On Friday, May 11, the Mother’s Day Council celebrated Outstanding Moms in the community with a luncheon and awards ceremony. The honorees included Chelsea Clinton, Jessica Simpson, Artemis Patrick (the CMO of Sephora), and Jan Singer, the CEO of Victoria’s Secret Lingerie. The 40th Annual Outstanding Mother Awards were held at the Pierre Hotel on 5th Avenue.
We chatted with Singer about this outstanding honor and how she balances life as an executive and a mom.
Singer has 10-year-old twins—a daughter, Sophie, and a son, Max. When it comes to raising them, she dispels the notion of work-life balance. “I think it’s about agility, I think it’s about being able to have flexibility in the schedule,” she says, having structure but also “white space” to adjust to a given situation.
She also wants to set a good example for her kids when it comes to facing success or failure: “The best example is it’s okay being wrong…sometimes moms make mistakes.”
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As a mother, she does feel she interacts a bit differently with her employees; overall, there’s a greater sense of empathy when it comes to a colleague’s family matters. “You have a lot more EQ [emotional intelligence] than you did prior to being a mom” when you work with employees, she says. Also, as a self-proclaimed “older” mom, she’s “connecting with other moms [whom Singer employs] who have children who are the same age, and they are just starting their career…it helps me understand them, it helps them understand me, and together, we actually share a lot of ideas and tips.”
But even though we can tell Singer is an outstanding mom, she was surprised when she found out she was being honored at the event. “At first, I thought it was a mistake,” she laughs. “That is the most energizing part of this conversation is that when you can believe that things can just look different, not better or worse, but different, then anything is possible in our whole world.”
For more information on the Mother’s Day Council, visit momanddadday.com!
