For years, women have struggled to juggle their careers and personal lives. Managing both successfully usually comes with a significant amount of stress, causing some women to give up their professional life in favour of caring for their family. These challenges were faced by Mona Andrews, CEO and Founder of Stay In the Game. With her vision to change this unacceptable situation, in 2017, she started the company to help women who were facing similar issues. The idea behind the company was to make sure that no women have to make the difficult choice between caregiving and their career.
Supporting the movement of women empowerment, the team of Mirror Review recently interviewed Mona, where she was very kind to express her views with us on women in the workforce and motherhood. We also asked her few questions regarding her company and her overall experience.
Here are the highlights from the long interview.
Creating Successful Balance
Can you please shed some light on how Stay in The Game came into existence?
As you know, there are several social issues that women face, especially in the workforce. Stay in The Game was founded to address these enormous social issues that exist in the workforce because of caregiving responsibilities. As a mother, I feel that women should not have to choose between their careers and caregiving. My journey began when my sons started preschool; I was struck by the thought of how many of the other mothers had to struggle with juggling the demands of their career with their caregiving responsibilities, and I knew that I could be part of the solution.
With flexible, remote job opportunities, Stay In The Game makes it possible for caregivers to set their own schedules and successfully balance the demands of work and family. Caregiving is a right, not a choice, and the women employed by our company are able to truly have it all.
Employing Talented, Ambitious and Professional Women
One unique quality of Stay In the Game that you would like to share with our readers?
Stay In The Game is the only end-to-end architecture that exists to provide opportunities for this talent pool. All of our employees have at least a Bachelor’s degree and are incredibly talented, ambitious, professional women. We are able to match the perfect talent to each client’s unique project requirements. And I believe there isn’t another company with more qualified talent.
Never Repeat Your Mistakes
You must have faced few failures in your life. If yes, how did you tackle them and did it change you in anyway?
Yes! It’s true no matter how hard we try we cannot escape failure. I believe failures are the greatest teacher, and as an entrepreneur, I have a very high tolerance for pain, uncertainty, and failure. I have learned a lot from them, most notably humility and not to make the same mistake twice. While it is definitely uncomfortable and not what anyone wants to experience, but in my opinion, failure spurs us to grow, learn and dig deep.
No two days are exactly alike
Please tell us about your daily routine and any highlights from your daily routine you would like to share?
Good question indeed! I would like to keep it short and precise, one of the things I love most about this job is that no two days are exactly alike. Most of my days include a review of the prior day’s results, a check-in with my office manager, outreach to current and potential clients, and working to refine our business development strategy.
Prioritizing Tasks
At times, it must be difficult for you to manage yourself and team, what is your secret motivation mantra?
I typically avoid telling secrets, but since you asked, I would like to tell you about how we manage. We use this great project management tool called Teamwork. Within that tool, we are able to prioritize tasks, collaborate with team members, keep running notes on progress and assign deadlines. During particularly busy times, my General Manager will create a triage list to prioritize deliverables.
Always Learning and Growing
How satisfied are you with your current company culture and any changes you wish to see?
We are always learning and growing, and I think that is the foundation of our company culture. We have incorporated elements from Kim Scott’s “Radical Candor” and Patrick Lencioni’s “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” to strengthen our corporate culture. I want our team to be comfortable sharing their opinions and ideas, and to know that we care about them personally as well as professionally.
Being A Better Leader Every Day
Experiences play a crucial role in shaping a person. Can you please share your personal experience that helped you to become a good leader?
I think that my training as an attorney has helped me understand the importance of systems and processes in the business. I work on being a better leader every day, and think there is always room for improvement – I hope I’m still learning and improving when I’m 90 years old!
Communicating In Best Way Possible Way
According to you, what are your insecurities as a leader?
I have recently learned that my communication style can sometimes be received in ways that I had not intended – this is a huge learning and I am grateful for the opportunity to learn and grow. Self-reflection has been a great tool to help work on this; I ask myself if I am communicating in the best way possible with the team, what I might be missing, and how we as a company can better empower our team. Checking in with myself has been a great way to learn and grow from this insecurity.
