In order to become successful in business, one has to make sacrifices. Most commonly regarding family or motherhood. True or false?
-I think that generally if you want to accomplish something in life, rather than sacrificing yourself it requires making conscious decisions, being consistent in actions, and open to whatever life may bring. And you surely do not need to give up on family or personal life. You do not only not have to, it is simply not worth it. Priests who come to see people on their death-beds often say, that they have never met anybody, who would regret not working harder. However, they have met many who regretted not spending enough time with their families, not having more children, or letting their marriages fall apart.
You seem to be fulfilled both professionally and personally. You do well both at work and family-wise. How do you do this?
-A key to success, at least in my case, is to fall in love and marry the right person, with whom the children are not “mine” but “ours”. Someone with similar values, faith, world view and with whom you can make important decisions in terms of life and work. Someone who keeps you entertained and you can always count on. Someone to whom you are important.
How to find the right balance between life and work?
-In our marriage, we (me and my husband Paweł) make all life and work related decisions together. We do not only take into account what would be best for ourselves, but also think as a family and act for its benefit. Then we are both committed to such decisions, understand them and accept their consequences – be it pleasant or unpleasant. This is where our balance comes from. You also need to be clear about what you want from life and remain true to your goals. This is what provides a significant peace of mind.
I also think, that in order to maintain this balance you need to take care after your marriage. What I believe makes the most precious gift to our children is the love between their parents. The most precious gift a manager can give to his coworkers is his happiness in personal life. Then the whole attention, energy and engagement at work becomes a positive devotion towards other people. Then it becomes easier to listen rather than speak. Then there is no need to vent your anger on other people, to be moody. I think that it is good to have a happy boss. I speak from my own experience, as I had various bosses ☺
As I have said, one has to take care of one’s marriage. So one can go to work, and not run away to it. This also is a source of balance. Having five children, me and my husband try to spend a week on vacation every year, just the two of us. Then we do not plan anything, do not book anything but car. This is the time for us, for travel, long talks, aesthetic experiences, building connection. After such a holiday it is a pleasure to come back both to home and to work.
In this case it seems to be the attitude of one’s superiors that plays an significant role. Not all of them understand the importance of family, of spending time with people that are close to you. Employers would often want their employees to be at work seven days a week, a dozen or so hours daily.
-There are different bosses and probably most of them do have unrealistic expectations, but according to my personal experience and observations these long hours we spend at work, evenings, weekends even, are caused by our inner sense of responsibility and the need to thoroughly fulfill our commitments. We want to do our work well and our standards are high. We want to be professional, often even perfect.
The attitude of employers towards the private time of an employee and family-related things may vary. I am lucky enough to work at a company where these matters are well respected and understood. It originates from the company’s values and its organizational culture. I hope that this Scandinavian approach will spread over other Polish employers, because as we can see from how successful IKEA is, it does bring good results.
Poland is, alongside China and Russia, one of the most dynamically growing IKEA markets. What can you say about this?
-Firstly, it makes me very happy. I am happy that people in Poland want to, and are able to, live beautifully. I think that every one of us has a deeply rooted sense and need of aesthetics, the will to be surrounded by pretty objects. It is achievable at home thanks to IKEA. Working at IKEA I also know, how much effort and care my colleagues put into their work, so that our Customers can purchase pretty and good quality products.
I am generally happy, that my country changed so much over the last 25 years. I think that I represent one of the happiest Polish generations – the people, who having experienced the communist system now live in a completely different reality. Reality, that may be far from perfect, but which we ourselves can have impact on. Everything is in our hands.
IKEA is a company that sets an example of how to care for employees.