Three Ways Motherhood Could Fuel CEO Success
An in-depth conversation with Jess Toolson, founder, and CEO of Mixhers, concerning how being a parent has shaped her skill sets.
One article celebrating an accomplished woman entrepreneur and the fact that its writer is one man might sound like a disjointed arrangement, yet rest assured: I had quite a bit of assistance writing it.
Because Jess Toolson, owner, and CEO of Mixhers (one of the most successful women’s supplement companies in the U.S.), is not just an incredibly innovative entrepreneur but also a close friend.
I intended to have a conversation with her, in part to discover how budding entrepreneurs could successfully step into a CEO position. But early in the course of the chat, she gave something that surprised me and which transformed the nature of the discussion.
” I feel like motherhood, above everything else I have done in my life, prepared me for being a CEO,” she stated.
I found this incredible, so we dug more into the theory, and what resulted took my breath away– key things that motherhood taught her concerning being a CEO.
1. Quick Problem Solving and also a Three-Dimensional Perspective
Being a CEO needs a knack for quick-witted problem-solving. Most of the time, you have to think through problems at a high level, looking at them three-dimensionally to arrive at a solution that you and your company can work towards and stand behind.
It is that crucial executive’s deciding vote which carries the most weight in determining company trajectory. Jess stated she was surprised how comfortable she felt when pushed right into such situations, then detailed how being one mother prepared her to think through decisions calmly from multiple perspectives.
” The power to problem solve is one life skill that is just as important in motherhood as it is in the life of a CEO,” she explained. “As one mother, I should try to look at challenges three-dimensionally: How can I observe all sides of the issue? What different approaches could I utilize? What are the possible results? As one CEO, I try to take the same approach. Problems come, sometimes rapidly and urgently, and I need to provide solutions that are not just well thought out but timely due to sometimes non-decisions are more damaging than wrong ones. Once I feel I´ve sufficiently thought out an issue, I try to behave with a combination of confidence and flexibility.”
2. Prioritizing Quickly and Efficiently
The sky is not always falling. Not every fire must be placed out immediately, and there are (almost) no errors that can not be reversed or fixed. Nevertheless, there is a mode that must be employed when dealing with the day-to-day demands of running a company. Jess rapidly realized that prioritizing would be an enormous part of her task description. Luckily, as she explained, she felt ready pretty much from the start.
” Being one parent taught me how to prioritize. There are always one million things that require to be done, but there is inevitably something that needs to be done 1st,” she said. “At Mixhers, I have been able to look at what needs to be handled today, what could wait for tomorrow, and what’s a problem for next week. This enables my group to chew off bits and pieces of a task rather than take on the whole thing all at once. Prioritizing intelligently has assisted productivity, increased morale, and simplified our processes. It is also allowed us to celebrate wins and push through losses.”
3. Nurturing Employees Leads to Better Performance
One dramatic shift has taken place in the way employees are observed, particularly over the last few yrs. Rather than just warm bodies in seats from 9:00 to 5:00, employees are more usually now regarded as people whose performance is the amount of a number of different parts and circumstances– all of which an employer would understand and support.
Jess just felt a natural inclination to treat people like this, motivated in part by her experience as a mother.
” Good mothers can observe their kids for who they could become with proper nurturing,” she saw. They also understand, on a circumstantial degree, what drives behavior. They usually want their kids to know that even if they are experiencing something difficult, and even if there is discipline or timeouts involved, they are there to be one child’s champion. That’s what I have tried to implement at Mixhers. I want my group to feel that I believe in them. They require to know I can look past growing pains and well-intentioned errors because potential is just realized when we work through those things with each other.
” I believe I may take more time than the typical CEO in getting to know employees– their personal lives, their difficulties, triumphs, and skillsets. Though this takes time, the payoff is immense. Potential is reached more usually, productivity increases, and risks typically turn into rewards.”
Read the original article on Entrepreneur.
