If you’ve ever felt like you’re carrying your entire team on your back while also managing a household, relationships, and your own career ambitions, this episode is your permission slip to stop.
In this conversation, Shannon sits down with Daria Rudnik, former Chief People Officer, executive coach, and author of Clicking, to unpack why so many high-performing women leaders end up over-functioning at work and how to build teams that actually think, solve, and operate without leaning on you for everything.
In This Episode We Cover:
➡️ Why being the “go-to” leader is actually blocking your team’s growth
➡️ How to stop absorbing emotional labor that doesn’t belong to you
➡️ What a team that actually works looks like under pressure
➡️ How introverted and quiet leaders can build trust without performing
➡️ The biggest misconception leaders have about trust and one-on-ones
➡️ How to empower your team to make decisions—without micromanaging
➡️ Why letting people struggle (appropriately) is part of great leadership
➡️ How AI is changing team dynamics—and why human decision-making still matters
➡️ What returning to leadership after maternity leave really requires
➡️ One simple calendar shift that can immediately reduce overwhelm
Daria brings a global perspective from working across six continents and offers practical, no-fluff strategies to help women leaders move from heroic leadership to empowered leadership where teams collaborate, take ownership, and truly support the leader in return.
In this conversation, Shannon sits down with Daria Rudnik, former Chief People Officer, executive coach, and author of Clicking, to unpack why so many high-performing women leaders end up over-functioning at work and how to build teams that actually think, solve, and operate without leaning on you for everything.
In This Episode We Cover:
➡️ Why being the “go-to” leader is actually blocking your team’s growth
➡️ How to stop absorbing emotional labor that doesn’t belong to you
➡️ What a team that actually works looks like under pressure
➡️ How introverted and quiet leaders can build trust without performing
➡️ The biggest misconception leaders have about trust and one-on-ones
➡️ How to empower your team to make decisions—without micromanaging
➡️ Why letting people struggle (appropriately) is part of great leadership
➡️ How AI is changing team dynamics—and why human decision-making still matters
➡️ What returning to leadership after maternity leave really requires
➡️ One simple calendar shift that can immediately reduce overwhelm
Daria brings a global perspective from working across six continents and offers practical, no-fluff strategies to help women leaders move from heroic leadership to empowered leadership where teams collaborate, take ownership, and truly support the leader in return.
In this episode, I join Shannon to explore why many high-performing women leaders become overwhelmed—and how to shift from carrying the team to truly leading it:
- The trap of over-functioning — being the “go-to” leader can unintentionally block team growth and create burnout.
- From hero to architect — how to build teams that think, decide, and operate independently.
- Trust without performance — why quiet or introverted leaders can build strong teams through clarity and connection.
- Healthy leadership boundaries — letting teams struggle, share emotional load, and take ownership.
- Leading in the AI era — using technology wisely while keeping human judgment and collaboration at the center.
(00:00-00:30) Shannon Fox
If you've ever felt like you're carrying your entire team on your back and your household too, this episode is gonna feel like a deep breath. Today, I'm talking with Daria Rutnick, a former chief people officer and executive coach who helps overloaded leaders build teams that think, solve, and operate without leaning on you for every single thing. If you're a working mom who's exhausted from being the default problem solver at work and at home, you're about to learn how to create a team
(00:30-00:58) Shannon Fox
that actually supports you back. Let's get into it. Hey mama, welcome to Career Growth for Working Moms. If you're stuck in a job that doesn't fit or burning out trying to do it all, you're in the right place. I'm Shannon, a career coach and fellow working mom. Here, you'll get simple career strategies and strength-based leadership tips to help you grow with clarity and confidence. So grab your coffee or reheat it for the third time and let's do this.
(00:59-01:19) Shannon Fox
Hello, welcome. Today I'm thrilled to welcome Daria Rutnick, team architect, executive coach, former chief people officer, and author of Clicking a Team Building Strategy for Overloaded Leaders. Her work has been featured on Fox, NBC, CBS, ABC, and across major news outlets for one reason.
