Before any of us had a manager, a mentor, or a coach, most of us had a mother or a significant maternal figure in our lives who was quietly modeling leadership lessons for us long before we ever set foot in an office or boardroom.
Mothers and maternal figures are often running the most complex operations ever witnessed. They manage competing priorities with zero margin for error. They lead people who didn’t choose to be led by them. They make hard calls with incomplete information, at 2am, while exhausted, with no performance review, no bonus, and no applause.
The best mothers I’ve observed don’t lead through authority. They lead through presence. They notice when something is off before anyone says a word. They hold space for the person in front of them while keeping the bigger picture in view. They celebrate small wins loudly and address failure privately, with grace. They know that building a person or a team isn’t about control. It’s about creating the conditions for someone else to grow beyond you.
That’s not soft leadership; it’s the hardest kind of leadership.
Regardless of whether you’re a mother, a father, have children, or don’t, ask yourself:
Am I leading like someone who is invested in my team’s growth, or am I leading like someone who is invested in my own results?
Both can be true; however, making a radical choice that the definition of success is the evidence of someone else’s flourishing is equally fortifying.
To every woman on a team somewhere who is also “mothering”, leading at home before the first Slack message arrives, and leading at work long after the last one is sent, your capacity is extraordinary. Not because you have to do it all, but because so many of you choose to show up fully in all the places, even when the world rarely makes it easy.
You deserve to be seen for that, not just on Mother’s Day, but in how we design our workplaces, our flexibility, our cultures, and our expectations.
Here’s your task for next week, Thought Partners: Someone, somewhere, poured into you before you ever had a title after your name. They believed in your potential when you couldn’t see it yourself. They stayed steady when you experienced highs and lows. They pushed you when you wanted to give up.
Be that person for someone on your team now.
Not just because it’s Mother’s Day. Because it’s what great leadership looks like Every Day.
(And thanks, Mom, for being the first great leader I ever had. – ❤️ Stacy)
