Unifying my "worlds"

Yet another Mother’s Day is here. Well, I do not believe in celebrating this on a specific day but rather every day. Show the gratitude to the almighty who made mother as he cannot be everywhere.

When a woman becomes a mother, she discovers a lot of dimensions about herself which she may not have known existed – compassion, patience, resilience, inner strength, selflessness and many more. With a new baby a mother is also born. And each one of them has a beautiful story and experience to tell and share.

Growing up I actually felt many times that my mother was a wonder woman who had answers to all of my questions and requests – to help with studies, pamper us with little joys like going in an auto (instead of a DTC bus), teach me new skills etc. She was quite indulgent but she always made sure that we understood why we are not-getting some of our demands fulfilled. Out of everything she did for us, the best thing I admire is to encourage us to be independent along with some core values like respecting others, hard work and integrity. ?The life skills she inculcated in me and my brother has helped me to stand strong during adversities and trusting myself.

As I look back my own journey as a mother of 2 wonderful kids, nurturing the similar life skills and values in them has been my motto.

In this write up I wanted to spend a little light on how my work helped me in my role as a mother:

1.?Value quality time – At work and home, time was the most limited resource. Hence making sure that whatever I am doing, I give my complete attention to the task at hand was very important. I have to admit it was far easier before the smartphone era as I could completely detach myself from work during family outings or evening and similarly focus deeply at work.

Family meals are very sacred for us, no matter what we all try to do atleast one meal together in a day without TV or any gadgets.

I am thankful to the time during covid where we could do all the three 3 meals together. Some of our best times have been at the dinner table.

2.Ruthless prioritization and planning – I would consciously or unconsciously do it all the time. I was the Product Manager at work and at home??.

3.?Delegation – Whatever someone else can do better than me - delegate. Cooking was always outsourced and thanks to technology lot of others things are too. House chores were always delegated to every family member including kids

4.?Team work – No success can be achieved alone whether at work or home. It takes an understanding life partner, kids and family members to contribute as much possible.

5.?Failure is a way of learning – This is a hard one to do at home. At work, I have the data and appetite to take calculated risks. But at home, letting your child to fall and learn is not easy for parents especially mothers despite the fact we know that we cannot protect them for whole life, they have to fail, succeed and carve their own path and have their own learnings.

6.?Value resources and optimize – This is another hard one as a mother. At work, we all make plans and schedules, track the progress and resources. I strongly believe that our children need to learn that no one is born with infinite resources and should learn to respect, plan and carefully use and optimize the resources available to them

7.?Build bond with trust and open mind – At work we need to operate with all kind of people, have tolerance and have an open mindset. This helped me at home as well to build a foundation of trust with open and meaningful conversations with my next gen. I think this helps them to find their niche and shed inhibitions and speak their mind.

8.?Managing my stakeholders – I have to admit that the demands and the complexity of the stakeholders at home was way more than at work. But I guess the muscles developed at work helped me to be more empathetic and skilful to meet the manage them and of course the rewards are so fulfilling.

9.?Empower to make them independent – As a leader, I can grow and run only as fast as my team can and the only way to make it happen it faster is by empowering them and trusting them. I have the same attitude at home, DIY – Do It Yourself. I am around if you need me but you need to learn and do things on your own.

10?It is ok to be vulnerable – Sharing my vulnerability with my team has been one of the drivers for my continuous learning and building lifelong bond with my team. Adopting a similar approach and talking about my fears with my kids has helped me to nurture a deeper bond with my munchkins.

The best part of being a mother is there never a retirement day, the shape and size of the responsibilities change with every zone but there is always something more interesting and challenging in the next phase.

Overall, having a professional career has shaped me to a great extent as a human being and the mother (largely imperfect) that I am today. I would never want a different way of life and express gratitude to everyone in my circle who has helped me to be what I am today.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the wonderful women out there!! Be kind to yourself and take care of yourself