What Mothers Can Teach Us About Women In Leadership

Growing up in a big Italian family with lots of aunts, uncles and cousins meant I had to learn some indispensable leadership skills at a very early age. At the top of the list were skills like listening (plenty of stories were told), nonverbal communication (yes, it’s true that we use our hands to talk!) and negotiation (dinnertime doubled as a spirited debate forum).

My father was amazing and gave me a great model to follow after, but some of the most impactful lessons in leadership came directly from the professional life of my mother.

My parents divorced when I was still a little boy, and my mother juggled the impossible duty of raising three boys while maintaining her own professional career. This was during a time when it was much less prominent to be a working single mother. Nonetheless, she refused to let the difficult circumstances of her life dictate her future. Every day she made the decision to be a leader.

She exhibited her leadership qualities so remarkably well that even I, a young boy at the time, could recognize them. As I grew older, I began noticing a trend. There were four particular qualities she possessed that I consistently saw in other women leaders – then and especially now.

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