Almost Superwoman: A Guilt-Free Working Mother

I've known Alison Andrew since we met at Fonterra during the merger. Alison was the CEO of Fencepost at the time, and over the years we've developed a close friendship. I count myself very lucky to have had her as a friend and advisor. She's given me so much invaluable career and life advice which I've cherished and tried to share with others.

When I was living through Fonterra's restructuring, it was Alison's wise words that kept me going. She was the one who pointed out that I was feeling so miserable because I was a person who was used to being in control - and this was a situation I had no control over. In her straightforward manner, she challenged me with, "So what are you going to do about it, girl?" She then talked me through the situation and we came up with a great strategy to increase my sense of control over my life at work.

Ever since launching Professionelle, I've been pestering Alison for an interview, and finally she agreed! I believe she has some incredibly insightful things to say and it's great others can have a chance to read them. I hope you find this interview as interesting, useful, and thought-provoking as I did.

Current work role

Alison is currently one of the most senior women in Fonterra. She recently moved into her new role as Commercial Director, Fonterra Ingredients. It's a role which acts as a link between Corporate Finance (part of the corporate structure in the company) and the Ingredients business unit. A big part of the role is to manage performance and provide general business advice to the unit.

The funnel approach to career - from a specialist to a generalist

Alison trained as an engineer but quickly became a generalist in her business career. She has undertaken many diverse corporate roles both in line management and staff functions. She has also worked in many industries and in companies ranging in size from small start-ups to large corporates.

She has clearly enjoyed the variety of roles and industries she's worked in, but she does sound a word of caution,

"There is a danger that as a generalist you'll be really good at nothing in particular. You can become too generalist".

Alison's emphatic career advice to those who are thinking of undertaking a wide business career is to train as a specialist. You'll have plenty of opportunities to generalise later in your career if that's what you want. She sees her own training as fundamental in teaching her a methodological approach and clear thinking skills which she believes set her up very well for her wide ranging and diverse career since.

Focus on the important, not the urgent

Alison had only been in her new role for about a month when I interviewed her. She says of it;

"Having a new role is always a challenge; my focus is to grow the business. It is challenging in a company like Fonterra where one needs to do a lot of internal interfacing to make things smoother for the business units."

As a senior manager, an ongoing challenge is both to delegate and to make sure staff are accountable with what's been delegated:

"My challenge is holding people accountable and ensuring they make decisions where they should be made, rather than trying to continually push things up and duck accountability!"

Alison is passionate about truly adding value. Delegation is critical because it frees her to focus on the issues where her experience means she can really make a difference.

"In my particular role I want to make sure I focus on doing the important things rather than the urgent - but not important! - things. I want to figure out how I can move the dial rather than be an important administrator. I constantly ask myself: how do I make sure I actually add value?"

Life, not work, is her greatest achievement

Alison has two sons, one aged ten and the other thirteen years old. She rates them, plus her marriage and her family to be her greatest achievements. She also considers herself lucky to have a great family while being able to manage a successful career spanning different roles, companies and industries.

"My greatest achievement? Being able to have a functioning career, a family and a good marriage and stay sane!"

So, how does she make the whole life and career combination work?

"Of course you compromise" says Alison. "Just like in business, you ration to get the best return on your investment, and that's what I do in my life."

Over the years, I've come to realise how disciplined Alison is. You'll never find her loitering around the company kitchen having chats. "I measure myself on output, not input and I walk out of the office when I'm done. I don't believe you have to be seen at your desk to prove you're working hard."

In this interview, I finally had a chance to grill Alison about the nuts and bolts of how she makes it work - which, after all, is a large part of what we all really want to know about each other! Now, those of you who might be slightly faint-hearted, take a big breath before you read on (I definitely needed to!). It has to be said that behind every successful working mother there's a great support infrastructure. Alison is no exception.

"To make it work, you've got to have good child care and outsource the administration aspects of running your house," she says.

She and her husband have a great governess (not a nanny!) who picks the kids up from school and does their homework with them. This lady also helps out with occasional shopping and washing. They also have someone who does eight hours of housework including cleaning and ironing.

Alison is one of the most energetic people I know. She's religious about getting enough sleep; she declines networking and work socialisation 99% of time. She does, however, go to the gym every day between 5.45am (!) and 6.45. Her kids have their morning jobs to do while she trains and if they get them all done on time, including making their own lunches and stacking the dishwasher, they get to watch a bit of TV which is their incentive.

"I get home at 6.45am, have a shower, dry my hair on the way to the kitchen where I quality check the lunch boxes. If my mother rings in the morning it's - 'not now, mum'. The supply chain logistics in our house in the morning are very tight!"

After dropping the kids at school at around 7.45am on the way to work, she checks her blackberry and has her first cup of tea from the thermos - while stalled in traffic.
She gets back home at about 6.30pm and makes a simple dinner with her boys. "We make honey mustard chicken and salad or vegetables, nothing that requires much preparation". The whole family eats together at about 7.30pm. Her younger son still likes to be read to, so she tries to do that most nights.

Alison is not a big fan of TV. She's not against it, but it's simply not her thing. She plays the piano and will finish most nights in a hot bath while drinking her hot chocolate and reading a good book.

The weekends are dedicated to the family. On Saturday the jobs get done and the boys have their sporting activities. Sundays are the family day. The family sails together, or ventures to the west coast beaches where the boys practise their surfing. "Our social life is getting better with the boys getting older," says Alison. Her focus is very much on balancing those two key aspects of her life: work and family.

