Celebrating Working Moms with Strategies for Career Success

I absolutely love this time of year. I'm gonna timestamp it by saying not only because it's spring, but it's also Mother's Day time. Not just the day, which is what I just said, right, but also the week, the month, the year, the lifetime that we celebrate, and we should celebrate moms. Now, I'm not a mom, but I absolutely adore celebrating the moms in my life, whether that's family, friends, or colleagues. And this particular time of year on Shedding the Corporate Bitch, I also love it because we really, um, lend the whole conversation around working moms and what they should and shouldn't be doing in order to really have the career that they want integrated with the life that they want. And so we're going to be talking about, and I'm going to be addressing some of the questions that I get from my clients and/or friends, family members, others, when it comes to being a working mom, such as what are moms, working moms specifically, bring to the table? And what should working moms be focused on in order to have the career and the life that they want? But also, what are the pitfalls, or what do they not want to be focusing on if they want to continue to advance in their career? And then what factors impact working moms? Because whether it's, you know, life or work, there's a lot of factors playing for and against women and working moms. And what are strategies that working moms can use to ensure that they are successful in building the type of career as well as their life that they want. At the same time, for those single women or women without children like myself, this also applies to you as well. So stay with us as we really dive in and we celebrate moms during this time of year of Mother's Day. Welcome, welcome, welcome to Shading the Corporate Bitch, the podcast that transforms female corporate executives into powerhouse leaders by showing them how to shed the challenges and overwhelm, along with any fear, insecurity, self-doubt, and negativity holding them back. I'm your host, Bernadette Boas of Ball of Fire Coaching, bringing you powerhouse discussions each week to share tips, advice, and sometimes tough love so you create the riches in your work and life you deserve. Let's do this! Within the Shedding the Corporate Bitch community and my overall business since I started it back in 2008, um, and I started this podcast back in 2010, if you can believe it. But I loved the, the period, the May period of Mother's Day. I loved really focusing one full episode on working moms and I don't want to see my own sisters, but any woman, any working mom woman, uh, feeling as if it's all about everyone else other than themselves. So my first real message to you is please, please, please, single or with kids, please be sure that you really appreciate and what we call honor your riches here., in the Shedding the Corporate Bitch community. But honor your riches. There's so much about you as a woman, long before you're a daughter, sister, aunt, uh, mother, friend. There's so much about you as a woman, as a person, that you should be celebrating and that others should celebrate around you. And so I definitely, definitely want every one of you to know that I absolutely honor you as a woman and you as a working woman, and then working mom and everything else, um, that you make up being you. Uh, so I want to get into some of the specific— like I said, the specific questions— and give you some, um, tips and strategies around those questions that I often get from my clients that happen to be working moms. And they're just trying to understand what it is and how it is that they need to be navigating their career, let alone both their career and their life. So the one that always gets me, ooh, it's like, you know, an arrow into the heart, is when a working mom might say to me, you know, Bernadette Boas, but what do I bring to the table that's unique or different? To anyone else. And we all know that there are skills and talents and traits and qualities of a working mom that others do not have. And I can appreciate that myself, not having children, and think— in thinking that I'm pretty well-rounded. But I know that those that do have children and are caring for children, and, you know, and their spouses or significant others in the family as a whole, they, they take on definitely traits and and values that maybe others do not. And so tactically, to get down to it, what they bring to the workplace, what the value you bring as a working mom to the workplace, is the fact that, you know, people might say multitasking, and I happen to believe that, you know, we really don't multitask. There's one thing you do at a time, other than chewing and walking at the same time.. But you know, you really can only focus on and be doing one thing at a time. But at the same time, mothers really know how to juggle a lot. So they are great multitaskers. And in the workplace, that is a huge, huge benefit. Because not only can they be working on a lot of different things— I won't say at the same time, but working on a lot of different things— they know how to balance them, prioritize them, organize them, plan them in such a way that they can get it all done, even though they might, you know, be starting, stopping, starting, stopping, starting, stopping across multiple tasks. They're just really good processors. Let's look at it that way. They're just— you're really good computers in, in processing just all the things that need to get done. And as a result of that, you are also very good at managing maybe not your personal time, and we'll get to that, you know, later, but you're, you're good at managing those tasks, those due dates, those, you know, um, deliverables, even the budget that goes along with it. So from a project management perspective, but looking at it from a