(01:19-01:41) Shannon Fox
She helps leaders build teams that work, think, and solve problems without burning out. She lived and worked across the US, Russia, Israel, and supported clients on six continents, bringing a true global lens to what makes teams trust each other, what makes them break down under pressure, and what actually helps leaders get their time and energy back.
(01:41-02:01) Shannon Fox
If you're a working mom trying to grow your career and protect your well-being, this conversation will give you practical ways to lead smarter, not harder, and create the kind of team support that frees up capacity for both your work and your life. Daria, I'm so excited to dive in today. Well, thanks for having me here, Sean. Yeah, very exciting.
(02:01-02:14) Shannon Fox
So you help overloaded leaders build teams that click. So for these working moms listening, what does a team that actually works look like, especially under pressure?
(02:15-02:39) Daria Rudnik
Well, I'll tell you a story. One of my clients, she's a working mom. She had like a two-year-old son getting back to work, kind of felt that she's ready for the next career move. But she felt that kind of she has to do it all. I mean, she has to take care of her kids, family, and like to take care of her team members. And what we worked through with her is that she doesn't have to be there for the
(02:39-02:56) Daria Rudnik
for the team members all the time. They're not babies. The baby needs her. The team members, they don't. They're fully capable of making decisions, solving problems, communicating with stakeholders. And so what I encourage overloaded leaders to do is
(02:56-03:23) Daria Rudnik
Let your team go to the team and just together decide who's doing what. You don't have to be the go-to person for every question. They don't need to ask you to go to you with every problem. Ask them, can you decide, can you talk between yourself first? And then if there is no response, there's no solution, then get back to me. But they can do it. So leaders should not be here without saving their teams, but rather empowering them to make their own decisions.
(03:24-03:43) Shannon Fox
I love that. I totally believe that. So what about those leaders that are carrying invisible emotional labor at work? What's a mindset shift that can help them stop absorbing everything and really share that load that we just talked about? Yeah.
(03:44-04:03) Daria Rudnik
Again, it happens a lot with leaders who have very well intentioned, who want to help, who want to support. And they come to me and say, I want to grow my people. I want to help them succeed. But the thing is, you cannot make them and you cannot help them succeed. And if you're taking...
(04:03-04:23) Daria Rudnik
their burden if you take in their tasks their responsibilities their problems on yourself they can only grow if you help them make mistakes and be responsible for those mistakes because that's how we learn by trying from trial and error so stop being a heroic leader and start letting them fail that's that's how we learn
(04:23-04:38) Shannon Fox
What would you say to the person that may be more introverted or a quiet leader? I know we have some listeners that they're like, hey, I'm just not one that's going to be bold and just kind of go out there. What would you say to the more introverted leaders?
(04:39-05:00) Daria Rudnik
Well, I love that question. I mean, I worked with the CEO and he is not the kind of person who can go at the town hall and speak to the whole company, the company vision, but he knew that he needed to connect with the organization. He knew that he needed to connect with team members. So what did he even start? He actually...
(05:00-05:18) Daria Rudnik
like gathered a small groups of people and he had very intimate conversations with them. He was able to connect with them, not being out there talking, but kind of having a conversation. So you can find your own style of having one-to-one conversations, smaller group conversations.
(05:18-05:48) Shannon Fox
Anything is possible. As long as you connect and talk to your people, it's okay. It can be in various ways. Yeah, I love that because there are going to be times where it does need to be a little bit more intimate and that's more comfortable and actually can be very productive. But then there's other times where there's going to be people that are like, hey, give me the microphone. I want to be the one out there on stage. And it's good to have a balance of all of that on a team, don't you think?
(05:48-06:03) Daria Rudnik
Absolutely. Yes. Yes. If there is someone who is ready to step up and do a presentation, let them do that. Everyone will be happy. Exactly. What is one of the biggest misconceptions leaders have about building trust on their teams?
(06:04-06:34) Daria Rudnik
Well, from what I see, like one of the biggest mistakes leaders make is they, again, they have too many one-to-one conversations with their team members. And it's good. I mean, one-to-ones are important, but you cannot solve all the problems with like one-to-one conversations because that means that you have connections with all the team members, but they don't have, they can have a strong connection only with you as a leader. They don't have connections with themselves. They don't have connections with their stakeholders. And they kind of feel lonely because they don't have that many conversations happening.
