How to manage a senior position and children – Iman Hill

Iman Hill became General Manager at SASOL last year, and has 5 children. She is an expatriate and – as a mother – has worked in Malaysia, The Netherlands, Egypt and now the UK. Before SASOL she has worked in BP, Shell, an independent oil company and BG Group. Three of her children are primary school age, and the eldest two are towards the end of senior school. Until recently she also held two non-executive directorships. She is also a single mother, as her husband passed away 4 years ago.

Mum & Career went out for you to find how she makes it all work.

It sounds like a full life, how do you do it?

It’s about knowing my purpose. I thought hard about my purpose for work, and my purpose for being a mother. My purpose for work is to be an excellent worker; someone who is accountable, delivers on promises, who role models compassionate and felt leadership. My purpose for motherhood is being a present mother; being an integral part of the life of my children, understanding what is happening at school, being present at meal times and at key school and life events.

“I need to be very organised, and always ahead of myself.”

I thought about this many years ago, when I had my first child, as that really was step change for me. That’s when I sat down and had a conscious thinking process. I did it on my own, as I felt I needed clarity for me.

Knowing this was my purpose, meant I had to take certain actions. I need to be very organised, and always ahead of myself. This means for instance that I need to look ahead at school engagements and ensure I can take time to be at those engagements.

For me, organisation is key.  Never pretend you can be superwoman, as you can’t.

Having one or five isn’t that different. Having the first one was a step change, after that it’s just a level of complexity more.
What does a normal day look like for you?
My nanny comes in daily at 6.30am, which is when I leave the house to catch a train to work, where I arrive at 7am.

I leave the office at 5pm, then go straight to the gym (it’s opposite the station) and work out. I am home by 7.15 and have dinner ready by 7.45, which is when we sit down as a family. Then I do homework and bath time afterwards.

I really don’t work again until the children are in bed by 8.30-9.30pm. There’s nothing worse than having a parent at home on their Blackberry, saying: ‘Sorry, sorry I have just got this one email to do, just wait’

Once the three young ones are in bed, I am back on my Blackberry and do some more work. Or I am on my laptop, while the older two watch TV in the same room. I also fit in shopping in, in the evening, once the little ones are in bed.

How about the weekends and evening engagements?

My weekends are as free as possible. We start with everyone around the breakfast table and agree what everyone wants to do and then we get on with it.

I don’t go into the office at the weekends and I don’t travel if I can avoid it. Sometimes I leave for South Africa towards the end of Sunday though.

During the weekends I prepare all the meals for the forthcoming week e.g. season and marinate the main ingredients, so the cooking time during the week is minimised. My nanny is also the housekeeper and does the cleaning, the laundry and picks up occasional shopping during the week.

In this role at SASOL I try and avoid evening engagements, and when it does happen about once a month the nanny will stay. In the past, eg when I was MD of Shell Egypt evening engagements were part of my role. I was representing Shell, and was the face of Shell in Egypt. In those days my husband was at home with the children.

Where do you fit in travel?

Travel is a constant feature of my work. Currently I am one week a month in South Africa. As it is such a constant feature my children are used to it. We Skype or phone daily when I am travelling and I make sure we stay connected. They all gather around the computer in the evening and we catch up.

‘We Skype or phone daily when I am travelling’

Their school offers flexible boarding, so in that week the children board. They love it as lots of their friends’ board all the time, so it is a bit of a treat for them.

How do you manage the holidays?

In summer I take a 3-4 week break and the rest of the time the nanny looks after them. Also the eldest two help a lot as the eldest now drives. I am very lucky to have children that are happy to help.

In most other holidays I will take some time off too, to spend some time with my children, even if it is just a few days.

How do you manage at work to make sure you are home in time for dinner?

I am very efficient and focused. During my 30 minute train journey I work (both ways). This is when I plan ahead for the day and start clearing things.

I get to the office at 7am and have a good 1-2 hours to get on top of everything before the day starts. During the day I am very focused. I have learned to sit down every morning and prioritise. I also have a fantastic PA who organises absolutely everything. The time I work in the evening I use to make sure that everything is off my desk. When I end my day there’s nothing that isn’t dealt with or delegated. Delegating is a vital part of doing a role like this.

I have never had any complaints at work about delivery or accountability. Generally colleagues will understand you, in fact admire you and that you are still delivering and managing a family.