time management perspective, you guys are pros when it comes to that, because I'll often get absolutely exasperated when I used to— as my sisters and them having kids, I used to look at the calendars that they used to have hanging from the refrigerator or on the wall, and I just would get absolutely exasperated at how busy, you know, they were and how just like so many things going on at the same time. But that, that's a benefit. That's a huge value to a team and to a company is as well. At the same time, you know, moms, they definitely have to be adaptable. They definitely have to be resilient. They have to be great change manager— management agents, because things are constantly changing. You know, it's like they get up, you know, to go— they get up to get even prepared for work, and they never know what's going to happen. You know, by the time, you know, the kids wake up, the significant other wakes up, they get food on the table. You know, they get out the door, and even when they get out the door, they might be turning around and going back because something has happened or whatever the case might be. Moms just know how to adapt, and they're extremely resilient. It's also why they're so exhausted, because they are trying to be everything to everyone all of the time. And, uh, that's a discussion for later in the episode, but You know, it's one reason why in the workplace, they then can apply that to just the unpredictability and the volatility, especially in today's environment. In the workplace, they can kind of respond to that. Working moms are very— what I'll say is they might not be aware of their emotional intelligence. But when you break it down, you look at how empathetic they are, how supportive they are, how you know, motivating they are. It all comes down to them being emotionally intelligent, then really kind of knowing what the other person needs, and always looking for what other people need, even as opposed to what they need. So from an emotional intelligence, empathy perspective, that's very critical in the workplace. Because as I always say, We're slowly learning in the workplace that your employees are people, not robots. And people come with a lot of junk, a lot of baggage, a lot of needs, a lot of wants. And the best leaders out there know how to tap into that and know how to recognize it and know how to leverage it and know how to support it and motivate it and correct it. And, and you know, just shift it where, where needed. And working moms kind of exemplify that. And so a lot of us could be looking to working moms to really understand what, you know, what that is and how we can adapt to be more empathetic, more supportive, more motivating, and more of a mentor and a coach to our employees and our team members. Other, other areas would be from a decision-making, problem-solving perspective. You know, the number of decisions— I don't even know the exact number. I'm sure someone's done a study of them. But, you know, the, the number of decisions that a mom has to make in a given day and the number of problems they have to solve, you know, it could be as at home, it could be as simple as the kid, you know, getting their homework done, or the fact that they brought home a note from the teacher. And now everything has to, you know, kind of get shifted up and, and reconfigured because maybe she needs to get, you know, go into the, go into the school and talk to the teacher, or maybe there was a delay in the babysitter showing up, and yet she needs to be out the door for an appointment, whatever the case might be. Translate that into the workplace of how creative working moms are when it comes to, you know, kind of identifying a problem, identifying a solution to that problem, being very creative, thinking outside the box, and then making decisions very quickly in solving them. Because recognizing that in order— if they do that, if they can resolve those issues quickly and make a decision on them, then they could be moving on to the next thing that they, that they have on their list. So problem solving and decision making. And of course, a lot of this that we're talking about leads to the fact that they're just great leaders. That's— women are great leaders. Add working moms to that, because what are they doing all day long? They are influencing, they are communicating, they are nurturing, developing. Coaching, disciplinary, or accounting, accountability, other people in their personal life. And they bring all of that into the workplace. And that's value that they bring to the company, let alone their organizational skills, which we talked about, you know, with their multitasking and their time management and decision-making. They just have great organizational skills. I, you know, I'll watch some of my friends and my sisters just kind of, you know, keep everything in order. My mother had 12 children in a 2-bedroom house at the— when I was little, and everything was organized. Everything had to be organized. That was kind of her requirement as a mom, is, you know, she still wanted a nice house, a clean house. A decluttered house. And therefore, you know, that was kind of instilled in all of us. So my sisters also, even one, one of them has 5 kids. They, the kids, from an earliest age, I remember them, you know, just learning how to walk, and they would take their own diaper and throw it away. They would pick up their toys and put them away. And it was, it's just awe-inspiring when I watch how moms operate, and they bring all of that into the workplace to support you and the team and the business as a whole. At the same time, working moms— and a lot of this has to do with the fact that they're also female as, as working moms— but they have a different perspective on things. They have requirements of moms, whether it's products and services, whether it's how they go about