(06:34-07:03) Daria Rudnik
What you should do instead as a lead is connect people with each other and creating micro groups, micro collaborations, have a mentor in the body, like anything that's make them talk and work together before they come to you and have as discussed problems as a team. If you have a conflict, talk to all of the people involved in the conflict. Don't do those one-to-one. So instead of having a lot of one-to-ones, have more like expand their network.
(07:03-07:18) Shannon Fox
I love that. I love that. So we have a lot of moms that are listening that manage that are managing teams and managing, you know, being a mom, a whole household, and they're feeling overwhelmed. They're feeling burnout. What advice would you give to them?
(07:20-07:34) Daria Rudnik
I mean, I'm not being, I'm sure you've heard that a lot, but take time for yourself. That's the first thing. I mean, that's always the first thing. You need to find time for yourself, take a deep breath, have a cup of coffee, whatever you're drinking, take a walk.
(07:35-07:56) Daria Rudnik
I mean, I'm a working man myself and I know how it feels that you don't, you have to go, you have to keep moving. It's your obligation, it's your responsibility and you kind of feel it everywhere. But it's very important to understand that if you burn out yourself, it's not helping anyone. So just take time for yourself. That's important.
(07:56-08:17) Shannon Fox
Yeah, I love that because I think we think we can keep going and do it all. And instead, even if it's just 20 minutes that we just stop and just like you said, to have a cup of coffee, just by yourself, just get away. It kind of resets everything and allows us to to have that go back in there a little bit more refreshed.
(08:17-08:36) Shannon Fox
Yeah. Okay. So you have coached or supported teams across several different continents, six, right? So what is one universal thing that you have seen or a challenge that these people have faced through every single continent? Yeah.
(08:37-09:06) Daria Rudnik
Oh, I love that question. And again, like we, we live in different cultures and it's kind of, we, it's good that we are aware that cultures are different. It's good that we know that like people are different, but when you're leaving a team or you have like, how many people, like eight, 10 people on your team. So forget about cultural labels and get like, stop knowing them as a human being, as a person, because in different cultures, we also have different personalities. You can have someone more extroverted, less,
(09:06-09:33) Shannon Fox
extroverted, more outgoing, more direct in any culture. So instead of putting those labels, try to know the person and connect with them on the individual human level. I love that. I remember when I was traveling in Europe and I saw this dad and his son and they were speaking German and I'm going, oh my goodness, I felt like he was yelling at his son. And my friend that was there went, he was telling him how proud he was, but
(09:33-10:03) Shannon Fox
I just didn't know what he was saying. And it's just like, to me, it would seem like just a harsher language then. And, you know, cause then I had been in Spain and in France and Italy. And so then you get to German and I just went, wow, that was my great reminder. Like we have to really get to know the people and get to put ourselves in that situation because I had totally misread that whole thing. And he was sitting there telling his son how proud he was. And I'm like, he's yelling at him.
(10:03-10:26) Shannon Fox
yeah staying open and curious and like trying to see positive intentions and all the people around you is really helping like it's helping me a lot yes it does it does so what do you feel um do you feel like ai is transforming leaders and what is your opinion on um ai in the world now
(10:27-10:48) Daria Rudnik
Well, AI is influencing team dynamics a lot, like how we work with AI, how we collaborate. It's not just like merely an automation because it kind of seems as a brain, as a mind that can think, communicate, give us complex output. So it leads to...
(10:48-11:05) Daria Rudnik
kind of over-relying on AI and the effect of cognitive offloading when we delegate to AI too much of our thinking process. And that makes us disengaged, both on kind of emotional level, but also the brain, if we...
(11:05-11:31) Daria Rudnik
use ai too much in the wrong way our brain becomes disengaged and it's very hard to take ownership for the product i'm doing if it was generated by ai so what i help leaders do is always be in the loop always have team conversations about ai outputs before making decisions and again final decision should always be with humans ai can give some suggestions but
(11:31-11:42) Daria Rudnik
get together, talk it over, critically evaluate the output, and then make a decision. And that will make you a great partner with AI, and AI will be helping you rather than replacing you.
