1. Do you think it’s possible for women today to ‘have it all’ and be the perfect wife/mother and have a successful career?
Absolutely (not!) no one is perfect thank goodness, we all have our good and not so good bits. It all comes down to the visions we have for ourselves and then more importantly, making them happen. We need to define ‘having it all’ and it means different things to different people and changes over our lives and careers. Right now, I have 2 young boys and it’s important to me to be at home with them, so I work from home in the mornings and spend every afternoon with them, they go to bed early and I have time with my husband every night, he also works from home. Life certainly feels good and work feels successful, although most days I fall into bed pretty tired!
2. What do you believe to be the biggest pressures on women today and how – if at all – do you think these differ from those pressures facing our Mothers’ generation?
One of the biggest pressures is to be ‘perfect’ and we can give ourselves a hard time if we are not. This can lead to people pleasing and trying to do everything which leads to a lot of stress.
A big pressure on a lot of women these days is financial, women are often main breadwinners and we can have limiting beliefs around making money. Also, health, women tend to be having children older and have to care for parents as well as children, we often forget about our own health and put ourselves last.
My mother had a lot of the same pressures interestingly, but they were the first to be working mothers, we are following in their footsteps, they created the path for us as we do for our children.
3. What advice would you give to working women who have a family?
- Life is short, spend as much time having as much fun as you can with them.
- Life is long, pace yourself, think long term and know you’ll probably work until your 70’s so there is plenty to achieve career wise.
- Do a few things really, really well rather than a load of things to an ok standard.
4. Is there a particular woman in the public eye you admire for what she has achieved – both in the Board room and in her personal life?
Kirsten Gillibrand, Senator for New York who I recently interviewed for our online coaching program, The Heroine’s Quest, to find out more, you’ll need to join! (www.heroinesquest.com)
5. What’s your biggest achievement in your professional life to-date?
I really like the fact that we are financially successful as a company and that we use that to do good things in the world. It brings a lot of freedom to be creative and true to our values.
6. What drives and motivates you on a daily basis?
I truly love my work, (I of course have days when I don’t) but I get to make a difference in the lives of some pretty amazing women through coaching them and leading workshops and events. Most of these women are every day women who don’t realize how amazing they are, its part of my job to make them realize!
7. What gets you out of bed in the morning?
I get up at 4 or 5am, it’s dark and peaceful and I get loads done while everyone is asleep. Whenever I can’t get out of bed, I think of the women and girls in developing countries that we support through our foundation mentoring programme, I feel driven, like there is so much to do and why am I complaining about getting out of bed, get up Sam, there is work to do!!
8. What’s your definition of success?
Going to bed at night feeling like I made a difference today, looking over at my husband Robert and thinking how lucky I am and my kids sleeping through the night!
If you’d like to know more about Aspire, our foundation and The Heroine’s Quest, take a look on www.aspirecompanies.com
Dr Samantha Collins, Women’s leadership expert, executive coach, international speaker and author
Dr Samantha Collins is a wife, mother and businesswoman. She is the founder and CEO of ASPIRE, an internationally-recognized and award-winning leader in leadership training, coaching and events for women.
Samantha has been a coach for 10 years and was named One of the Top Ten Coaches in the UK by the Independent on Sunday and the Association for Coaching. She was also named one of the Top 200 Women in the UK to Impact Business & Industry by HM The Queen of England. She has contributed to The Financial Times, CNN, The Times and the BBC Global Business Report. Her PhD thesis examined the future world of work for women and she is the author of a soon-to-be published book, Go MAD – Women Leaders Making a Difference. She is also the winner of an Ogunte Women’s Social Leadership Award in the category of Leader in the Workplace 2010 and was recently shortlisted for the Women in Marketing Award 2010.
Samantha is passionate about making a difference for women both in and outside of the boardroom which is why she started The Aspire Foundation. This not-for-profit foundation offers pro-bono mentoring, fundraising and campaigning for women in charities, social enterprises and community projects that are making a difference to women and girls across the world.
Samantha is an inspirational speaker and regularly addresses women’s conferences, corporate and entrepreneurial events and workshops.
Originally from the UK, Samantha followed her dream and now lives in California with her husband, Robert, and 2 sons, Jake and Charlie.
