Walking the Walk: CSL on Maternity Leave
Dear Colleagues,
A Note from Freddi
I’m sitting down at my desk elated to be here. I had my second baby two months ago and, as I write this, am returning from maternity leave today. I feel rested, connected with my little girl, and grateful for the people I work with. I feel clear-eyed about the purpose of rest: that spring cannot arrive without the fallow quiet of winter. Knowing that our world never stops moving, I am reminded that making space for periods of rest requires both an internal commitment and active support from those around us. We’ve included notes below on the steps we took to prepare successfully.
Preparing for a Leader’s Leave:
During leave, I had a text message conversation with Amanda in which she perfectly illustrated the things that must be true in order for a colleague to step away for a leave period and return feeling restored. I asked her how it was going and she replied: “Everything is going well! Planning is going swimmingly. You don’t need to worry. Go rest!”
Team Preparedness: CSL began preparing for this maternity leave in December—about four months before I actually went on leave. We prepared in three ways:
Establish current scope of work: Amanda and I worked together to have a comprehensive understanding the work that I was doing in the months prior to my due date. This allowed us to parse out whether we would (a) pause the item or (b) delegate the item to a team member during the leave.
Track live work: Together, we began to track the status of each work stream so that we could easily transition at any time. In the two months prior to my leave, this looked like weekly check-ins to discuss each of my priorities and the current contingency plan for each.
See the opportunity to empower: We promoted Leah —she is now leading our organization’s research, facilitation resources, and client management. This meant that she took on a portion of the work that I previously owned. This transition occurred prior to the leave period so that we could troubleshoot the handoff as needed before I went offline.
High-Level, Periodic Updates: About once per month during my leave period, Amanda and I caught up briefly on the phone. She gave me the highest level updates (“we’ve worked with X groups and are preparing to begin work with Y groups”) and asked me to take no next steps. This allowed me to feel at ease without reengaging in work during the leave period.
A Redirection to Rest: While stepping away to rest sounds simple in the abstract, it takes some discipline to pause work (even for a short period) that you feel passionate about. Without fail, each ping to Amanda was met with “go rest.” It occurred to me that this dynamic would likely play out with you as well—we have the privilege of serving a community of deeply passionate leaders who love their work. This means that true rest requires that our collaborators hold us accountable. It isn’t as simple as closing our laptops and stepping away until our leave period ends. Slowing the internal motor down takes both personal intention and team support.
Blocking & Tackling: Beyond Leah taking on additional responsibilities and the work that CSL put on pause during this maternity leave, there was still additional work that the CSL team had to take on. In addition to her normal leadership responsibilities, Amanda took on these additional tasks by actively redirecting requests away from me and to herself. Amanda responded to all correspondence that included requests I received with a reminder that I was on leave and that she would address any requests herself so that I could remain offline. This points again to the absolute necessity for leaders who will play an active role in supporting a colleague’s ability to stay offline during a leave period.
Ultimately, I had a wonderful, quiet maternity leave. It took intention, planning, and deep support from Amanda and Leah. If you are approaching a leave period yourself, you and your team would benefit from utilizing these practices.
A Note from Amanda
If you are supporting someone through family leave, a sabbatical, or even a few weeks off, it is important to prioritize sustainability and intentionality. Investing in some extra capacity support via contract allowed everyone to thrive during this time, myself included. Ensuring that I protected Freddi’s time by asking people not to email her felt empowering. And also giving Freddi those very high level updates while still pushing that she rest and not act was critical and allowed Freddi to let go of any anxiety she had about being away and still made her feel like the valued yin to my yang in our cofounder model. We are excited to continue to share our learnings with you all and update our sustainability processes now that we have walked this walk.
If you are supporting someone through family leave, a sabbatical, or even a few weeks off it is important to prioritize sustainability and intentionality. Investing in some extra capacity support via contract allowed everyone to thrive during this time, myself included. Ensuring that I protected Freddi’s time by asking people not to email her felt empowering. And also giving Freddi those very high-level updates while still pushing that she rest and not act was critical and allowed Freddi to let go of any anxiety she had about being away and still made her feel like the valued yin to my yang in our cofounder model. We are excited to continue to share our learnings with you all and update our sustainability processes now that we have walked this walk.
CSL Team Member Updates
Amanda Aiken, Ed.L.D. finished her doctoral program in Education Leadership at Harvard University this spring with a successful defense of her capstone written about her residency at the Surge Institute. She became engaged the day following her defense!
Leah Recasner is finishing the second year of her Ed.D. program. In the coming months, she will begin to narrow her dissertation topic, which will hopefully expand on some of the work we are doing at CSL. She also became engaged earlier this year!
As a team, these life milestones impact our internal planning. We view a holistic understanding of the demands on our time and energy as key to sustainable team planning: we are the same person at work and away from work. For example, CSL will plan for Amanda to take on less work in the period following the completion of her doctoral program as it was a huge, demanding undertaking.
We hope that you are able to take advantage of the lessons that we have learned as a group over the last two months. A successful parental leave is impossible for an organization leader without intentionality, planning, and support across the organization.
To an ever-brighter future,
Amanda, Freddi, and Leah