Improve Your Work-Life Balance with Kishna Jeantine Kishna, your career flourished after working with your mother in non-profit, where you were drawn to the world of Consultancy, Business Development, and Grant Writing. How has your experience in non-profit affected your career moving forward? My career in non-profit has helped me develop my creative development skills. Because of working with so many non-profits, I can create a program and walk it into implementation with ease. I can put together a curriculum, identify the target audience, etc. This has helped me in my business side because it allows me to show the consumer that I will be serving and understand what exactly they need in order to have a successful B2C process. What is the importance of creating impact in any given Business situation? how has it shaped the way you view business and how do you implement that in your current business module? Being impactful in a business situation allows me to make a connection with the person that I am dealing with. This connection allows me to reach that person on a level that others may not be able to reach, which allows me to help them in a manner that benefits them. It has shaped how I do business by allowing me to reach and help as many people as possible. There is seldom a person that comes across my desk that isn’t impacted by the conversation that we have or the help that I give them What are you most known for within your social and work entourage? Can you tell us the story about a certain title that you acquired throughout your career? I am most known as “The Grant Lady” or the person with all of the businesses within my circle. I was given the title of The Grant Lady because when people were referring to me and the services that I provided, that’s how they called me (especially because my name was difficult to pronounce for some people). I was The Lady who was able to help you with grants, provide you with business information, help you set up your business or non-profit, etc. How did your own previous life experiences help shape the woman you are today? Because of my past, today I am resilient, strong, determined, motivated, and always striving for better. I came from an extremely difficult experience and I had to teach myself how to make it through alone. As a result, I can handle many difficult situations on my own and I am always able to figure out a solution to a problem. What is the communication style that you adopted through your platform to better connect with your audience? In what ways has it been voicing out other working moms’ experiences? Empathy is my communication style. Though I may not know what every person is going through, I am able to relate to them. I listen to them, and I respond empathetically to let them know that I empathize with them and that I am willing to be a support in any way that they need. What does your platform offer to women worldwide that other platforms cannot? Honesty and transparency. I am upfront with parenting, relationships, my journey, and my struggles. I don’t act like I am something that I’m not. What drove you to start your own podcast? What added value are you looking to bring upon your audience using your voice and others’? I wanted to give other people a platform to talk about their experiences and their struggles with similar situations that I had to deal with. I wanted other people to have a voice. How do you manage to juggle between being a parent and a multiple-business owner? Is there a formula that you adopted or does it come naturally to you? Is it a one-size-fits-all? It is not a one-size-fits-all method. My calendar is my best friend. I schedule everything on my calendar; if it isn’t scheduled, it won’t get done. I also assign specific days for specific tasks – I do this so that I won’t spend every day trying to complete everything. I also delegate as much as possible to my staff. Things that I do not need to handle, I have someone else handle. I only tackle the most important things. Can you share some tips with us on how to maintain a good relationship with your partner, especially during lockdowns? I try my best to put my partner first. Because we have different work schedules, sometimes it’s hard for us to spend time with each other. Here’s my advice on how to maintain a healthy and happy relationship: When your partner is home, turn off the computer for about an hour and spend some time talking or doing activity. Plan date nights – I personally plan one weekend a month – to engage in more activities that would bring us closer together. When your partner isn’t home, make sure to text and talk over the phone to keep the communication open. Send them sexy messages while they are out and about or at work, and when they’re home, make sure you make time for intimacy and spice things up in bed. It’s always a good idea to schedule time for sex if you’re running on a busy calendar. Based on your expertise, what is the best formula any individual can adopt to better balance their career and personal life, while simultaneously caring for a family? Create a schedule. Either a personal one or a family schedule – something that will help you transition from work to home life to married life without feeling that you are missing out on anything. Knowing when to shut off work is extremely important. In my house, 4pm is the end of my workday. The laptop goes away and I am spending time with my family. Once 8:30pm comes, the kids are
Improve Your Work-Life Balance with Kishna Jeantine
Executive-Women & Tawazoun Unite For A Balanced World
Executive-Women & Tawazoun Unite For A Balanced World As a proponent of gender balance, female talent development, and entrepreneurship, Executive-Women(EW) is now spearheading an expansion to enkindle innovative ways in which we can advance the diversity and inclusion agenda, as a business case rather than a cause, and develop new generations of successful female executives and entrepreneurs, by engaging the two genders in working together to bringing balance to oneself, work environments, societies, and the wider world. EW is excited to announce a new partnership with Tawazoun (which means balance in Arabic), the first think-do tank and platform that aims at creating a safe space for people from all walks of life to join hands to promote balance on all fronts. Founded by a role model and champion in gender balance, Mr. Jad Kamel, EW was built on the conviction that advancing women is not only a women’s issue. “Balance goes beyond embracing it for oneself, it is about making it your mission to engage in building sustainable balanced communities.” – Jad Kamel The founding team of Tawazoun includes Ms. Hanane Benkhallouk (Executive Director at Sustain Leadership Consultancy Dubai & Co-Founder of LeanIn Arabia), Ms. Parvathy Jayachandran (Marketing and Communications Professional, Grankraft Industries, Sharjah), and Ms. Sarah Barakat (Change Maker and Math Scholar at The American University of Beirut). Hanane has always been keen on creating safe spaces for individuals to exchange ideas and voice out perspectives. She believes that spaces like these will foster innovation, entrepreneurship, and sustain leadership and life balance for individuals, organizations, and communities. The international movement is a collaborative effort of a diverse team that combines inputs and experience from Dubai to Beirut to India. “The word balance means that there is more than one side to be balanced out, so to me I, always define gender balance as an environment where men and women contribute equally with neither gender taking precedence over the other” – Hanane Benkhallouk Tawazoun is an opportunity that is one of its kind, wherein like-minded individuals can brainstorm and devise action plans – irrespective of their political, social, economic, cultural, and racial differences. It fosters novel concepts and free-thinking in individuals to break stereotypes and to willingly switch roles to sustain balance. It focuses on addressing various kinds of imbalances, better exposed in the pandemic era. Becoming a pivot for Balance has always been crucial for EW. We believe in reinforcing the need for balance at homes, workplaces, environments, communities, and societies; and both men and women have an equal role to play in accelerating this mission. And we are certain that Tawazoun – and its initiatives – will support us and our communities in accelerating our objectives to cultivate gender balance. Tawazoun is also an idea lab that invites everyone from organizations, business leaders, change agents, and policy makers – and anyone who wishes to bring in a better sense of balance to themselves and their surroundings – to join the movement. Be Tawazoun/Be the Balance campaign aligns individuals and organizations to corporate social responsibility goals and offers an opportunity to balance advocates to be featured as a balance champion and voice out their tips and advice to achieve balance. We invite everyone to: Take the step forward to Balance. Be the Balance. Be Tawazoun. To know more about Tawazoun, visit this link.
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