Kids as a Catalyst for Change and Finding a Family First Culture in a Facility with Courtney Janney of the Memphis Zoo

Mothering Wildlife

My guest this week, Courtney Janney, and I spent so much time talking about women in leadership and how having children changed her professional priorities. When her first daughter was born, her new attitude about work/life balance pervaded her team and she quit playing the competitive game with her coworkers which allowed her and her teammates to start trusting each other more. She feels like this made management see her more as a leader and it helped pave her way to leadership opportunities.
We also talk a lot about adjusting to being back at work after parental leave; she always advises new moms to give themselves time to adjust to being back at work because a new normal will take a while to click into place - for her it took about the same amount of time that she was out on leave to be back at work before she started feeling like her new normal was set. This also meant that she had to decide that she wasn't going to feel guilty about leaving her daughter at daycare.
Courtney is a big advocate for finding the facility and culture that is right for you. If your needs aren't being met, then advocate for yourself and either look for a facility that can provide or attempt to create the changes yourself.

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