What makes a good leader in the workplace?
Well, motherhood for one. A new report from Mothered Media, titled ‘Maternal Strengths’, surveyed 354 women across 12 leadership capabilities before and after they became mothers. The conclusion? Mothers reported becoming twice as intentional about where they allocate their time, energy, attention, and resources. There was also a substantial improvement in their ability to negotiate for their needs, flexibility, boundaries, and compensation. In short, they were able to better manage their time and navigate prioritisation.
The report adds that the biggest gains the mothers reported were in operational leadership skills rather than emotional capacities (as is the cultural expectation). “These findings challenge the assumption that motherhood and leadership development exist in opposition to one another,” the report concluded.
It’s what women have said all along.
Let’s face it. Motherhood brings new conditions: limited time, multitasking brain, zero patience for inefficiency. But in leadership roles, these are not constraints; they are an advantage that can be harnessed to make things move faster and better. A mother can reply to that email and finish listening to a podcast while watching her toddler out of the corner of her eye. The above-mentioned report only proves the numbers aren’t lying.
Anecdotally, too, through conversations with mothers who work outside the home, certain threads emerge. Nearly all the women I talk to reflect that motherhood has made them more efficient, more direct, and often more driven at work.
Diipa Büller-Khosla, a content creator and founder of Inde Wild, unequivocally agrees. She says that after her daughter Dua (now five years old) was born, opportunity cost became a key factor in her decision-making. “I think I was much more willing to say yes. Now I’m much more intentional about where I put my energy and my time, because I see the opportunity cost. You learn very quickly that being good at something doesn’t mean you have to personally own every part of it, so things like building the right team, delegating, and trusting people have become a huge part of how I work.”
It also changed her definition of what productivity looks like. Eighteen per cent of the mothers surveyed reported increased adaptability in navigating changing priorities, uncertainty, and unpredictability. “Better time management doesn’t mean I somehow became better at squeezing more things into a day. I became much better at deciding what deserves space. There are days when I have a completely packed work schedule and then need to switch straight into being a mum and attend birthday parties and PTA meetings. I’ve learned to be much more present in whatever I’m doing. I used to think being productive meant getting everything done all the time, but now I think it means knowing what actually needs to get done today, what can be delegated, and what can wait until tomorrow,” Büller-Khosla elaborates.
For Kanika Kapoor, a 43-year-old lawyer based in Mumbai and a self-described perfectionist, letting go was the biggest lesson motherhood taught her. With a workday that often stretches past 10 hours—most of it spent in the office—and with two sons aged 11 and eight, both of whom play and travel for competitive sport, her schedule is always full. “I had to learn to adapt and evolve efficiently,” she admits. “You know you have limited time to juggle and to multitask, especially with my boys’ schedules, so I had to focus on delegating and trusting my team with my responsibilities.”
While Kapoor often works post-bedtime, she has implemented clear personal and work boundaries, both for herself and for those around her. She allocates a specific time of the day for her children, when she is unavailable for work calls or emails.
That demarcation does not come easy for Gauri Kitchlu Nayar, 44, mother of two (aged eight and a half and four and a half) and founder of Twain Communications, a lifestyle PR agency. Her role often involves networking at events, which often occur beyond regular office hours. “In an industry like mine, where networking and socialising go hand in hand, it’s a fine balance. But I now let clients know that we don’t work on weekends and I stick to it—something that took me a long time to adhere to,” she says ruefully. “I’ve lost patience for meetings that could be calls and calls that could be emails. I put every tiny thing into my calendar (or else I will forget it), even scheduling workouts and date nights like important tasks, as otherwise they invariably fall by the wayside. I constantly ask myself: what can I be doing better, quicker, smarter? This has helped me streamline the kinds of clients I take on and the kind of projects I feel will add the most value to my agency.”
Ask any working mom in corporate if this flexible work arrangement is working for them, and they will tell you there are still so many challenges they face. As an executive coach, Farah Nathani Menzies has a unique view on the personal and professional lives of the women she coaches (C-suite execs) and mentors (mid-level managers) across industries. A former start-up founder and a trained yogi, Menzies, who has two girls, aged 11 and 13, blends modern neuroscience and ancient philosophy in her one-on-one and group sessions. She believes that it’s essential for corporations and companies to build environments to support women who bring top-notch skills. “Those I’ve met in senior leadership positions have chosen to have only one child so they can experience both parenthood and their careers. But it’s the mid-level managers that don’t necessarily have all the resources to give 110 per cent at work and not have to worry about their family commitments. Many come from nuclear families, living far away from extended support, and any crisis or issue at home can cause a major disruption.” It only reiterates the need for companies to recognise the value mothers bring.
Only mothers know the domino effect: one sick child, one missing nanny, and the entire house of card topples. “It’s ironic. In PR, crisis management is a very valued part of what we do,” says Kitchlu Nayar. “Little did I know that I would be battling crises almost on a daily basis with my little ones. The nature of these crises is of course so different—a sudden fever and I have to cancel my day of meetings, a nanny going on leave requires a very creative calling in of resources (mother, in-laws, close friends). It’s an emotional struggle that requires so many moving parts to fall—and stay—in place.”
The reliance on the larger ‘village’ is what allows many mothers to continue in the workforce, but as nuclear families grow they need to find that support elsewhere.
For both Kapoor and Büller-Khosla, motherhood has made them more focused and conscious about building a work culture that is supportive of these issues. Büller-Khosla leads a team of 46 women (the average age being 29.2 years) and 16 men and says that she’s become a more “humane leader”. “There’s a tendency to talk about motherhood as though women have to choose which part of their identity gets to come first. I’ve never really believed in that. It’s less about choosing between the two and more about learning how to make space for both,” she says.
For Kapoor, too, the majority of the team consists of women in the ages of 30 to 40, and her aim is to provide “a nurturing work environment where my team feels secure and understood”. She adds, “I hope it encourages them to maintain an efficient work-life balance without holding off motherhood.”
At this point, the conversations have moved way past choosing between a flourishing career and motherhood. “The assumption is that once you become a mother, you are going to be less ambitious, less available or less committed,” says Büller-Khosla. “The irony is that my experience has been almost the opposite. I think it has given me a different kind of ambition too. I’m not just building for myself anymore. I think a lot more about the world I want my daughter to grow up in and the example I want to set for her. If she sees that and believes she can do the same, that would probably be one of the most meaningful things I could leave her.”