(11:42-12:05) Shannon Fox
I love that because it does. There is some things that it can simplify and help with. But like you said, the final decision needs to be a human decision. And I love that because I feel like sometimes people think, oh, AI said to do it this way. That has to be the final. And I love the human emotional component that has to go in there. So I love that.
(12:07-12:32) Shannon Fox
Um, what, what would you say to those moms that we have moms listening that have been out on maternity leave, for instance, and they're trying to come back into reenter into the workforce and the leadership positions. What would you say to them to do that with confidence? Because maybe they're feeling a little like, Hey, I've been gone for a little bit, a few months. So what would you say to them?
(12:32-12:54) Daria Rudnik
Well, first of all, the mistake I made and I, well, being on my maternity leave, my maternity leave was kind of long. I had two kids. I was with them for four years. I did some projects on the side, but I completely lost my connection with my network. And that was a big mistake. It made me hard to get back.
(12:54-13:21) Daria Rudnik
So if you're still on maternity leave, make sure you keep those connections alive. Make sure you talk to those people, ask how they're going, read emails. It doesn't have to be a lot. Just keep those connections. And it will help you get back to work with more confidence. But anyway, being a mom is such a boost of our brain dealing with uncertainty. Yeah.
(13:21-13:47) Daria Rudnik
multitasking lots of things mitigating conflict it's it's such a huge uh training for us on on various aspects and i mean you need to be proud of that no man can do that exactly it is it's like having your own little team over here no matter what oh so daria what's the best place that our listeners can connect with you
(13:48-14:09) Daria Rudnik
Well, I'm very open to LinkedIn connections. Please reach out, send me a message, follow me, connect with me. You can also find me on my website, darierutnik.com. And I highly encourage you to read my book, Clicking, where you can find practical strategies, like step-by-step what you can do to build more self-sufficient team and get yourself more time.
(14:10-14:35) Shannon Fox
Awesome. Okay. So before we wrap up, I love to leave my listeners with a powerful takeaway that they can implement after this conversation. So what is one small doable action a working mom can take this week to reduce overwhelm and lead with more confidence, whether she's doing it for her team, her household, or most likely for both of them? Okay.
(14:35-14:53) Daria Rudnik
Well, I would say like go through your calendar and see like the meetings that you don't have to be in and see who on your team can be there instead of you. Maybe look a month ahead so that you can prepare those people to replace you on those meetings. It'll help you and it'll help them grow as well.
(14:53-15:10) Shannon Fox
I love that. I love that because you're empowering someone else as well as empowering yourself to have a little bit more time freedom. And so that's a great tip. Thank you so much. Well, thank you so much for being here today. This has been a great conversation.
(15:10-15:35) Shannon Fox
Well, thank you, Shannon. I love the question. It's a really interesting conversation, especially. Hey, Working Mama. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. If so, would you take 30 seconds to share it with a friend who's stuck in her career but doesn't want to sacrifice her family to grow? Also, please leave a quick review on Apple Podcasts. It seriously lights me up to know this show is helping you navigate burnout, find clarity, and lead with confidence.
(15:35-15:46) Shannon Fox
All right, time to shut down my laptop and pretend I'm not hiding from folding that laundry. I'll meet you back here soon for another episode of Career Growth for Working Moms. You've got this.
If you've ever felt like you're carrying your entire team on your back and your household too, this episode is gonna feel like a deep breath. Today, I'm talking with Daria Rutnick, a former chief people officer and executive coach who helps overloaded leaders build teams that think, solve, and operate without leaning on you for every single thing. If you're a working mom who's exhausted from being the default problem solver at work and at home, you're about to learn how to create a team
(00:30-00:58) Shannon Fox
that actually supports you back. Let's get into it. Hey mama, welcome to Career Growth for Working Moms. If you're stuck in a job that doesn't fit or burning out trying to do it all, you're in the right place. I'm Shannon, a career coach and fellow working mom. Here, you'll get simple career strategies and strength-based leadership tips to help you grow with clarity and confidence. So grab your coffee or reheat it for the third time and let's do this.