their day and, and, you know, what their routines look like. And, you know, at the same time, what are those problems that are going to crop up, and therefore, what are the solutions? But they have just so many different perspectives on what it is that they need, what it is that their family unit needs, what it is that their, you know, children need. So they just have a broader view of different perspectives that they bring to the table, different views, different opinions, different beliefs, different know-hows, let alone the, you know, the different solutions and the different angles that they can, they can take when it comes to solving problems, creating new ideas, or just getting the work done. And so, you know, diversity of their perspectives is a major value. And then the last value I would, I would mention is the loyalty of working moms, loyalty to their family, to their kids, to the community, to the schools, are— is brought into the workplace. So they're extremely committed, and they're extremely dedicated, and oftentimes more so than anyone. They're extremely loyal. At the same time, they have to get it back. You know, they want, they want that back. So they, you know, feel appreciated and supported. And that's a couple of things that we'll get into as well in regards to the challenges or the pitfalls that working moms might run into. But in summary of this particular question, working moms bring significant value, productivity, innovation, and ultimate to success and teaming and collaboration and engagement and connection to a team and to an organization that should not, definitely should not be overlooked. So what do working moms need to focus on if they want to be successful? Well, I would say all of that, that we mentioned, all the above. But I would add a couple of things that oftentimes is overlooked. And neglected, and/or, you know, there's just so much time in the day. Um, but as a working mom, you do need to focus on a few additional things to be successful. All right, you do have all of these natural and/or learned, uh, traits, qualities, and skills because of being a mom and now a working mom. But then there's other things that you also want to ensure that you're bringing to the table and focusing on, and that would be first It is critical that you're taking care of yourself. You know, on the airplane they say put the mask on yourself first before helping other people. It's true in life. You need to take care of yourself to be the best person for all of those around you. And first, do that for all the people in your life— your, your kids, your significant others, your family, your friends. But at the same time, that's just as critical for then that being important and a value and a priority for you in the workplace. And when you take care of yourself and therefore come into the workplace energized and healthy and, and alert and strong, it, it just emulates and it just energizes, um, the team and the business as a whole. So you have to take care of yourself. And part of taking care of yourself is making sure you have a support system, not only externally in your personal life but internally within the workplace. Make sure you have the people you trust, the people you can depend on, the people you lean on, the people you ask advice for, you, you know, the people that can give you, you know, the straight, you know, uh, assessment, the straight feedback, the hard feedback. Make sure you're constantly focused on building that support system outside of work and inside of work. And especially inside of work when it comes to career and advancement, which we'll talk about. The other one would be just ensuring that you continue to be flexible. And make sure that other people understand what your give and take is, what your flexibility is. That will just help you in the long run as well, especially as a working mom regarding, you know, your constraints as well as you know, how nimble you are in being able to take on new projects or take on, uh, travel or take on some stretch goals and responsibilities, even with those external obligations that you have as a working mom. So just ensure that you're continuing to be flexible, and the minute you feel that you're getting constrained because of all the other obligations and responsibilities you have, then that's where you use that support system to say, okay, so how can I get this done? And how can I make sure everything kind of continues to work while I take on this opportunity that I have in front of me? Or even if it's a negative situation that's going on, you know, how do I handle that while also, you know, making sure that it supports and doesn't hurt my, um, outside of work environment or lifestyle, which comes to the fact that working moms absolutely— and this actually goes to all women— but working moms need to be able to set boundaries. If you don't know and are incapable of saying no, and you don't know what your boundaries are, you don't know what your limitations are. And that might sound contrite. But at the same time, you know, majority of the women that I talk to, especially working moms, will say that, oh, I, you know, I, I don't want to limit myself. I don't want to, you know, I wouldn't want to turn off my phone or turn off my email. What if, you know, the big boss calls? What if? And I'm like sitting there going, so you're just going to stay up 24/7 you know, anticipating something that may never happen. And there's nothing wrong with saying no. There's nothing wrong with missing that phone call. There's nothing wrong with getting an email back out to somebody the next day. There's just nothing wrong to those things. And we could talk about setting boundaries for a whole episode. And if there's any interest in that, let me know. Just leave comments as you see this episode go out. Because setting boundaries, not only