Why Mothers make great Business Leaders?

I am not a mother but I am luckily surrounded by different mum working around me.

There are many skills & virtues you build as a mother that will give an unfair advantage to perform at work! 

As says Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, "If you want your company to operate with wisdom and care, then women are best." 

--> The complete and official article can be found in Spanish on Platzi Blog - here.

Reasons why mothers make great leaders

The following list is not exhaustive but it gives a glimpse of the hidden skills of Mothers in the workplace and more specifically as Team Leaders in an Executive Position.

GetShitDone Attitude

Mothers have a notable ability to execute. They truly Get Shit Done. As said, Ellie Rowley, founder of the company Solly BaBy

"Being a mom gives you superpowers for doing stuff you don't want to do."

So true. Do you think a lot of mums enjoy waking up at midnight and 3:00 am to feed their baby so that they get only 3 hours of sleep before getting to work? Enjoying or not is not even a question, they do it and with love! 

This capacity to focus & execute is a golden ability for any business. Mom Executive will make things happen. That's why they should lead companies. 

A strong sense of attention.

When you have kids, you develop a sense of attention. You need to have an eye on your kids any time, even when you can't see them. You care for their safety and well being. In the age of technology, parents also have to ensure the security of their kids in the physical but also virtual world, especially since the rise of social media. 

Before a child gets to school, parents need to make sure he has everything he needs. Not only material but also that they feel well. Mums can feel their kids' feelings.

In the age of Artificial Intelligence, attention to experience, details, feelings can not be replicated by a machine. This is a skill that very little people but mothers have. 

Problem Solving Capacity

Any parent or anyone that just babysits a kid for a day is probably aware that kids will have over 10 problems a day to solve. It can be that they fight with their siblings and look for a mediator. This is why parents are good at managing conflict at work.

It can be that they are stuck in front of their complicated homework and look for a professor. It can be that they are worried and look for a confidant. 

Mom will play all those roles. Great Parents don't give the solutions, they rather help the kids to frame the problems and list the alternatives. They empower kids. That's why great parents often make great leaders. That's why mothers are strong leaders and problem solvers. 

Resilience 

Parenting is such an intense experience you can't take a 10 days holiday break. There is no doubt it develops a strong resilience capacity. Ann Maria Vitek, former Chief Compliance office of Avon talked about it in an interview for Hispanic Executive "My mom taught us to stand up to adversity, to face challenges head-on" 

While mothers will have as a priority their child, that doesn't mean they are less committed to their career, company or team. The difference is that they can take much more distance with any shock and challenge happening at work. That doesn't mean they care less. This is a valuable ability at the time to lead, make decisions and adapt in dynamics markets. 

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Today more than ever mothers represent an untapped potential

In those days where innovation and antifragile DNA are a "must-have" to survive, companies can no longer afford to deny the full potential of women.

We could compare that to remote work. Most Directors were reluctant to do it because they feared people would not work properly, getting distracted and less committed. Though, some of the most important global tech companies are born remote and continue scaling remotely. I am thinking of Github, which has 1000+ employees and 50% of them were working remotely in 2019 or BaseCamp, which has been a virtual company for 21 years now. 

Covid19 arrived and the world had to learn how to work remotely. Not saying it is easy! Behind the opportunity is a challenge and remote work should be prepared & the team coached to be implemented properly. But it forced private and public sectors to adopt a trend that was already announced. 

Unlikely, this new normal will have the same impact to raise the number of female and mother executives. 

Earlier this week, Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook (and mother) was calling for help considering the high pressure and work burden on women's shoulders since Covid19 arrived. According to a survey from LeanIn.org and Survey Monkey, 31% of women with full-time jobs and families say they have more to do than they can handle. Sandberg denounced a "Double Double Burden Syndrome".

What can companies do?

It's a shared responsibility to improve the situation. Companies should be pro-active actors. Here a some ideas summarized:

• Implement measures to reconcile work and family responsibilities such as flexible time or a different approach to performance review.
• Promote role models and share the success stories of their Mum professionals.
• Trust data & Generate opportunities for Mom to access C-Level position. Encourage them and claim that: Mother & Executive, Yes They Can! (Let's fight together against the Imposter Syndrome)
• Train your female talent in STEM - let's dig a little more in this measure.

Women tend to occupy support functions such as Human Resources, Communication or PR. According to a study of the ILO, the problem is that those functions, even with a managerial role, don't lead to an executive level. Companies should aim to have a better proportion of women in sales management, product development and general management, which are the functions leading to Top Level Executive Position. 

Women tend to study humanities, arts and services. But there is a link between qualifications in STEM and the potential to reach top management. If we want to foster the number of women in the highest decision making positions, companies should invest in training their most promising female talent to gain the skills they might be missing in sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

In a world where life long learning is more than ever a reality. That's where they could partner with online effective education platforms such as Platzi that provide full career engineering and mathematics courses. One of the advantages of online e-learning platforms is that they give the flexibility to learn anywhere and at any time, which in the schedule of a mother means a lot. 

Again the list of action is non-exhaustive but on this day to celebrate motherhood, we hope it will inspire company boards and decision-makers. The more we wait to promote women & especially mother in a higher rank of management, the higher Opportunity Cost for the region. 

By 2025 women are expected to hold nearly half of all professional and managerial roles in the region. In 2015 women held 17 per cent of executive positions, and the forecast predicts this will reach 44 per cent in 2025 based on the current hiring, promotion and retention rates (ILO). Latam could be a leader of Diversity in the Workplace at Global Level if we act NOW! 

To view the full article and Spanish version - here.