(00:59-01:19) Shannon Fox
Hello, welcome. Today I'm thrilled to welcome Daria Rutnick, team architect, executive coach, former chief people officer, and author of Clicking a Team Building Strategy for Overloaded Leaders. Her work has been featured on Fox, NBC, CBS, ABC, and across major news outlets for one reason.
(01:19-01:41) Shannon Fox
She helps leaders build teams that work, think, and solve problems without burning out. She lived and worked across the US, Russia, Israel, and supported clients on six continents, bringing a true global lens to what makes teams trust each other, what makes them break down under pressure, and what actually helps leaders get their time and energy back.
(01:41-02:01) Shannon Fox
If you're a working mom trying to grow your career and protect your well-being, this conversation will give you practical ways to lead smarter, not harder, and create the kind of team support that frees up capacity for both your work and your life. Daria, I'm so excited to dive in today. Well, thanks for having me here, Sean. Yeah, very exciting.
(02:01-02:14) Shannon Fox
So you help overloaded leaders build teams that click. So for these working moms listening, what does a team that actually works look like, especially under pressure?
(02:15-02:39) Daria Rudnik
Well, I'll tell you a story. One of my clients, she's a working mom. She had like a two-year-old son getting back to work, kind of felt that she's ready for the next career move. But she felt that kind of she has to do it all. I mean, she has to take care of her kids, family, and like to take care of her team members. And what we worked through with her is that she doesn't have to be there for the
(02:39-02:56) Daria Rudnik
for the team members all the time. They're not babies. The baby needs her. The team members, they don't. They're fully capable of making decisions, solving problems, communicating with stakeholders. And so what I encourage overloaded leaders to do is
(02:56-03:23) Daria Rudnik
Let your team go to the team and just together decide who's doing what. You don't have to be the go-to person for every question. They don't need to ask you to go to you with every problem. Ask them, can you decide, can you talk between yourself first? And then if there is no response, there's no solution, then get back to me. But they can do it. So leaders should not be here without saving their teams, but rather empowering them to make their own decisions.
(03:24-03:43) Shannon Fox
I love that. I totally believe that. So what about those leaders that are carrying invisible emotional labor at work? What's a mindset shift that can help them stop absorbing everything and really share that load that we just talked about? Yeah.
(03:44-04:03) Daria Rudnik
Again, it happens a lot with leaders who have very well intentioned, who want to help, who want to support. And they come to me and say, I want to grow my people. I want to help them succeed. But the thing is, you cannot make them and you cannot help them succeed. And if you're taking...
(04:03-04:23) Daria Rudnik
their burden if you take in their tasks their responsibilities their problems on yourself they can only grow if you help them make mistakes and be responsible for those mistakes because that's how we learn by trying from trial and error so stop being a heroic leader and start letting them fail that's that's how we learn
(04:23-04:38) Shannon Fox
What would you say to the person that may be more introverted or a quiet leader? I know we have some listeners that they're like, hey, I'm just not one that's going to be bold and just kind of go out there. What would you say to the more introverted leaders?
(04:39-05:00) Daria Rudnik
Well, I love that question. I mean, I worked with the CEO and he is not the kind of person who can go at the town hall and speak to the whole company, the company vision, but he knew that he needed to connect with the organization. He knew that he needed to connect with team members. So what did he even start? He actually...
(05:00-05:18) Daria Rudnik
like gathered a small groups of people and he had very intimate conversations with them. He was able to connect with them, not being out there talking, but kind of having a conversation. So you can find your own style of having one-to-one conversations, smaller group conversations.
(05:18-05:48) Shannon Fox
Anything is possible. As long as you connect and talk to your people, it's okay. It can be in various ways. Yeah, I love that because there are going to be times where it does need to be a little bit more intimate and that's more comfortable and actually can be very productive. But then there's other times where there's going to be people that are like, hey, give me the microphone. I want to be the one out there on stage. And it's good to have a balance of all of that on a team, don't you think?