for working moms but for 99% of the clients that I work for, is a critical issue that they are challenged with. So you need to be able to set boundaries. The other area too that, um, you would need to want to focus on, um, is your own professional development. Now that can be that you talk to your talk to your team, you talk to your business about providing you professional development. But it's more, more about, do you know what professional development areas you need to work on? Do you know what skills, experience, and expertise you need to gain? Do you know, have you done a 360 assessment or done any type of self-assessment to understand your strengths, but also your gaps, and therefore You know, based on where you want to go in your professional plan that you have for yourself, do you, do you really understand kind of what learning, what coaching, what development you need to be focused on? And so ensure every single individual out there, working mom or not, you need to be ensuring that you are regularly, daily focused on developing yourself personally and professionally. Okay, because someone's not going to come and tap you on the shoulder and go, oh, I want to give you this great opportunity to get into this leadership program or get this executive coach to support you or provide you a mentor or an advocate. You need to seek those out for yourself and hope that someone actually just simply supports it, and/or you have to build a business case to kind of validate why it's a value to you and the company. Another area that working moms absolutely need to focus on is what people will call guilt management. There's a lot of guilt of leaving the kids at home or leaving the kids, you know, with a nanny or leaving the kids with even the significant other. And, you know, you kind of pursuing your dreams and your goals. There's a lot of guilt around just simply putting your needs first and putting your goals out there and wanting to climb that ladder and be as successful as you can be and that you're capable of being. And so you have to get control over that. You have to, you know, recognize that, like we were talking about with self-care, it's important to take care of yourself, your goals, your dreams, your passions. This is your one lifetime. As much as it is everyone around you. And therefore, then you just need to come up with the strategies and the, and the tactics to ensure that you're taking care of everybody else as well. And we'll talk about that in, in just a second. And then I call it honor your riches here, but I mentioned it earlier. You have got to be able to really appreciate yourself. Really acknowledge your own achievements. Acknowledge what you've accomplished. Acknowledge your awards or your, your, you know, overall achievements. I've repeated myself, but you need to be able to do that. And depending upon how you do it, it's not arrogant, it's not conceited. It's simply ensuring that other people know what you are contributing, what value you're bringing. And if you are, you know, having any career aspirations, you absolutely need to do it because no one's going to toot your horn for you. You got to toot it yourself. Now, you might have advocates and sponsors who are talking, you know, about you for future opportunities, and they're not telling you that, but they are. But at the same time, you really need to ensure that you're also putting yourself out there and making sure others know what it is that you're doing and what it is you're accomplishing. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it. What's wrong with it is how you might go about doing it. And again, that's a subject for another day. And then working moms can often be extremely distracted, extremely of, you know, focused elsewhere, you know, from the moment they walk in that door, pick up the phone, or turn on Zoom, uh, they, they could be in 100 different other places. So what you just need to focus on too is ensuring that if you're gonna, you know, take the time and spend the time, and as much time as, as you do working and with the people around you, make sure that you're fully there. Make sure you're fully present. Because if all of a sudden you come home at night, and I don't know about you, but if you come home at night, you kick up your feet and you kind of go to reflect on the day and you can't remember what the heck it is, you know, happened, or what it is you were working on, and what it is you accomplished, or who you spoke to, or what that, that, that conversation was about, it's kind of a wasted day. All of a sudden you wake up and it's a year later and you can't remember the milestones, you can't remember what's happened along the way. Because you're not fully present. Have you ever done that? The simplest analogy would be if you ever got in your car and you drove like, I don't know, 10 miles, and you get to that destination and you just go, I don't know that I was even awake during that drive because I don't remember anything about that drive. Because you were in your head, you were thinking about, you know, what, what has to be done when you get home, or what you did yesterday or what you're gonna eat. You weren't present right there, paying attention to what is going on around you. And it's really important to focus on some of these things, if not all of them, for you to really understand what it's gonna take for you to then, you know, have the success that you want for yourself, which then, you know, kind of flows over into your family and your friends and your overall life. All right. Okay. So I want to talk about some pitfalls that also working moms specifically can, you know, be confronted with. And if you can just understand them and, and appreciate them at face value, meaning, you know, don't stew too, too much on them, but at the same time have a strategy against them. And be