Lead Like a Mother!

It’s Post-Mothers' Day.

Yesterday was a time to celebrate motherhood and moms, that’s why I didn’t post anything on social media. I just celebrated with my children and took the time to think about why this day is so special to me.

My mother’s side of the family is an all-women family for almost 5 generations. I have 3 wonderful daughters myself and I hope they will have daughters as well. For a family coming from central Anatolia, this may not be the greatest attribute, but the women of my family never allowed us to feel that. Later on, I started to believe that we are a family of amazons for a reason, we breed strong females…

Mother’s day makes me sad, because it makes me think about all the great women who are no longer with us, including my awesome mother.

It makes me happy, because the idea of my own daughters growing up and thriving for the dreams they choose to go after, excites me very much

In my work, I am very lucky, I work with a lot of young women and men; brilliant, confused, lazy, excited, hard-working, smart, stupid, they can be all that at once or at different times, just like children.

I have to regularly remind them that I am not their mom, but their boss. Once one received a job offer and asked me whether she should take it or not.

They call me: “mother of all things”, I wear that title with great pride.

My friends started calling me “mommy” in my late 20s.

We have a joint Apple family account, so phone contacts are also shared, mine is recorded as: “Mommy” and every time I am in a whatsapp group, or share my contacts with somebody, it comes up as "mommy". Even my German colleagues got used to it and call me “mommy”.

For a while, I didn’t think it was cool to be the mommy, but today I thought about how important it is to lead with maternal instinct, how powerful it is and where I got it from..

My mom was a visionary, she could imagine anything from a million miles away, even before it existed and she declared it with such certainty that we all started believing its existence.

She was brutally honest and objective, never politically correct, even at the expense of sometimes hurting us, because she wanted us to be the best versions of ourselves.

You always knew, that no matter what happened, she would be there to protect you, and she wouldn't let anybody hurt you.

And no matter what happened, her children always came first.

Even if she didn’t agree with our decisions, she allowed us to make them and supported us.

Nowadays in business, letting go is made so easy. You don’t like the performance of a person, you let them go, you don’t like a company, you sell it, you don’t like an investment, you cut it off, just like that, without trying harder to make them better.

Maternal instinct is innate in women and we bring it to work with us. I know, you can’t save every person, sometimes you can’t even save your own child, but you can try; very hard…

At the end, if you still fail, at least everybody knows that you have done all in your power to save them, just like a mother.

That is how I try to lead; every day…

Happy belated mother’s day to all great leaders with maternal instincts.