Make the time to give something back to your community

Alison has just finished coaching her younger son's cricket team. My mind boggles… how did she find the time?

"No one volunteered to coach" she says. "I've always wanted to give something back. I think it's important and I think it's achievable even when you're a full time working mother time. You just have to be organised."

Not being able to do the whole school thing with parent-teacher meetings and mum help at the school, Alison decided that she could help with the coaching and get to spend more time with her son and his friends that way. "Mondays are a race to get to the coaching session on time, and then there's the Saturday morning game."

The hardest thing about coaching according to Alison is not managing the behaviour of pre-pubescent boys, but that of their parents! "I had to be quite forceful about it - managing the parents so that they'd back off!"

Now that the cricket season is finished, Alison manages the soccer team. She assures me that that is a lot less work…

Look after yourself or you'll be no good for anything

One thing Alison taught me after I had my first child was to make sure I looked after myself. She definitely makes sure she does. She has regular facials and loves having her nails done but doesn't do it that often as they always break.

Alison is not a big shopper but she does love her clothes. Her solution has been to find a designer she loves and who will kit her up. Alison's advice is to find out what things make you feel good. And once you've done that to ensure you find the time to do at least one of them reasonably regularly.

Alison and her husband also have a weekly date every Tuesday and have done so ever since their first son was born. Taking care of their relationship is really important to Alison and the Tuesday date is a strictly observed affair, only broken if one of them is overseas.

Don't be afraid to be human - no one's perfect

Early on in her career, while she was struggling with adjusting to managing a career with children, Alison had a boss who told her to embrace her humanity.

"He said to me, and it's stayed with me, that no one wants to follow god. As a leader, you've got to demonstrate you're human, that you have failures and that you're vulnerable."

Alison is very comfortable with the choices and trade-offs she's made in her life,

"I'm very comfortable with my balance between my life and career. I wish New Zealand was a bigger market with more opportunities, but this is where I want to live with my family. You do compromise to stay here. Sometimes having too many choices is hard, having to compromise forces you to think outside the box to get to different places."

Be clear about what's important to you!

Alison believes it is totally achievable to be a working mother in New Zealand. She sees the challenge for women coming from their level of choice:

"Women now have too many choices; they can be working mums, working women without children, part time working or not working at all. What women need to do is make a choice. Figure out what's right for you and go for it!"

She says the key is not feeling guilty about the choice.

"There is no right answer! If you want to work, then work, and enjoy it. Don't sit at your desk feeling guilty that you're not at home with your child. And if you want to stay home with your child, do that instead."

Alison realises that some will find her life incredibly hectic. "I'm a high energy person and I realise not everyone is as ADD as me, and that's OK."

Her motto is to be clear about who you are and what works for you and go for it without guilt or regret.

Women's responses to male-dominated corporate political structures

I asked Alison why she thinks there are so few senior women in New Zealand business. Having been in numerous corporate roles and in many industries, Alison, I believe, has a unique insider perspective on this question.

She believes that the oft-mentioned high profile corporate women in New Zealand are a superficial phenomenon, "a thin veil" at best. "In business, I think there are still a lot of male-dominated environments." She points to the underlying structures of corporate life as the place to look for dominant male norms.

"You look at the food provided in lunch meetings. What woman would choose sausage rolls and custard squares?" she asks. "And the language is very masculine with male nouns being used almost exclusively."

Alison described the environment in many large local corporates as insidiously sexist. "It's not overt, but just under the surface there are these aggressive environments which can capture you." It's a challenge to remain feminine and not to 'become a man' by buying in to the politics, the dress sense and the mannerisms. In Alison's view, the reason why there aren't many women in top jobs is three fold:

Firstly, she believes a lot of women can't be bothered with these male-dominated environments. Women will opt for something or someplace else, that's less aggressive and more fulfilling.

"Women have more options than men and we don't feel we have to put up with it like they do. Many men are trapped, and they have no choice but to make it work. That's why they're so much less likely to rock the corporate boat. Women don't have the same unhealthy dependency on their jobs."

A second factor she sees limiting the number of women at the top is that it's more risky for senior managers to promote women into high positions because they are so visible.

"If a man fails, no one really notices. But if a senior woman fails, everyone notices and for the CEO or senior manager who promoted her there that's a real issue."

The third barrier is affordable and flexible child care.

"Your children's safety is paramount. If you're worried about them there's no way you can achieve to your best."

Very early on as a working mother, Alison and her husband moved from centre based childcare to a nanny arrangement. "I knew I needed to work. Working makes me happy. We budgeted for the more expensive care."

Non, je ne regrette rien!

Alison has no regrets. There are some things she'd like to change about her life - she'd love to work four days and take most of January off, for example. In ten years' time she sees herself working less, doing more voluntary things, but still living in New Zealand and still making a difference. In her words, "I'm not in need of anything, really".
If I were to describe Alison in two words it would be 'well balanced'. And, indeed, as we say goodbye, she shares with me the following story from early on in her career.

"When I graduated top of the class from my MBA in the UK, I was interviewed by a certain management consultancy. They turned me down. I was told I was too well balanced and content! They wanted single minded people who are able to become obsessed with one single thing…"

Well, as an ex-management consultant myself, what does that say about me?!

© Professionelle Ltd 2007