sure you're doing things, you know, um, that don't, uh, exasperate them, then they won't affect you because you're not going to let them affect you. Okay, so the one would be just the overall conflict many women have when it comes to, you know, work and life, that, you know, they want balance. No such thing. I prefer you looking at it as a blend or an integration of your work and life. But also, you know, it brings in that guilt management. It brings in so many other conflicts that women have when it comes to them working, one, earning more money than maybe their significant other. Maybe that they are, you know, at a higher level, at a different role and position. Maybe they're conflicted over the fact that they want to, you know, climb the ladder and they want, you know, others to kind of pick up the slack and take care of, you know, what needs to go on outside. Then you have the conflict of maybe the significant other doesn't want to, uh, support you, and therefore, okay, so where's that compromise? Where's those boundaries? What's that decision point for you? So there's a lot of work-life conflict that comes up. For especially working moms, let alone if you don't have a support system, if you don't have a supportive partner, supportive network of whether it's caretakers or family members or, you know, you know, community members, your tribe. If you don't really have a lot of support, and not only support from a getting everything done, but more so someone who's motivating and supporting and cheerleading and, and really kind of on the sidelines, you know, kind of cheering you on to be successful, or whether or not you have the support of a healthy, uh, uh, insular, but a healthy family life, family environment, house environment. Uh, if you, you know, if you go home and there's a lot of turmoil and volatility in the home that, you know, there's a whole lack of support there for what it is that you're working your little tail off to accomplish. All right. And then of course, there's the gender bias and discrimination that women feel. Working moms, the minute that they're pregnant, they're worried about telling, you know, the workplace, you know, the minute they have the child and they have to go on maternity leave, there's a lot of conflict when it comes to— and discrimination. When it comes to them taking the time off, let alone if then the husband or the significant other also takes time in order to, you know, be there for the— for their child in the first, you know, several months. There's a lot of biases and discrimination. The bias of a working mom not being able to take on more responsibility, not being able to travel, not being able to to climb the corporate ladder, let alone the insecurities, uh, and fear and imposter syndrome that comes up for women when it comes to, you know, whether or not they're being paid for their, their worth or their value, um, or they're being discriminated against because they are a working mom. There's so much that piles onto women, and all I can say to that is you need to kind of understand and own who you are and where you are and what you want in your life, both work and family, and really own it. Really own it. And then find the strategies, find the support system, find the, the boundaries, find the network that will allow you to combat all of those factors, um, and you will have a, a much better opportunity, uh, to accomplish and to gain and achieve all of your goals. But it will take persistence, it will take determination, it will take a degree of confidence, a big degree of confidence, but more so courage. To kind of combat a lot of the negative factors that women deal with. I, I'll never forget kind of coming up in my 20s and 30s. So this is, uh, the '80s and '90s. And, you know, I was the only woman in the room from the time I was like 21, um, until maybe, you know, into my late 40s. And, you know, people would always have this conversation out here around, you know, the discrimination against women and the gender bias and the gender inequality. And I just never got caught up in it, maybe because I had 6 brothers and 5 sisters. Um, I just never got caught up in it. Now, am I naive to the discrimination, to the bias, to the inequality, the inequity? Absolutely, absolutely. Um, but am I You know, am I going to sit and kind of wallow in it and not find how to work around it or work with it? No. And neither do you. You can find ways to work around it or work with it that will allow you to continue, you know, pursuing and achieving your goals. All right. Now, what you don't want to do, you know, as a working mom, you don't want to neglect that self-care that we talked about. The minute you let yourself go, everything else is going to go, and you're just going to be constantly like a, you know, a gerbil on a wheel, just constantly trying to catch up and make sure that you can, you know, kind of balance all everything that, that is coming at you and get it all done in the way that you need to get done. So you do not want to neglect yourself in any way, shape, or form. You want to treat yourself, you want to honor yourself, you want to appreciate yourself, you want to care for yourself. And then another thing that I do often see that you just absolutely cannot be doing is underestimating your worth and your value and your contribution and what it is that you should be paid, what it is you— what opportunities you should be given, um, you know, what seat you should be having at the table. You— again, no one's going to tap you on the shoulder. You need to own it, and you need to fight for it, and you need to make sure other people um, understand what it is that you want and what it is that you're going after and what it is that you've earned. And you can't back away because, oh, you don't want to ruffle any feathers, or, oh, you know, that's— they're, they're