The MoMBA Experience:

This course is designed to build the skills required to remain employed and to advance professionally after children. In demanding and competitive fields, up to 43% of women leave full-time employment after kids. For employers, this is very costly. A senior professional, like an engineer, can cost close to a million dollars to recruit, retrain, and perform at the level of their predecessor. This course equips women with the skills to self-manage and self-lead after having children, and it recognizes that the skills needed at this mid-level stage of career are intersectional: women (and other caregivers) need to equip themselves with new skills for professional life and home life so they can optimize their performance in the professional environment.

New project management skills, negotiation skills, emotional intelligence, energy and time management, vision- and values-driven leadership to persist in demanding professions are necessary. These practices are applied with parents in the Canadian Military, an institution that has recognized that career success for professionals with high-demand careers need holistic support in all areas of life to reach peak performance at work. 100% of the STEM participants in the MoMBA programs have stayed in their profession, compared to the average of 57% of the overall female STEM population. Furthermore, participants acquire skills that improve the organization's ability to mentor and retain employees with caregiving duties. The majority of employers lack the sytems, processes, documentation, and training, to adequately support employees going and returning from parental leave. After taking the course, participants acquire highly comprehensive and holistic knowledge about the skills and planning necessary to successfully transition from career performer to working caregiver.

Live, weekly, online, instructional sessions with Kinia Romanowska, BA, MA and guest speakers, when applicable. Students get a minimum of 1 hour live access to training with instructor every week. Students also get access to instructors through an online content and discussion portal, which is monitored weekly. A certificate of completion will be issued at the end of the term. Please note that there are a number of non-instruction weeks throughout the year, for holidays, integration, and program maintenance.

Participant learning is assessment using a monthly online evaluation tool that tracks goals, milestones and deliverables completed (e.g. plans and worksheets) data, habits, actions, taken and results of action taken, in each module. The participant outlines a goal in each module (for example, achieving a promotion by a certain date using the action plan outlined in the personal branding module), and then measures the actions taken and the results on a monthly basis. The participant then reviews the performance and next steps in a quarterly 1-1 session with an instructor, and in monthly group sessions for feedback and evaluation with other participants. Finally, participants are encouraged to review the application of the new skills acquired and the goals met as a result directly with their managers during their performance development planning and review meetings.

Have more questions? Read our FAQs (not all features apply to the Express program)

September: Career and family life integration (work/life balance) month

Learning objectives: understand the main factors that can lead to burnout and leaving a professional career after having children, understand the main project management tools that can lead to better mental health and professional success outcomes for professionals in demanding jobs, choose the best time management tools for each season of a working professional's life (return to work, preparation for leadership, working overtime, managing self and others)

What's covered:

• Topic and workbook introduction
• Defining career and family life integration for each professional's personal circumstances
• Create a documented, detailed, long-term vision of success to succeed in your career while raising children
• Medium term (1-5 year) considerations for work/life balance
• Seasons of life and career progression arcs for professionals with career interruptions (e.g. parental leave, caregiving for the elderly)
• Time planning tools for working mothers (how to remain productive when kids are sick, how to plan with a partner who has a demanding career, how to manage stress in periods of accute work demands)
• Short-term considerations and time planning for working mothers
• Quarterly planning, productivity, and time management tools (12-week year method)
• Planning and budgeting for support systems and outsourcing to continue employment while raising young children
• Group progress evaluation of data entered into progress and accountability form
• Review of action taken in alignment with the vision of individual success
• Group commitments to next action steps and troubleshooting issues around implementation of concepts learned review of milestones achieved
  • Examples of skills developed in this module: increased self-efficacy, increased productivity, increased prioritization of tasks, improved communication with managers and colleagues

October and Half of November: Financial and wealth planning for working mothers to offset work interruptions and career progression challenges

Learning objectives: understand the main drivers of wage gaps for working mothers, understand the different strategies available to offset the wage gap, understand when to plan the right discussions regarding compensation with one's employer, understand the role a specialized financial planner can play in offsetting wage gaps faced by working mothers

