CAREER AND MOTHERHOOD – EMPOWERING MOTHERS RETURNING TO THE PAID WORKFORCE

Can you picture this woman?  A highly successful sales person in a male dominated industry, studying for her Masters in Business, managing 10 staff and drives a sports coupe.    Now let’s look forward 10 years.  She has 3 beautiful children, volunteers as the school fete co-ordinator, writes the kindy newsletter and drives a 7 seater 4WD.   Do you see her as the same woman?  With the same abilities, the same qualities, the same opportunities?   How does she see herself, how does a potential employer see her?   Let’s just consider the label change she has made, from State Sales Manager to Mum.  What values do you associate with those titles, what qualities?  What does each of them convey to you?   I hate to generalise, but often we don’t think of Mum’s as capable of handling the same workload, responsibilities and stress as a Corporate Executive.  Perhaps we think they won’t be able to manage the intricacies of both at the same time; and yet as Mother’s these women have merely added another dynamic facet to their basic make up.   Sadly when I talk to many women who are ready to return to the paid workforce, they seem to have lost the confidence they used to have in themselves.    They may feel that they need to accept less pay than the market standard, or that they should be grateful for a job that allows them some flexible leave to see their children through social or school activities.  They may think they need to start at the bottom again, or that because work is not their sole focus they aren’t able to contribute as much as their childless colleagues.   In fact, all of these myths could not be further from the truth!   Some clever employers are actively seeking Mums returning to the workforce.  One recent company I know of was trying to “weight” their advertising to attract Mothers!  Why?   Because becoming a Mother is fantastic life experience; it gives us so much more in the way of knowledge and skills that believe it or not, actually transfer to the paid workforce!   We have to multitask more; we become more sensitive to the needs of others; we are more able to see the big picture; we understand the nature of time sensitivity; we are less distracted by the water cooler antics of the office; we tend to be more nurturing than our childless selves were; we understand ourselves better and we understand that a healthy balance in life creates a better person, who is ultimately a better employee!   So what is it that stops a Mum from realising all of this?  What is it that stops her from putting on her resume “Managed a team of 10 people in a short term project that raised over $10,000 “(the local school fete) or “wrote and edited a community funded publication” (the kindy newsletter)?   Confidence!!!  Just one word ladies.  That magical ability to back ourselves, that ultimate essence of the healthy self esteem paid employment gave us before we had our babies.  Let’s face it – as a State Manager I had budgets and KPI’s and staff meetings with productivity plans.  I had every possible matrix and index to measure where I had been and where I was going.   How do you measure your success as a Mother?  Even I get lost for words at that one!!!  Lets start with “how come I can manage 10 adults, but I can’t get one 10lb infant to sleep for more than 20 minutes” and “how do I know whether he’s hungry or dirty or teething or overtired” not to mention “who took my placid baby and replaced him with this wilful toddler who won’t listen to a word I say”?   Motherhood makes us question ourselves like we have never done before, it allows strangers to offer advice, and it allows people to measure our worth.   Mums, we need to measure our own worth; what Corporate Executive would let their spinster Aunt tell them how to increase profitability?   Trust yourself, back yourself – seek some assistance with revamping your resume; volunteer to brush up on some skills you might be concerned about; research your entitlements; find a company who runs skills workshops to teach you how to negotiate!   Most of all, surround yourself with people who will help you to find the confidence you once had, who will help you to remember how amazing you truly are!  Once you value yourself, so will any employer!     Stephanie Bressan – Principal and Founder of Stellar Strategies, www.stellarstrategies.com.au

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 6th, 2009 at 11:39 pm and is filed under Mums. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.