The Best Ways for Managers at Every Level to Celebrate Working Moms on Mothers Day

The Best Ways for Managers at Every Level to Celebrate Working Moms on Motherbeis Day We usually celebrate Mothers Day (and Fathers Day) fairly privately. These celebrations fall on a weekend, and the point is, after all, to recognize the mothers (and fathers) in ur lives for all they do on the home front. Dont get me wrong, Im all for unterstellung private celebrations My own personal tradition is to spend Mothers Day in a park with my family, enjoying the calm of nature and watching my boys gleefully throw rocks into the creek from the waters edge.However, today Im suggesting that there are ways that companies and managers within companies can use the occasion of Mothers Day to celebrate their employees who are committed to success both at work and on the home front.For companiesFirst, Im not advocating a company-wide celebration of Mothers Day. Great employees are great employees, whether they have children or not. And companies would do well to recognize that the day can be tri ggering for many, particularly those who have lost parents, lost children or are trying to conceive.Rather, I encourage companies to use the occasion of Mothers Day as an opportunity to take an honest assessment of how well the company is doing at helping all employees who have commitments outside the workplace to thrive in their careers. Instead of simply paying lip service to the holiday, companies can take a deep and honest look, for example, at their own parental leave and flexible work policies and cultures. In making this assessment, a company can ask questions likeDo we offer an adequate amount of paid leave? Are parental leave policies truly gender neutral, and has any reference to a primary caregiver distinction been eliminated? (The research shows, after all, that a dads taking leave improves the moms ability to thrive in her career.) Is a backup care benefit available? Have we made efforts to de-gender and de-parent our workplace flexibility policies (which in turn elimin ates stigma for working parents)?Have we put programs in place to help new parents transition smoothly back to work after leave? Is there a working parent affinity or employee resource group available to employees? Taking steps to ensure a company makes life tenable for its working parent talent is the *best* way it can celebrate Mothers Day in a meaningful way.For managersCompanies, of course, dont exist outside of their people. And managers are in a truly unique place to recognize on Mothers Day the (often herculean) efforts of their working-mom direct reports.During the holiday season a few years ago, the chief of my division at work gave each of us a bottle of wine as an end-of-the-year thank you gift. Attached to the bottle welches a typed note of the things she welches grateful for. And at the top of the page was a handwritten, personalized note of gratitude.To me, she wrote Thank you for juggling work and motherhood so elegantly. Elegance? It was breathtaking. I was only a fe w months back from maternity leave after the birth of my second child, and that word was the antithesis of how I would have described myself. Here I was, thinking I was frazzled beyond recognition, burning candles at both ends, wearing ponytails and quite possibly clothing that smelled like spit-up. And the word she chose was elegantly?I still have that note and her words were forever etched into my memory. Her recognition made me feel seen. Like my efforts were worth it. It made me want to keep coming back to the office to do good work for her. And it was only one sentence.If you manage a working mom, you have an amazing opportunity to help her feel like her efforts matter. Here are a few concrete suggestions of how to do thatTell a direct report (in person or by writing a note) what an amazing job you think shes doing of being an employee and a mother.Send a group e-mail-nachricht to all the working moms on your team, letting them know youre thinking of them this Mothers Day.Point out to a mother colleague what strengths and leadership qualities youve watched her grow and develop, since she became a parent. (See this beautiful watercolor by an alum of the Mindful Return program, if youre looking for ideas on what some of those skills might be.)Many of us working moms are so down on ourselves for trying (and, we believe, failing), to succeed both at work and at home. Even small amounts of recognition by the managers in our lives can truly help to lift that burden of guilt. I am always in awe of the passion and commitment that working moms show for both their families and their careers. And Im hopeful that Mothers Day can be a catalyst for companies and managers to recognize the amazing talents of so many incredible women.--Lori Mihalich-Levin is the founder of Mindful Return, author of Back to Work After Baby How to Plan and Navigate a Mindful Return from Maternity Leave, and creator of the Mindful Return program for new parents, which 50 employers now offer as a parental leave benefit. Lori is also a partner in the health care practice at Dentons US LLP. She holds a law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center and completed her undergraduate studies at Princeton Universitys Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.