M-School Leadership Lessons

Motherhood: Leadership Lessons Learnt On the Job!

“She is just a mother!” Cliched as it may sound! While birthing is one of the toughest things in the whole world, unfortunately work doesn’t get over there. Infact, it just starts a whole new game! Especially if you are a strong headed woman with a constant fight to stay relevant both at home and in your white collared corporate ladder.

B-schools prepare us with a host of technical and psychological lessons to become a better professional, but with time I have realised that M-School is a much bigger platform to learn many leadership lessons and more. Much has already been written on the topic by various mothers from their respective perspectives, and I respect each one of their views.

Currently I am raising a 9 years young lady myself and being around her has taught me many new elements which can come very handy in leading a successful team at work too. So here are five lessons being a mother of a pre-teen can teach you to become a much better leader in corporate avenue.

1) Rebel in the making – Remember the movie Sound of Music with seven kids of different age groups and each having only one agenda – to make the teacher’s life a mess. Its not that the kids were senseless, they were bright and intelligent, they just didn’t have anyone to express themselves. The teacher had to play her role by mothering the kids as well. Raising a pre-teen is very similar and rebel becomes their second name. Be prepared and pre-empt. When you give an assignment or try to fix a problem, the kiddo will first react with a cringe. Don’t cringe in return, instead stay patient listen to them and start your conversation with “Love your idea, however…” trust me, it works wonders!

2) Grown up kid or a Childlike Adult – Pre-teen is just the beginning of the tricky phase in a child’s life, where in their heads they think they are grown-ups. They want to participate in sharing responsibilities but obviously lack experience and gets shot down at the idea phase itself. Don’t we have such millennials in our teams always. Bursting with ideas, enthusiasm and an attitude that make every boss look like an idiot in their eyes. Don’t shun them, take the ideas, appreciate them for their enthusiasm and add a dash of your maturity and experience to make it look professional yet zingy.

3) Friendly boss, but not a friend – When we were growing up, our parents were strict, and we secretly promised ourselves that we will prove to be a cooler parent to our offspring. Trust me, when the situations arise, we are in the same dilemma and before we know we become the versions of our strict parents ourselves. Its not a bad thing to be cool or be lenient, but every relationship has its code and it is there for a reason. We can be a cool parent with an attitude to have an open chat or share secrets with our kids, but at the end of the day, it is our responsibility to help them differentiate from right to wrong. So, while I might be a cool parent or a boss being friendly with my kin / team, remember I am not your friend but your guardian!

4) Learn their language – We all move ahead with times and each generation has its own style of accepting and adapting. People who grew up in 80s and 90s are probably the ones who have seen maximum advancements in the minimum span of time. From a transistor to Walkman to CD to webstreaming for entertainment, to hand written notes to manually faxing with individual names to digital faxing to emails to whatsapp communication at work, we have seen it all before becoming officially old. So personally, I think, we are in a much better space in adapting to next generation’s needs and language. While the style of respect might have changed, the basic fabric of respect is intact. Just loosen up a little to understand their wants, it will ease out in a much better communication.

5) Don’t hold hand but walk hand in hand – Accepting ourselves that we are nurturing the leaders of tomorrow is the most critical step. The child looks upto the parent the same way as the younger team members look upto the team leader. As a leader we must keep inspiring them by walking the talk. We might keep giving gyaan on leadership and perseverance but trust me no talk is effective but its only our action and the way we handle a situation that earns us our true leadership medals in front of our kins. So keep inspiring and nurturing a leader in the making.

There are no set rules of parenting or leadership ever. There might be code of conducts to help us prepare for a situation, but eventually difficulties knock at door only when you have settled down on the couch. So learn from each situation and put it to the best use at home and at work. And next time, if you get to hear “Just a mother!” instead of chiding away, just put your collar up and walk with pride of being a true leader forever!