Triplets, Career & Resilience with BBC's, Sonja Liwani-Ansari

Kat speaks with Sonja Liwani-Ansari, mother of triplets and Commercial, Rights and Business Affairs Manager at the BBC. She and Kat discuss juggling motherhood and work. Before joining the BBC, where she found an understanding and supportive environment, she was bullied in the workplace for being a mother. Sonja shares what this situation taught her and how it and other experiences shaped her life and what she is planning to do in the future.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

At a previous job, Sonja was bullied, for sometimes having to leave early to take care of her children. Other mothers were targeted in the same way.

Sonja´s line manager at the BBC was supportive. For her, Sonja sometimes having to start late or finish early to look after her children was not a problem. She knew that Sonja would make up the time and still get her work done to a high standard.

There is still a disconnect in the workplace between those who have family members to care for and those that do not.

How you behave matters. Don´t wish bad on people, even those who treat you badly. Try to be empathetic.

Everything that happens in life happens for a reason, including the things that are hard to deal with. It all teaches you something.

Teaching our youngsters to speak up when they see inequality is important. When enough people truly believe everyone should be rewarded for their hard work equally, and step up to make it happen, society automatically becomes fairer.

BEST MOMENTS

"In my previous job, I was actually bullied for having children and having to leave earlier to pick them up and not because I was working less - I was switching on the laptop when I got home."

'I didn't want her to win at pushing me out of the organisation, which is why I stayed. I may have won in one way, but I lost in another way – it scarred me."

"I do think it's important when people do things to us to try to understand why did they behave like that? Because it's often much more complex than the actual act."

"Wouldn't it be so great if men and women could be allies and help each other with everything, and it would make everything so much easier."

ABOUT THE GUEST

Sonia is BBC Commercial Rights and Business Affairs Manager and mother of 17 year old triplets, working full time while being the main carer. My drive to keep everyone happy and my desire for perfection was wearing me down. I was very unhappy and needed to make a change without letting it impact my children.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonja-liwani-ansari-4a574817

ABOUT THE HOST

Kat started her career as a teacher before moving into Tech where she worked in different executive roles within teaching and consulting working across the globe, both in the public and private sector. Despite appearing 'successful' on the outside, she paid a heavy ‘life’ price. In 2016, her whole world collapsed. The reason? The compound effect of years of unhealthy and toxic habits that destroyed her health, relationship and career. She suffered a severe breakdown and lost everything. In the middle of this she got headhunted for her first CEO role. She rebuilt herself by changing just one small habit and built a series of positive habits which has transformed her professional and personal performance, resulting in becoming the healthiest and happiest version of herself.

She is a positive habits international keynote speaker and teacher, giving talks and delivering high impact programmes to organisations across the globe.

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/katthorne

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/the_morning_gamechanger

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