In April 2020, I became a father for the first time – meaning I now have a year and half’s experience combining fatherhood with being the CEO of OMNIA Global.
Every single parent knows how your life changes when you become a parent; the sleepless nights, the worries and the endless love (and diapers). But what does fatherhood look like when you’re also running your own company?
Since my daughter was born, I’ve spent quite some time wondering about how fatherhood has changed me as a CEO – and it’s actually rather easier to point out where I’ve changed the way I work and the way I manage my company.
Whether you’re a CEO working day and night or an employee working 9-5, whether you’re a man or woman, I believe all parents can agree that our perspective changes from the moment we hold our children for the first time. Our everyday lives become more important, and the way we value our time is non-comparable with our lives pre-kids.
Therefore, my main focus, when it comes to my working life, has become time optimisation – meaning how and where do I spend my time most wisely? As my time has become more important, I choose to prioritise as I see fit – no phone call is so important that it has to be taken between 5 and 7 pm, and it can most likely wait till the next day, when I’m at the office and not at home with my daughter.
By focusing on time optimisation and priorities, I’ve also become better at delegating tasks. As a CEO and founder, you naturally want to be part of all decisions, but as your company grows, you need to learn to delegate, and I believe becoming a father has made this process of making myself less important to company easier. I no longer want to be part of every single detail in the company, and I trust that the people I’ve hired are highly capable of making the right decisions, when I’m playing with my daughter rather than being on a conference call.
Finally, I must admit that I’m no longer the risk-taking entrepreneur I used to be – or at least not to the same extent (once an entrepreneur, always an entrepreneur!).
As a parent, you naturally want to create stability around your family and avoid risk-taking – an aspect which might clash with your ideas of being an entrepreneur.
With my daughter being born, I refuse to pay a high price to succeed with whatever project it might be, and it has become much easier to be honest about this and setting boundaries. I want to be able to enjoy this journey that life is, and more than anything I want to enjoy it with my daughter.
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If you want to read more about my approach to meaningful work, continue your reading on omniafoundation.ch – find my profile in English, German and French.
