5 professional lessons I learnt from my newborn

I’m back to work on Monday after taking some maternity leave. As a marketer and communicator, I spend a lot of time thinking about business growth. When I’m not doing that I’m attempting to effectively grow my small humans. I’ve noticed some similarities in these experiences, and learnt some valuable lessons along the way.

My partner is my team and my team are my partners

Having a baby is scary, even though I’ve done it before! The responsibility of taking care of a little life compounded by physical and emotional fatigue means it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Remembering that my husband and I are a team and in it together has pulled me through the difficult times with our new baby, especially when our toddler is prone to having insane meltdowns. A healthy dose of humour has been helpful too!

At work I try to surround myself with the best people possible. Looking to hire people better than me (because even a generalist can’t do it all!) and truly caring for those I work with, from my boss to my greenest teammate, is something I find helps maintain my sanity when everything feels a bit crazy. I spend far more time with my coworkers (albeit remotely) than I do with my friends, so it’s essential to make my working relationships solid so we can build great things together.

The tiredness and messiness are worth it 

Being a newborn parent is messy and tiring. The days are long, nights are longer, and the cycle of feeling like my heart may explode with love followed by my head exploding with frustration seems never-ending!

Growing professionally also means navigating through the occasional shitstorm, experiencing intense highs and lows, and often staying up late or getting up early. 

When you give so much of yourself to something, it can be all-consuming. No one said it’d be easy but in the end we do it for the sheer, fierce love of our children, the passion for our work, and the knowledge that we are incredibly privileged to witness the growth of our respective babies.

No one said it’d be easy but in the end we do it for the sheer, fierce love of our children, the passion for our work, and the knowledge that we are incredibly privileged to witness the growth of our respective babies.

Experiment and optimise

When my baby cries at the same time every evening, it could be because he’s had enough of the day and is tired and emotional (join the club) or perhaps he’s hungry around that time, or indeed maybe the house is a bit cold and he’s chilly. Experimenting is really the only way to find out what's going on.

Whilst the logic of ‘only one change per test’ would make sense to understand exactly which element helps optimise my baby’s experience, it’s often impossible. For both babies and businesses, the problems often don’t present in isolation, so it can be difficult to determine what’s causing the issue.

A significant difference here however, is whilst a poorly optimised campaign will simply lead to lower conversions, a poorly optimised baby will scream...a lot. This means my husband and I have to learn quickly and commit to solving our little one’s pain points. If we all had the same urgency when it came to our businesses, perhaps we’d hit our targets sooner!

Find your own style

The internet offers fantastically supportive communities and forums to share experiences and ask for parenting advice. However, the sheer amount of (sometimes contradictory) information can leave you feeling confused. Naturally, I have learnt more from doing than from reading hundreds of parenting blogs, and I have entered motherhood 2.0 with more confidence and self belief than I had with my first child. 

In my professional life it’s the same. I have had to go through feelings of being utterly incompetent just to fail, learn and improve, and repeat this process again and again. Having great mentors helps but whilst a guide can show a way up the mountain, you have to climb it yourself. Learning never stops, which means growing never stops, and that’s wonderful. 

Time for self is not selfish

As an ambitious and curious person, I am constantly working on something, but unsurprisingly I am not the best version of myself if I am burnt out. I cannot be fully present for my children or my team, nor can I do my best work if I'm not looking after number one. In the midst of all the newborn madness, it's easy to forget that feeding myself - literally and figuratively - is how I feed my baby.

Luckily I work with an incredible company that walks the walk on employee wellness rather than just paying it lip service. Likewise, my husband encourages me to spend time on and by myself. So it's up to me to say 'yes' to help offered and 'no' to taking on too much. A bit of meditation, a lot of reading and scheduled time for exercise goes a long way to helping me be the kind of mum and professional I aspire to be.