Ashton Songer Ferguson reflects on parenting, purpose, and pressure during her intense MBA journey, blending personal resilience with powerful leadership lessons.
It’s been a heck of a month and in just over a week I’ll be leaving my family for a month for Singapore. They’ll have a ton of fun romping around Lausanne in June, but me? My heart is cracking wide open.
Our cohort has been going nonstop since MBAT—startup projects, networking, club events, group assignments, essays, regular classes, exams, career prep, and intense leadership training. Fully aware of the countdown to Singapore, I’ve tried to prioritize my family while balancing the ever-mounting demands of the program.
It’s a lot of pressure.
Before I joined IMD, I was under no illusion that the program would be easy or relaxed. Full stop. I also knew that it would come with its own pressures and challenges as a parent. I knew it would be difficult, I knew I would be busy, I knew it would be a big shift for our entire family. And despite my mental preparation, the lived experience is sometimes very painful.
But this is something I must move through and hold on to hope. As part of our recent mini-lab on High Performance Leadership, we explored the power of mindset, moving through grief, and connecting with emotions to unlock our leadership superpowers. (If that sounds confusing in a business context, it is. But it’s hands down the best thing many of us have done so far.) It reinforced for me that hope is critical to successful leadership, that difficult experiences build resilience, and that mindset makes all the difference.
For the parent MBAs out there: we know that parenting teaches you to fail over and over again but to try to get the big things right. You have to be aware of the small things, be emotionally available, and be courageous to repair and lead wholeheartedly. In that, I think we’ve got the advantage. Sometimes I think, “Gee, am I in parenting sessions or leadership sessions?” Turns out it’s both.
As I practice shifting and honing a positive mindset, I’ve been coming back to this idea from Vocal Leadership with Robin de Haas: connect with your purpose. During one session, I scribbled at the top of my journal: “Build a more equitable world.”
It’s a lofty idea, but I went with it. It’s become the phrase I return to on my hardest days.
This purpose keeps me going when life isn’t all sunshine, rainbows, and cute kids in the land of cheese and chocolate. Sometimes it’s just really hard.
But I’m here for it. I’m learning to cope, to manage, to refine, to fail, to win, to lead. Indeed, this journey is all about connecting with my purpose and building a more equitable world requires grit and grace.
Lest I leave you on a heavy note – the shining moments are bright. We’ve celebrated two birthdays, Mother’s Day, and our anniversary this month, all made even richer by our MBA village (and often made possible by them, too!).
