You can have it ALL! What is your ALL
MUM, BE THE LEADER!
If we had all the answers to all the problems and situations, how would life be? High hopes, I hear often when I ask this question to working women, entrepreneurs and even leaders. And then I ask if we actually managed to find the right and apt answers to any situation and deal with it in a way that benefits us, helps us and is the best solution at that point of time, how would life be? Fun, boring, exciting, smooth or perfect? Nearly perfect, I would say.
If you are a Mum and you run a business, you know that balancing home and work is the one big need for most working mums. Add to it, the emotional stresses of children’s needs, lack of time, business and work pressures, social pressures, a working mum’s life and career path is often filled with many such speed breakers. Is there a solution to all this or do mums have to work on low steam? The answer is, there is an answer! That is to turn Mums into Leaders of sorts.
That calls for a minor but maverick shift in working mum’s thought process. The shift lies in modifying of emotional make up in ways that enhance the personal, work and social lives of working mums, turning them into Leaders of their own lives. A definitive decision to work your emotional make up in ways that it benefits you personally as well as work wise, becomes very important.
- Health: This one almost always gets the axe when you are a working mother. Does it affect your emotional state, it certainly does. Put this right in the front and make it a non- negotiable priority. Better the health, better you can perform at home and work
- Workplace Distance: How far you are from home matters. It takes away that much time from your home to travel to work. Lack of sufficient time is one the biggest priority issues mums face. Lesser time means more organization, chances of inefficiency and more stress. Stay close, find a place near by, better still work from home.
- Workplace environment: This is the hidden culprit for many problems. Often people carry their problems from work to their homes. Women being emotionally present, tend to look at work problems also with a lot of emotion. It is important to break away emotionally from a problem to deal with it. Unless you do that, you will tend to carry the same emotions back home.
- Children and Family: Families are key support teams for any working mum. They need sufficient attention and support from the mum herself. Working efficiently around the family’s schedule is very crucial. Efficiency comes from creating systems, big and small around the home, children’s food, studies and family times, so more can happen in the mum’s absence
- Relationship with Money: Money is a factor that can never be ignored in any situation. Growth in the money area, is the most powerful impetus for a working mum. The cost of such growth needs to be defined very clearly, so as no part of life is regretted later. Delayed gratification can work wonders, unless it is a serious money need. At all other times, it is important to assign enough importance to all of the other areas as well.
The Working Mother needs to become her own Leader and find the best emotional space to work from. That will be the Emotionally fit Leader Mum!
