Globally Mobile - the family story

Sometimes, when I’m training or coaching international assignees it can feel like I’m in a Harvard Business Review case study. 

I can appreciate and understand the opportunities and challenges that the international assignee is facing.  I recognise the pressures on organisations globally to succeed and I’m familiar with the skills and competencies needed by those assignees in their new locations.  I am also familiar with the pressures faced by global mobility to get the assignee in country and operating as quickly as possible while keeping within the global policies of talent management, remuneration and benefits, and of course the international laws of immigration and taxation. 

But sometimes it’s the personal challenges that are most difficult to assist with.  The challenges of moving people around the world often include moving families.  And moving families means accompanying partners who leave successful careers behind, or leave behind ageing parents who need support from afar.  Children who move from country to country, starting new schools and building new friendship groups, when we know international mobility impacts learning. 

Moving a family around the world might sound like a Disney movie plot but it often isn't.

I’ve written before about how families matter in global assignments –how they impact on the success or failure of the assignment.  And how partners matter in both the take-up and success of your talent management programs

This is why my professional memberships include Families in Global Transition and why I’ll be attending their conference in The Hague this year.  It would be great to see more organisations represented as we all learn more about supporting globally mobile families.

And this is also why I am excited to be a guest this week on a webinar/workshop hosted by Rachel Yates.  It’s for global accompanying partners; part of a series entitled “All these Years and Nothing to Show for It?”  We’re going to be digging into the topic of “Never Good Enough … The Neuroscience Guide to Ditching Self Doubt.  There are two time slots so we hope you can find a time to suit you wherever you are in the world.

(The webinar is over now but if you are a CIC member you can still view it in the members area here or you can join Rachel's member area)

If your globally mobile family story feels more like a complex, multi-faceted business case study than a Disney movie - we understand!