It’s all about setting clear boundaries in a constructive way. At one point when I worked for a very senior member of the Committee of Managing Director’s at Shell, he used to ring me regularly at 6.30 pm. During one of those https://imagineear.com/pharmacy/generic-tadalafil/ times I explained to him that the house between 6-8:30 pm was family time for me. And I was happy to take his call at 3 am if that’s what was required but that I’d like to avoid those hours that I reserved for my family. He respected my request and didn’t call me again during those hours if he could help it.  When I joined the executive team here in SASOL I had an individual conversation with some of my executive colleagues explaining my personal circumstances and explaining: ‘this is how I work:  when it is urgent you can always call me, but these are my home times and if it isn’t urgent that is family time. If it is urgent you can call me anytime. ,

“I explain to my team these are my home times and that is family time”

Working like this is fair on everyone and it creates the right dynamic. There is one other woman in the executive team, but all others are men. It’s amazing though, when you open up or show vulnerability, they really reciprocate. We then start to have a conversation about really having a healthy work-life, about family commitments that are expected of men too.

How did you manage maternity leave?

With the first child, I stayed home for 10 months and then went back to work. Then with each child I took 4 months, which was the legal standard in the country I was working in at the time. I would be out of contact for 6 weeks, and start building up working from home a month before returning to the office.

During one of my pregnancies, however, I had to have bed rest for nearly 6 months. I was leading a large business unit in Shell. The company were very good about it. They accepted that this is how it was. They would send someone over with my work. They didn’t make a fuss about it and when I returned from maternity leave I was promoted. This has created a great loyalty in me for Shell that will never leave me.

Your husband stayed at home with the children, how did you get to that decision?

When I returned to work after having my first child, both me and my husband worked full-time and my Mum and Dad stayed with us for nine months to look after my daughter. Then it was time for my parents to return to their own life, but we didn’t want to leave our daughter with a stranger until she could speak, so we decided that my husband would stay at home with her.

That really was an economic decision, as we realised we would always be paying as much as he would earn on childcare and we realised that childcare costs would escalate as we would have more children.

“It was a challenge for my husband at first”

It was a challenge for my husband at first, as this is 18 years ago and it was in Malaysia and he would be the only man in the school play ground at pick-up times. It really was challenging for him and he learned to ignore the comments. In the UK, Builders would make jokes when he was pushing the pram, and he had to learn to ignore all of that. Our arrangement was that as soon as I came home from work, the children were my job and he was free to do whatever he wanted in the evening. This meant that essentially I was doing two jobs, but it wasn’t a chore to me. It was only when my husband passed away that I had to hire a nanny.

Did your career change after you had children?

Having children hasn’t impacted my career, in fact my more senior positions only came after I have had children. I have certainly felt the responsibility of being a breadwinner more. When you are on your own it doesn’t matter so much where you live and what you eat, but when it’s for your children it feels very different. It’s even more important to be an excellent mother, make sure your children are fed and properly educated. Your priorities and responsibilities shift and I have certainly felt that.

What would you like for your own children with regards to work-life?

I tell my children often: ‘don’t think there’s anything you can’t do, follow your dreams’. It takes dedication, dependency and accountability. Your behaviour needs to be based on values, and then you can make it happen.

“My children are proud of my achievements”

As to balancing a work and family life I tell them you have to take a conscious decision. You have to realise what it is going to take, what it means, what you have to give up. Then you have to reflect on whether you have the will, the means and the opportunity to put the things in place you need to make it work for you. You have to think about what you need and how to create space for you. It’s key it’s a conscious decision and it is your own choice.

My children are proud of my achievements and loved having their dad at home.

What advice or tips would you have for other women?

• Be clear about your priorities on a daily basis and focus
• Do not have any mind-talk ‘I must not leave the office at 5’. Personally I question people that are regularly in the office till 7pm. I wonder if they are focussed during the day and whether they are on top of their job.
• Be clear about your boundaries, and discuss those with others
• Have a planning conversation with yourself and your partner and take steps to put that in place
• Cut yourself some slack, be kind to yourself
• Make time for yourself, go to the gym, the theatre or what works for you

If you do deliver, are thoughtful and accountable, your team will create a lot of space and cut you a lot of slack

I was really keen to make time for the interview as I would have loved to have had some practical advice when I started a family. It would have been very helpful.

Author: The interview was conducted by Inge Woudstra, Founding Director of Mum & Career