Mother’s Day message - a CEO twist

I have always considered my mother to be the CEO of the Family Nadhan Enterprise. Mom has always been the one to think about where our family unit is headed during our growing years and continues to serve in an advisory capacity even today with strategic questions that makes us take pause and make course corrections as needed. This ingrained feeling of gratitude and respect found a powerful catalyst during our own daughter’s graduation from the University of Michigan College of Engineering for the Class of 2019. Our family was seated in the audience waiting to see our daughter go up on stage and collect her diploma from Dean Alec Gallimore when Patti Poppe came on stage to deliver the Commencement Speech. I was expecting the usual motivational speech that we have come to see during graduations at colleges around the country this time of the year. But, this particular speech was a lot more than that. It had a couple of twists to it -- A CEO Twist and A Mother’s Twist. Let me explain.

A CEO Twist

Patti Poppe’s own daughter, Margaret, was also one of the aspiring graduates in the audience. Poppe was there, on stage both as the Mother of a graduate and also a CEO in her work life. Thus, she delivered three key messages that most of us have heard around the dinner table but she also added her own valuable professional insight to each one. Think about that! Even the core principles of leading our personal lives can and should apply to our professional lives too! Let us see how.

1. Say Please and Thank You. How many times have you heard Mom coach children to use these magic words? Every once in a while, I go to the pre-school where my spouse is a teacher and this is possibly the most frequent phrase I hear from both teachers and mothers. But, Poppe went on to apply this to the work life -- the CEO twist. We have the opportunity to interact with various individuals in our work life whose education and experience levels cover the spectrum. Poppe’s message to the graduates was that you can learn from everyone no matter what their title is. It is important we respect their perspective, what they know and learn from the interaction. And we must be thankful for that. And thus, we grow with an open mindset where what you do and accomplish counts a lot more than your title.
2. Eat your peas. Ugh! Even that morning, our son had carefully picked out the green peas from an item that we were having for breakfast. I am sure many of the graduates must have cringed a little when they heard that phrase. But, that was exactly Poppe’s point -- with the CEO twist. It is not always the case that we get to do what we want to do every day at work. There are times where we have to get out of our comfort zone and boldly take steps to do what we don’t like to do. It might be to resolve conflicts with a co-worker or to make the case for an initiative that is not in alignment with the corporate direction. We have to force ourselves to eat our peas and change ourselves to break new barriers.
3. Stand up straight. The reason why Moms say this is to ensure kids grow up with a good body structure and posture. But, Poppe brought the CEO Twist to this message too. Take a stand. Have an opinion. And share that with everyone in an assertive manner. A defining leadership trait in the workforce is the ability to not just have an opinion but also work with others to reach a consensus that works for the team at large. However, the first step is to form an opinion in your own mind and then convey it to the world. Let everyone see what you stand for and take action accordingly.

Poppe's powerful messages can be seen at the 29:00 minute mark in this University of Michigan live stream video.

A Mother’s Twist.

While it was the Class of 2019 at University of Michigan in the audience, yours truly was from the Class of 1982. Poppe’s message took me back to my growing years at the dinner table with my mother conveying various messages. Thanks to Poppe’s powerful metaphor, I went back to several seemingly simple messages that have always had a work life equivalent -- but I never bothered to make that connection. And for every message, I could see a parallel in my own work life over the years. After all, my own mother was the CEO of our family in her own right. A Mother's twist.

And thus, it comes about, that on this Mother’s Day, I embrace Poppe’s first message and say thank you to my mother. Thank you, Mom, for being who you are and sharing the messages in my life that continue to make a difference.

I have great respect for the leaders, colleagues and co-workers that I meet and read about during my workday -- but it all starts with CEO #1 -- you.

Happy Mother’s Day to you!

And, of course, a very Happy Mother’s Day to Patti Poppe, the proud mother of an Engineering graduate from the University of Michigan!

Wondering about the role of my father in my work life? Hello Father's Day !!

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NadhanEG