Q & A with Lilian Lazcano

Working AND being a mother!!??

In seriousness, I really enjoy both, and having come to motherhood later than most, I was already very focussed and committed to the Partner Group as a business and certainly for the first few years it took a while to adjust to doing both, and being comfortable in myself that I could balance both.??

Combining a ‘business’ career and a ‘parenting’ career has its own challenges, and switching into Mum mode when I pick up my children from school means switching to a different frequency fast!

The best thing being a working mother is to see my children being able to talk openly to me, and the best from the business side is that I get to be mentally challenged in a different way.

Not really, they just became harder to achieve owing to time pressures and a different working pattern, fitting in a full working week with the demands of needy babies.?Sometimes the timing of the goals have to change, but not the goals themselves.

Communication is the common denominator here, for me personally.?Communication with my clients (candidates and clients are the same thing) and colleagues is paramount – we are always part of a supply chain in delivering resource that is business critical, or for careers which are critical to many working lives and people’s life choices.?

Communicating with my children is a mainstay of family life, having dinner together and talking every mealtime.?Communicating with my husband, who also works full time means that the jigsaw of family and work life works as best it can with some hiccups along the way. ?

My second tip is not to get hung up on perfection, it’s easy to strive for it but dealing with human beings means things happen – so don’t give yourself a hard time if those timescales change.?

Surround yourself with people in your team that ‘understand’ the limitations.

Yes of course. Having children is an individual choice, not a company choice and it is important we own that decision as parents.?I do think governments and companies should wholly align support for both the birthing parent and non-birthing parent, including same sex parenting families and foster carers.?Women get better support than men, which then puts the onus on the women to do the parenting, the other parent (often a man) needs the flexibility at work to do a full share.

Back yourself for the longer term and see it as an investment in yourself.?As children grow up, ?both the needs of children and costs associated with their care and education change and it does get easier, particularly after those early years. ?

It has been difficult at times but there are so many positives to take from this experience.

Lastly, I would like to take this opportunity to thank my husband, my wonderful children, my supportive parents who travel from Chile to help with childcare, and the amazing team at Partner Group for being part of my journey.?The picture below is worth more than a thousand words.