Motherhood added an extra star of delegation to my leadership style: Shaily Mehrotra

We, at Adgully, have always saluted and honoured women managers and leaders across diverse fields. Over the years, W-SUITE is a special initiative from Adgully that has been turning the spotlight on some of the most remarkable women achievers in the M&E, Advertising, Marketing, PR and Communications industry.

On the occasion of Mother’s Day this year, Adgully has come up with a month-long special series saluting the Moms of the A&M industry. The series explores how successful women leaders, who are also mothers, are achieving work-life balance, and are also creating an inclusive work environment so that the mothers in their teams can work to their full potential.

In conversation with Adgully, Shaily Mehrotra, CEO and Founder, Fixderma, speaks at length about struggles of working mothers, and much more.

While speaking about the many roles that she plays – entrepreneur, mother, wife and an individual – Mehrotra emphasises that work-life balance is extremely important. “I need to balance all the roles. In my opinion, prioritisation is extremely important,” she added.

Her advice to fellow working mothers is that they need to learn to not over-expect themselves to be a super human. “You have 24 hours and there is only so much that one can do in this duration. Don’t expect yourself to be everywhere and do everything. Prioritise your calendar. Share responsibilities, take help wherever needed and ask your partner to step-in and share your personal responsibilities in case of professional emergencies,” she said.

When asked about how she dealt with “mommy guilt”, Mehrotra said that she didn’t believe in ‘mommy guilt’, and added, “If there is no father guilt then there shouldn’t be any mommy guilt as well. It’s all about prioritising. It is important to make your child aware that his mother is a working professional.”

According to her, personal and professional space needs to be balanced. For this, one needs to start delegating responsibilities – both personally and professionally – to ensure a balance. “Ask for help wherever needed. Even personally, ask your spouse to share your responsibilities wherever required,” she advised, adding, “For instance, it’s not mandated that only a mother has to attend a parent-teacher meeting at their kid’s school. I have many times missed it because of important professional commitments and I am really grateful of how my husband has carried that responsibility in my absence.”

Sharing about her experience of returning to work post her maternity leave, Mehrotra said that it was “very encouraging”, but at the same time she admitted that as a new mother, she had mixed feelings. “On the one side, I was excited to get back to work and on the other hand, I was feeling low on being away from my newborn. So, I would say that I faced emotional challenge for sure as mentioned, but work space wise, I felt supported. I was given proper download time to absorb things and get back to pace,” she said.

Few changes that she would like to see in the workplaces to support working mothers include offering basic crèche facility at offices or some place close to the office, flexible working hours for new mothers, and remote or hybrid work options.

Mehrotra pointed out that becoming a mother adds a different edge to a woman’s personality. Women have always been multi-taskers. She added, “A leadership role is full of challenges and responsibilities. Being a mother brought to me more patience and empathy. I have always been a people’s person. But motherhood added an extra star of delegation to my leadership style. I feel I have become a better solution provider.”

Speaking about the steps that her company has taken to support and empower working mothers, Mehrotra said, “Fixderma India has always practiced parity at the work place – whether it’s about gender, race, or motherhood. We never had to take any step to empower working mothers as we have very elevated and supportive culture towards women anyway.”

She further said that the company supports working mothers by practicing flexibility. While the company doesn’t have a remote work environment, but in case of requirement and emergency, full support is given to working mothers. Apart from this, there are also insurance benefits provided to working mothers.

According to her, the best practices to create a more inclusive work place for working mothers are to encourage rehiring of working mothers by providing them with equal and feasible opportunities. “Organisations should also consider providing insurance and healthcare benefits for children. Apart from this, flexible working hours and remote working should be encouraged,” Mehrotra concluded. 

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