself some slack” and learn to delegate, outsource and get your partner and kids to participate to the relocation process.
- Set your professional priorities and focus on what you know best, focus on your core skills and don’t disperse yourself. Establish yourself in a niche and don’t accept every opportunity. Ask yourself “To whom does this opportunity really benefits?”.
Yvonne’s recommended online resources:
Facebook groups.
Yvonne’s recommended books:
- Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown
- The Bitch in Your Head: How to Finally Squash Your Inner Critic by Jacqueline Hornor Dr. Plumez
Find Yvonne McNulty:
- Website: expatresearch.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yvonnemmcnulty/
- Email: ymcnulty@expatresearch.com
Help your expat friends who might need inspiration to turn the challenges of relocation into great opportunities for them.
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