Yes, You Can Do This! How Women Start Up, Scale Up, and Build The Life They Want

Chapter 12The Same Skills That Make You a Great Mom Make You a Great Manager: Bust Out Your Multitasking Skills as Your Team Grows

What you'll take away from this chapter:

In this chapter, we'll explore the ways in which your work as a dedicated caregiver actually makes you better, not less, prepared for formal management and leadership roles. As noted in the introduction, concepts such as mind-minded parenting (which Elizabeth Means coined) focus on having parents work to describe the intentions for the infant in her or his care. This focus builds social bonds, but also helps the infant to develop a better pattern of the world. If we take this type of conscious parenting into the corporate world, we will have leaders who tune in to the needs and goals of their employees, while staying focused on the outcomes needed for success. Just a parent needs to know that the child is making progress toward basic life skills, the employer needs to ensure that the employee is making progress toward goals that benefit the organization.

Sophie's Day

Sophie's day started at 5 a.m. She typically woke up an hour before her kids did so she could have some time for meditation, journaling, and exercise. She had a schedule posted on the refrigerator door. Printed neatly on a chart were lunchtime, snack time, doctor's appointments, local fundraisers, the nutritional needs of the kids, and upcoming trips.

Her husband Jake typically woke up around 6 a.m., grabbed some coffee, showered, and headed ...