(05:48-06:03) Daria Rudnik
Absolutely. Yes. Yes. If there is someone who is ready to step up and do a presentation, let them do that. Everyone will be happy. Exactly. What is one of the biggest misconceptions leaders have about building trust on their teams?
(06:04-06:34) Daria Rudnik
Well, from what I see, like one of the biggest mistakes leaders make is they, again, they have too many one-to-one conversations with their team members. And it's good. I mean, one-to-ones are important, but you cannot solve all the problems with like one-to-one conversations because that means that you have connections with all the team members, but they don't have, they can have a strong connection only with you as a leader. They don't have connections with themselves. They don't have connections with their stakeholders. And they kind of feel lonely because they don't have that many conversations happening.
(06:34-07:03) Daria Rudnik
What you should do instead as a lead is connect people with each other and creating micro groups, micro collaborations, have a mentor in the body, like anything that's make them talk and work together before they come to you and have as discussed problems as a team. If you have a conflict, talk to all of the people involved in the conflict. Don't do those one-to-one. So instead of having a lot of one-to-ones, have more like expand their network.
(07:03-07:18) Shannon Fox
I love that. I love that. So we have a lot of moms that are listening that manage that are managing teams and managing, you know, being a mom, a whole household, and they're feeling overwhelmed. They're feeling burnout. What advice would you give to them?
(07:20-07:34) Daria Rudnik
I mean, I'm not being, I'm sure you've heard that a lot, but take time for yourself. That's the first thing. I mean, that's always the first thing. You need to find time for yourself, take a deep breath, have a cup of coffee, whatever you're drinking, take a walk.
(07:35-07:56) Daria Rudnik
I mean, I'm a working man myself and I know how it feels that you don't, you have to go, you have to keep moving. It's your obligation, it's your responsibility and you kind of feel it everywhere. But it's very important to understand that if you burn out yourself, it's not helping anyone. So just take time for yourself. That's important.
(07:56-08:17) Shannon Fox
Yeah, I love that because I think we think we can keep going and do it all. And instead, even if it's just 20 minutes that we just stop and just like you said, to have a cup of coffee, just by yourself, just get away. It kind of resets everything and allows us to to have that go back in there a little bit more refreshed.
(08:17-08:36) Shannon Fox
Yeah. Okay. So you have coached or supported teams across several different continents, six, right? So what is one universal thing that you have seen or a challenge that these people have faced through every single continent? Yeah.
(08:37-09:06) Daria Rudnik
Oh, I love that question. And again, like we, we live in different cultures and it's kind of, we, it's good that we are aware that cultures are different. It's good that we know that like people are different, but when you're leaving a team or you have like, how many people, like eight, 10 people on your team. So forget about cultural labels and get like, stop knowing them as a human being, as a person, because in different cultures, we also have different personalities. You can have someone more extroverted, less,
(09:06-09:33) Shannon Fox
extroverted, more outgoing, more direct in any culture. So instead of putting those labels, try to know the person and connect with them on the individual human level. I love that. I remember when I was traveling in Europe and I saw this dad and his son and they were speaking German and I'm going, oh my goodness, I felt like he was yelling at his son. And my friend that was there went, he was telling him how proud he was, but
(09:33-10:03) Shannon Fox
I just didn't know what he was saying. And it's just like, to me, it would seem like just a harsher language then. And, you know, cause then I had been in Spain and in France and Italy. And so then you get to German and I just went, wow, that was my great reminder. Like we have to really get to know the people and get to put ourselves in that situation because I had totally misread that whole thing. And he was sitting there telling his son how proud he was. And I'm like, he's yelling at him.
(10:03-10:26) Shannon Fox
yeah staying open and curious and like trying to see positive intentions and all the people around you is really helping like it's helping me a lot yes it does it does so what do you feel um do you feel like ai is transforming leaders and what is your opinion on um ai in the world now
(10:27-10:48) Daria Rudnik
Well, AI is influencing team dynamics a lot, like how we work with AI, how we collaborate. It's not just like merely an automation because it kind of seems as a brain, as a mind that can think, communicate, give us complex output. So it leads to...