going to think I'm a bitch, or they're going to think that I'm, you know, too aggressive. You know what? Your counterparts are, you know, are getting what they want. And so look at how they're getting what they want And I'm not saying emulate that, but just recognize that they're not hesitating, uh, to kind of ask for what it is that they want, recognize their value, even, even overinflate their value, uh, to kind of create, uh, you know, what it is that they want from their work and their life. Another thing too that a lot of us don't really talk about a lot is you don't want to be kind of isolating yourself. You don't want to be separating yourself. I'm a working mom, all these people are, you know, single or younger, or, you know, they're empty nesters now. No one's going to understand my situation. No one's going to, you know, appreciate what I'm going through. This is the time where you build that posse, you build that tribe, you build that support system. You, you educate them on what it is that you're dealing with. You educate them on what it is that you want. You educate them on how they can help you, uh, you know, kind of build that, that support system. Make sure you're taking care of yourself, uh, get that professional development that you want, you know, um, you know, uh, pursue the next opportunity that is out there. Uh, so don't isolate yourself and don't ignore any of the input or feedback that other people are giving you, good, bad, or indifferent. Leverage it, ask for it, and then use it to understand what it is that you need to be doing in order to respond to it and in order to overcome it and/or to continue to enrich and leverage it if it's great feedback. So don't ignore feedback. OK. And then, of course, we talked about self-care. We talked about, you know, not neglecting yourself. We talked about boundaries. So don't, you know, overcommit yourself. Be sure you know when to say no and, and stand firm in saying no. All right, don't say yes just to please somebody. Challenge it. I often talk to clients about the fact that just because your boss throws you something and says it needs to be done by the end of the week doesn't mean you just automatically assume that, oh, okay, my— it was my boss, he gave it to me and it needs to be done, or she needs to be done by the end of the week. No, ask them. So, you know, is it— does this really need to be done by the end of the week? Is, you know, is, is there a priority that this has to be done by the end of the week? Because I have these other things that I need to be working on. And so don't just over— you know, just don't assume that everybody's priorities is a real priority, or everybody's deadline is the real deadline. Make sure you're challenging it so you're not overcommitting, overwhelming, and overloading yourself, because that won't be healthy, and that will definitely cause you to neglect your self-care and a number of other things. All right, you want to constantly be be focused on your work-life blend, as I call it, or integration. You don't want to neglect it in any way, shape, or form. Okay, so those are some of the, you know, not to focus on, you know, neglecting your self-care, underestimating your value and your worth, ignoring feedback or isolating yourself, as well as neglecting any type of work-life integration, overcommitting yourself, so forth and so on. All right. So what are some strategies? What are some strategies that you could be using as a working mom to continue to advance your career? The first one, and this is typically the conversation that I have during this Mother's Day celebration, is you need to have goals. You need to set those goals that I mentioned, you know, at the beginning of this episode. Set your personal and professional goals. Not, don't, you know, not just the ones that your boss is handing down to you. What is it you want to achieve in your work, in your life? And have them for both. Have them for, you know, your work beyond the business metrics. What is it you're, you're working your ass for? You know, do you want— what role is it that you're wanting to do? What skills? What expertise are you looking to gain? What companies are you looking to work for? What is it that you're working so hard for? And then your personal— what do you want to achieve outside? What is the legacy you want to be leaving, you know, at the end of your life? So what are your personal and professional goals? And you can throw all the business metrics into those professional goals, but that's just a part of the professional goals you want to have for yourself. All right, another thing would be, remember, support system. Find those mentors, find those advocates, those sponsors, those individuals within your organization, even outside your organization, maybe in your field or industry, um, in your community from a business perspective that you can seek advice for, guidance for, mentoring from, especially if they're in the position that you're ultimately wanting to wanting to achieve. Seek out individuals that can guide you through your career and guide you through the hurdles and the obstacles, the discrimination, the biases, but also the value and the worth of being a working mom. Build that posse, build that tribe, that network, that support system that will not only help you on a day-in, day-out basis, but also help you plan and have that vision for your career, short and long term. And then, of course, that lends itself to needing to ensure that you are constantly learning and developing and growing. You know, go out. If your company won't invest in your professional development, then you go out and invest in training or coaching or You know, there's a lot of resources online, but if there are skills or expertise that you feel that, you know, are gaps and you need to gain for yourself in order to move