What's covered:

• Long-term financial planning fundamentals for working mothers and workbook review
• Overview of the 25-year financial plan for working mothers
• Review of financial and wealth planning checklist
• Review of critical financial literary topics: estate planning, investing, savings for children's education, planning cashflow and converstions with HR regarding EI and career breaks for caregiving duties
• Financial planning mindset for working moms: how to avoid the million dollar wealth gap, and how to plan for career breaks due to caregiving
• How to find the right financial advisor as a working mother facing career interruption, to protect her career and earning capital
• How to invest as a working mother and caregiver
• Group progress evaluation of data entered into progress and accountability form
• Review of action taken in alignment with the vision of individual success
• Group commitments to next action steps and troubleshooting issues around implementation of concepts learned and review of milestones achieved
  • Examples of skills developed in this module: improved negotiation skills, optimized choice regarding length of parental leave, increased confidence due to better knowledge about wage negotiation and timing, increased planning skills, capacity to mentor other parents within the organization

Half of November and Half of December: Personal branding

Learning objectives: understand what a personal brand is and how working mothers can use it to advance their careers after kids
Personal branding best practices for working mothers
Personal branding as a leadership requirement

What's covered:

• Craft a personal brand statement as a working mom
• How a personal brand can protect your job
• How to communicate your personal brand
• Using storytelling to communicate your personal brand
• Public speaking as a personal branding tool
• Hot seat and Q&A with personal branding expert
• Measuring success based on data entered in evaluation and tracking tool
  • Examples of skills developed in this module: improved negotiation skills, improved public speaking skills, deeper understanding of business plan and which actions contribute the most to the company's business plan, improved communication skills, ability to negotiate a new position more quickly, faster advancement to management positions

January, April, & July: Mindset, values, and vision for working mom success

Learning objectives: understanding the importance of having the right mindset and knowing your values and vision for success as a working mom

What's covered:

• Mindset shifts in career after family, clarity, values-driven leadership, and purpose of the working mom
• Professional and personal values before and after kids
• Discussing values with a partner who has a demanding career
• How to address the negative aspects of perfectionism as a working mom
• Setting meaningful goals as a working mom
• Getting out of overwhelm and chaos as a working mom
• From long-term vision of success to an actionable roadmap
• Create your yearly roadmap of leadership and success
• Break down your big goals into actionable steps
• How to address fear of failure when setting big goals
• Time-blocking fundamentals for working moms
• How to stay accountable to your goals and your vision
  • Examples of skills developed in this module: increased self-leadership and accountability for success, reducing costs related to unproductive time, conflict, and office gossip, increased motivation to perform due to a strong sense of mission and purpose, increased emotional agility and ability to better handle difficult emotions and contradictory information at work, increased emotional intelligence; increased organizational capacity and knowledge regarding the retention of employees with caregiving duties and career breaks

February: Family life and parenting as a working professional

Learning objectives: understand the impacts of home life organization on focus and performance at work; optimize the mindset in personal life to bring focus and productivity to office life

What's covered:

• Define success at home so you can give your best at home and at work
• Define success as a working parent
• Values-driven leadership and self-leadership: how home and work life interact
• Faith, culture, and religion: intersection of home life and work life
• Knowing where we come from and how we were raised impacts our careers, leadership, and families: how to self-reflect and apply this knowledge to leadership
• Group progress evaluation of data entered into progress and accountability form
• Review of action taken in alignment with the vision of individual success
• Group commitments to next action steps and troubleshooting issues around implementation of concepts learnedl review of milestones achieved
  • Examples of skills developed in this module: increased understanding of how different cultures, religions, and values drive behaviours and motivation at work, ability to mentor other employees who have multiple obligations outside of the office, ability to contribute to DEI goals

March: Health and burnout prevention for working moms

Learning objectives: understand the biological components of burnout to prevent it; understand fundamentals of the endocrine and nervous systems to manage energy and productivity after children; understand key practices to address mental health issues in the perinatal stage, and how they can affect professional life