(10:48-11:05) Daria Rudnik
kind of over-relying on AI and the effect of cognitive offloading when we delegate to AI too much of our thinking process. And that makes us disengaged, both on kind of emotional level, but also the brain, if we...
(11:05-11:31) Daria Rudnik
use ai too much in the wrong way our brain becomes disengaged and it's very hard to take ownership for the product i'm doing if it was generated by ai so what i help leaders do is always be in the loop always have team conversations about ai outputs before making decisions and again final decision should always be with humans ai can give some suggestions but
(11:31-11:42) Daria Rudnik
get together, talk it over, critically evaluate the output, and then make a decision. And that will make you a great partner with AI, and AI will be helping you rather than replacing you.
(11:42-12:05) Shannon Fox
I love that because it does. There is some things that it can simplify and help with. But like you said, the final decision needs to be a human decision. And I love that because I feel like sometimes people think, oh, AI said to do it this way. That has to be the final. And I love the human emotional component that has to go in there. So I love that.
(12:07-12:32) Shannon Fox
Um, what, what would you say to those moms that we have moms listening that have been out on maternity leave, for instance, and they're trying to come back into reenter into the workforce and the leadership positions. What would you say to them to do that with confidence? Because maybe they're feeling a little like, Hey, I've been gone for a little bit, a few months. So what would you say to them?
(12:32-12:54) Daria Rudnik
Well, first of all, the mistake I made and I, well, being on my maternity leave, my maternity leave was kind of long. I had two kids. I was with them for four years. I did some projects on the side, but I completely lost my connection with my network. And that was a big mistake. It made me hard to get back.
(12:54-13:21) Daria Rudnik
So if you're still on maternity leave, make sure you keep those connections alive. Make sure you talk to those people, ask how they're going, read emails. It doesn't have to be a lot. Just keep those connections. And it will help you get back to work with more confidence. But anyway, being a mom is such a boost of our brain dealing with uncertainty. Yeah.
(13:21-13:47) Daria Rudnik
multitasking lots of things mitigating conflict it's it's such a huge uh training for us on on various aspects and i mean you need to be proud of that no man can do that exactly it is it's like having your own little team over here no matter what oh so daria what's the best place that our listeners can connect with you
(13:48-14:09) Daria Rudnik
Well, I'm very open to LinkedIn connections. Please reach out, send me a message, follow me, connect with me. You can also find me on my website, darierutnik.com. And I highly encourage you to read my book, Clicking, where you can find practical strategies, like step-by-step what you can do to build more self-sufficient team and get yourself more time.
(14:10-14:35) Shannon Fox
Awesome. Okay. So before we wrap up, I love to leave my listeners with a powerful takeaway that they can implement after this conversation. So what is one small doable action a working mom can take this week to reduce overwhelm and lead with more confidence, whether she's doing it for her team, her household, or most likely for both of them? Okay.
(14:35-14:53) Daria Rudnik
Well, I would say like go through your calendar and see like the meetings that you don't have to be in and see who on your team can be there instead of you. Maybe look a month ahead so that you can prepare those people to replace you on those meetings. It'll help you and it'll help them grow as well.
(14:53-15:10) Shannon Fox
I love that. I love that because you're empowering someone else as well as empowering yourself to have a little bit more time freedom. And so that's a great tip. Thank you so much. Well, thank you so much for being here today. This has been a great conversation.
(15:10-15:35) Shannon Fox
Well, thank you, Shannon. I love the question. It's a really interesting conversation, especially. Hey, Working Mama. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. If so, would you take 30 seconds to share it with a friend who's stuck in her career but doesn't want to sacrifice her family to grow? Also, please leave a quick review on Apple Podcasts. It seriously lights me up to know this show is helping you navigate burnout, find clarity, and lead with confidence.
(15:35-15:46) Shannon Fox
All right, time to shut down my laptop and pretend I'm not hiding from folding that laundry. I'll meet you back here soon for another episode of Career Growth for Working Moms. You've got this.