to that next level, then be sure that you are also putting the time and the effort in and maybe the investment into getting that continuous learning. And, you know, don't rely on your company to always provide it. You may have to go out and do it for yourself. Uh, another thing would be make sure that people know what it is that you're working on, but what it is that you also are working to achieve. So we talked about honoring your riches. So make sure people know your accomplishments, your skills, your talents, your passions, and your, you know, even your hobbies that can lend itself to opportunities within the business. At the same time, be sure that they know what it is that your goals are, your aspirations, even ambitions. It's not a bad word. What are— where do you want to go? What is that next role or that next position or that role 3, 5 years from now? And, you know, then you can be asking them, OK, what do I have right now that lends itself to it? But what do I need to be working on? How do I need to fill the gaps? You know, what type of development, what type of coaching, what type of support support? What type of goals do I need to have within what I'm doing right now to then be considered for those opportunities? So be sure that you're also letting other people know what your goals are, because again, they're not going to be tapping you on the shoulder to go, oh, guess what, there's a big opportunity I want for you. You need to make it known. You need to make known what your boundaries are, what your limitations are. There's some of my clients who really can't be doing traveling or moving because of, you know, constraints. Make sure people know that so it doesn't work against you, it works for you. All right. And then be sure you're developing yourself on a daily basis as a leader. Make sure that you're always focused on how you're communicating, engaging, connecting, and relating to the people that are working with you and for you. Make sure you're working on being a nice delegator or an effective delegator, as opposed to someone who dumps or dictates to other people. Make sure that you're paying attention to not only your own prioritization of the, of the tasks that need to get done, but make sure the workload, you know, of your team members is understood by you and then supported in that, you know, as people start throwing things around and your people are getting work tasks from multiple people, not just from you. So make sure you are meeting with them on a regular basis to understand what their workload is, what the priorities is— priorities are, and then helping them to, to plan those out and organize them and make sure that they're going to be done as effectively and successfully as possible. Because ultimately, what they are or aren't able to accomplish is going to affect you. So you need to be sure that you're helping them and supporting them and them getting their work done as much as you getting yours done. All right. And that's just leadership as a whole. And then be sure on a regular basis you are always focused on how best you could be not only taking care of yourself, but you could be working on your work-life integration. I talk to my clients probably in every session about what is it that you're doing to take care of yourself, to enjoy yourself outside the workplace. What are you doing to really set boundaries and come up with routines and disciplines, uh, that won't have you looking at your phone or pulling up email or just focusing constantly on work? Because the next thing you know, a week, a month, a year, 5 years go by and all you've been focused on is work. And life is just slipping by. So make sure you're always, always focusing on your work-life integration. All right, so that would— that, you know, kind of addressed a lot of different things, looking at what should you be working on as a working mom, what value you bring, how do you honor yourself and all the riches that you possess right now. How, you know, you need to be focused on certain things to be successful and have that work-life integration, but also have that career path and that career goals and that career aspirations that you're wanting for yourself. As well, what not to do, what not to do that will impede you from achieving what it is that you want, and also some strategies for how to be overall, overall successful in pursuing and achieving your goals. I, I know for myself and for many, many, many other people, we are all inspired by the working moms out there and are just appreciated— appreciate it. We just appreciate what it is you do bring to the table. And if Even if others and everyone doesn't, there are individuals that do appreciate what it is that working moms deal with on a day-in, day-out basis and the value that they bring into the workplace. Seek them out and have them to be your supporters and your motivators and your cheerleaders. And reach out to me. I would absolutely love to tell you how wonderful and how much I'm here for you and how much I support you.. And you can always reach out to me on LinkedIn. You could just follow me on LinkedIn, leave a comment, send me a DM, or you can schedule some time with me and let me give you some of the tips and the guidance that we talked about today, uh, so you can ensure that that integration of your work and life and your career aspirations are supported in such a way that you are successful in achieving them.. And so you can always go to coachmebernadette.com/discoverycall to schedule some complimentary time with me. All right. And until we meet again, I am so honored that you were here this week. I celebrate you as the working moms that you are. And for all of those who may not be, I celebrate you as well. And I'll look forward to having you right back here for another episode of Shedding the Corporate Bitch. Happy Mother's Day!