S5EP3: Owning Your Mom Status at Work: How This Salesforce Leader Embraced Working Motherhood with Grace Brelje
🎙️ What happens when someone at work finally asks you why you keep apologizing for being a mom?
For Grace Brelje, that single question sparked a powerful transformation in how she showed up both as a leader and a mother. After years of compartmentalizing these parts of herself, Grace embarked on an unexpected journey that included a bold career pivot, a pandemic-induced move back home with her parents (and kids!), and ultimately, discovering how to authentically integrate her whole self at work. Now leading Global Leadership Coaching & Mentoring at Salesforce, Grace shares how embracing her identity as a working mom has actually strengthened her leadership and created deeper connections with her teams.
Key Takeaways:
Transform your relationship with work by bringing your whole self including your mom status - to leadership
Release the pressure of 140% perfectionism and discover how operating at a healthy 80% can actually make you a more effective leader
Navigate major life transitions (like moving back in with parents during a pandemic!) with grace and find unexpected gifts along the way
Create boundaries that honor both your career ambitions and family priorities without apology
Build authentic connections at work by openly owning your working parent journey
About Grace:
Grace Brelje leads the Global Leadership Coaching & Mentoring centers at Salesforce, focusing on enhancing organizational capabilities, empathetic leadership, communication, and emotional intelligence. With experience in Sales, Service, Recruiting, and HR across various industries, her background as a coach, facilitator, manager, yoga teacher, and parent shapes her approach. She is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC), certified Action Learning Coach, Associate Certified Coach (ACC), and member of the Asian Women Coaching Collective (AWCC).
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Our mission is to amplify the stories of all moms so that they can be seen, heard, and supported in their motherhood journey, regardless of whether they are balancing motherhood with an external career or choosing to dedicate themselves fully to motherhood.
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Here are 3 ways you can support the mission of the podcast:
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