What's covered:

• What working mothers need to know about burnout and stress prevention
• Hormonal health fundamentals for working moms: overview of the endocrine system and of the nervous system, and what action women can take to better manage energy
• Nutrition, exercise, and sleep fundamentals for working moms: what changes need to happen to optimize energy as a leader and professional when working and raising kids
• Group progress evaluation of data entered into progress and accountability form
• Review of action taken in alignment with the vision of individual success
• Group commitments to next action steps and troubleshooting issues around implementation of concepts learnedl review of milestones achieved
  • Examples of skills developed in this module: increased ability to manage one's physical and mental health to optimize performance; increased ability to manage energy in the face of competing priorities, increased self-awareness and resilience, increased ability to prevent or recover from burnout, increased knowledge of factors that drive mental health outcomes

May & June: Career, leadership skills, diversity and inclusion

Learning objectives: acquire a solid base and advanced leadership and self-leadership concepts and practices: advanced communication skills, advanced accountability and culture training, advanced emotional mastery techniques, DEI concepts and action choices, influencing others, negotiation, advanced personal branding, leadership on social media, and more.

What's covered:

• Accountability-based leadership in self and team
• Understanding the cost of workplace drama to the company's bottom line
• Reducing the cost of drama in the workplace
• Communicating with power and purpose as a working mom
• Understanding what your voice, vocal chords, and tone, have to do with your leadership and career progression
• Becoming an active ally
• How diversity impacts career paths
• Infuse equity and inclusion in your leadership
• Mastering your emotions and effectively influencing others
• Why emotions speak louder than logic
• Powerful negotiating strategies for working moms
• How to advance your career as a woman in a patriarchal system
• Emotional mastery as a foundation to self-leadership
• Future-proof your career with LinkedIn
• Create a powerful personal brand using the "top 25 stories" method
• Bounce back from life's biggest challenges and build resilience as a professional
• Recover from burnout as a working mom
• Review your goals, measure your success
• Prioritize your leadership goals and actions
  • Example of skills developed in this module: ability to negotiate successfully and create win-win outcomes for all parties, improved tone and pacing in public speaking and persuasion, ability to take action around DEI goals, learning faster from failure to meet business objectives, better mastery of emotions, increased accountability, ability to reduce costs related to unproductive communication and activities, ability to influence and manage others, ability to lead others, ability to handle difficult human interactions with calm

July: Time, energy, and project management for working moms

Learning objectives: become aware of advanced time management and productivity tools: macro and micro seasonality, quarterly planning and tracking, profit-producing activities, tracking and monitoring techniques, etc. Identify and apply the tools most relevant to their profession

What's covered:

• Review your values and vision
• How to plan your seasons of productivity and regeneration in the next fall, winter, spring and summer seasons
• How to choose from the variety of time and energy management tools available to working parents.
• Guest session with EFT expert Yolanda Saez Castello: working with emotions to address time management challenges working moms face
• Values- and vision-based leadership in dual career couples
• Review of the 12-week year, The One Thing (productivity method)
• Review of the five seasons of a working year
• Review or your project and energy management plan as a working mom

August: Managing two-career households and relationships for success

Learning objectives: understand the research-backed dual career models, understand risk management tools that dual career couples can apply so that both partners can remain employed after children, understand the conversation and negotiation frameworks for dual career couples, understand the concepts of mental load and emotional labour that impact career outcomes

What's covered:

• Dual career planning fundamentals
• What is a dual career plan (Harvard Business Review concepts)
• Project management for dual career homes
• Managing mental load and emotional labour in work and personal life
• Conflict resolution for busy working parents and couples
• What are "perpetual problems" and how to adapt to them as a professional with a demanding career
  • Example of skills developed in this module: confidence in scenarios of conflict resolution, decreased absence at work, improved focus, improved ability to mentor other colleagues with caregiving responsibilities