Anjali Gupta is manager of credit-card campaigns at Scotiabank. She graduated from the executive MBA program at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto in 2019.
Last year, when most of my classmates were attending preprogram executive MBA classes, I was being admitted to Sunnybrook hospital to deliver my firstborn. Whereas most people came to school with a new laptop and study materials, I started my classes with a five-week-old baby.
I knew that taking the intensive executive MBA program at Rotman School of Management while raising a newborn wouldn’t be easy. At the same time, I was settling into Canada as a recent immigrant. Other than my husband, we had no family support.
At home, I juggled my time between Harvard Business Review cases, lecture notes and BabyCenter. I was watching lecture videos while nursing. Late nights, early mornings, coffee, Red Bull – I tried them all. There was a time when I was singing Efficient Market Hypothesis to my baby in preparation for the finance exam!
Fortunately, the staff at Rotman made my journey stress-free. Resources provided include a nursing room, refrigerator access and the accommodation of special requests during week-long stays at campus. In my new classroom, I found a group of accomplished women who were willing to share their motherhood experiences. I had a few of them on speed-dial. I talked to every soul I could find to get baby tips.
Fast-forward a year, it’s my daughter’s first birthday and I feel accomplished, fortunate and stronger. Looking back, I never imagined that I would be able to advance both my professional and personal life at the same time.
For any woman in my position of having to balance a new baby and school or work, here are three things to remember.
Embrace the ambiguity
With kids, family and work in the mix, your days and nights are no longer structured. Sick days, social outings and surprise events can throw uncertainties into your schedule. No matter how hard you plan, there will be a certain amount of chaos. I learned this the hard way. We may be used to working with ambiguities in the workplace, but how should you handle similar situations at home?
After several failed attempts at micromanaging my time, I decided to embrace the ambiguities and uncertainties wholeheartedly. A great way around this is to build flexible schedules that can accommodate unexpected events. Instead of planning a perfect week, leaving space in your schedule can be rewarding for both you and your family.
Recognize your identity
As a new mom, accept your new identity and the importance of rebranding yourself. Learning to accept your new “self” helps curtail unreasonable expectations at home and work, and also reveals a more personal and empathetic side to your colleagues.
Lead without guilt
A working mom makes innumerable decisions per day, with a constant riding fear: Did I do everything okay?
Prioritizing work can cause guilt when you miss some of your child’s activities – for instance, a late class caused me to miss my child’s first crawl. But it becomes important to look at the broader picture. Instead of being hard on myself for missing out, we celebrated our little one’s achievement that night.
The important thing to remember here is that any opportunity to overlap personal transformation and professional changes can give you a new lens on life. The journey can give you new tools to lead and champion changes at your organization.
This one is for you, my little one. Happy Birthday DD. Hope you feel proud of mama some day and maybe even remember the Efficient Market Hypothesis to share with your sibling, who is on the way!
This column is part of Globe Careers’ Leadership Lab series, where executives and experts share their views and advice about leadership and management. Follow us at @Globe_Careers. Find all Leadership Lab stories at tgam.ca/leadershiplab.
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