Being a mother can be a daunting task. Building a successful career while figuring out motherhood can be even more difficult. But Rhode Alhonsou found a way to help career moms navigate this delicate balance. Here is the story of CherishClub.
Loice* is a mother of three boys aged nine, five and three years. She is a Monitoring and Evaluation expert at an international organisation. To cope with the demands of a fast-paced work environment, Loice has severally considered quitting her job or taking a prolonged parental leave. This is the challenge of thousands of working women in Africa.
From demands of newborns, inconsistent sleep patterns to the guilt of leaving children too early to resume work, many mothers find themselves in a delicate situation. Navigating this space and adjusting to the new life without forgetting oneself can be a daunting task for many. Rhode Ahlonsou is the Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of CherishClub, a company with a mission to offer Loice and other working mothers the much needed balance between a steady career growth and fulfilling motherhood.
A new report by That Works for Me shows that only 24 percent of women go back to full-time after having children, and of that 24 percent, 79 percent ended up leaving anyway due to not being able to maintain a full-time role alongside having a baby. Rhode knows this all too well. Having worked in Strategy Consulting throughout her career, the now mother of two observed how women often chose to leave or change jobs upon becoming parents. But one of her employers intentionally invested in training and upskilling both young women and men in junior roles, envisioning that as they progressed to managerial positions, they’d contribute to the company’s growth and expansion.
The hurdle for women
“However, for women, the juncture of managerial advancement frequently aligned with their desire to form families and embrace motherhood. I felt puzzled until I became a mom myself and was rising into the ranks of management,” she remembers.
“Becoming a parent made me a more human manager and more efficient with my time at work.”
~ Rhode Alhonsou
Rhode’s supportive husband and her desire to learn gave her the platform to juggle a busy career with parenthood while prioritising family. She says: “Becoming a parent also made me a more human manager and more efficient with my time at work. I stopped putting in the 10-12-14 hours per day and still excelled in my projects at work. A very understanding boss who was also an involved dad in his family with young kids helped too.”
Walking in other mothers’ shoes as a manager
With my own experience with my two energetic daughters while in a busy career, It became a very natural thing for me that whenever a friend became a parent, I would usually sit down, even spend the day if I could with this new mother just to help her to get Into a comfortable flow in their new life without forgetting themselves.”
According to Rhode, many new mothers get caught up in dealing with the new baby, often forgetting that they are the most important. “It’s easy to fall back into behind the scenes, the invisible person. Meanwhile, If the mother doesn’t have energy, or is not mentally sound they cannot transmit positive emotions to the new baby let alone to feed him, because they need to be producing breast milk.”
Why I decided to take action
This realisation led Rhode to find a unique and more prominent role in helping working mothers adapt to structures that worked for her. And at the peak of her career as a country Director in a global Health Organization, a determined Rhode changed tune to what she terms as the most fulfilling assignment in her career journey- establishing CherishClub.
Through initiatives like women at work programs, challenges, coaching, and peer support, the company is keen to enhance staff wellbeing and retention while providing a platform for sharing stories and successes and acknowledging the role of content mothers in productive workplaces.
Todate, the company has reached over 300 women and professionals in the workplace across more than 30 organisations and in 15 countries. “For us, an organization’s milestones are not just about business growth; they are about the growth of individuals who are flourishing in both their professional and personal lives.”
Rhode’s nuggets to career mums
- Define your vision and extend that into a family vision. If you don’t know where you are going as a person and as a family it’s likely the journey will be very tumultuous.
- Prepare a good support network. Akin to the best marathon runners who have pacesetters and a full team to keep them hydrated throughout the run, your close family, your partner, and very importantly, a very good nanny will make all the difference in your journey.
- Be realistic with what you can achieve. There is often a big myth around can women have it all? A great Career and a great family? My answer is yes, but only if you don’t confuse “Having it all” and “Doing it all”. So get your support network involved in the doing with you.
- Invest in your well being first. It will propel your career. If mentally you are broken or you are not fit physically or sick, you can’t get much done as a mother or a working woman.
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