This Mama's Got Mojo - Tia Adams.
Throughout the year, we have highlighted some extraordinary Mamas in our #mamasgotmojofridays segment on Instagram. Now we’re bringing it to the blog. Celebrating each other’s accomplishments inspires and motivates us to bring out that inner Mojo that empowers us to reach our highest aspirations alongside motherhood.
“My goals were focused on everyone else and not on me!”
- Tia Adams, Mama / Senior VP.
Tia Adams was a speaker at our very first event - Redefining Motherhood, two years ago. She was confident and so inspiring! With her personal story, Tia brought wisdom and insight to our conversation about modern motherhood and her words resonated with the moms in the room. Tia is a trailblazer, a mother of one with a drive to be successful in all areas of life.
Tia began her career in finance at Arthur Andersen and later KPMG prior to joining Goldman Sachs in 2005. I wanted to circle back with her to see what she has been up to lately. Sure enough, Tia has knocked off a few more goals since we last met. She is a Senior VP at Goldman Sachs where she has global responsibility for Securities Lending Operations. As a woman of color in a finance world heavily dominated by white males, this is an incredible feat in and of itself. Tia is passionate about driving diversity and inclusion in the workplace and holds a leadership role in the firmwide employee resource group for black professionals. In addition to her day job, she also serves on the Board of Trustees at Stevens Cooperative School in Jersey City, where her daughter attends 1st grade.
Clearly, this Mama stops at nothing! Tia thrives in taking on new challenges, and though it didn’t come natural at first - with time, she has learned to not forget herself in the process.
MGM: When you look back at your career and self-discovery journey, what do you see as your key to success?
Tia: I have always believed in the power of goal setting. In my personal and professional life, I can point to the goals that I’ve set for myself over the years and have accomplished including; living and working abroad, various promotions, traveling, meeting a husband and starting a family, eliminating debt to name a few. With each stage of my life, I have been fulfilled professionally and personally as I consciously created a plan to achieve my goals and followed through.
MGM: That’s a great strategy. Most people attribute goal setting to success in the corporate world but how have you utilized this approach in your personal life
Tia: One of the more life changing goals was to have a child. Naturally, I wanted to be a kick-ass mom so I set goals for our family and specifically for our daughter: good schedule, development activities, schools, diet, exposure, travel, etc. While my goal setting continued, it was very focused on Alexandria, my daughter, husband Chris, and my job at Goldman Sachs.
MGM: Did you run into any challenges with staying on track and not getting overwhelmed?
Tia: On the surface, it seemed ok and I was happy, but there came a point where I started to feel isolated. Initially, I could not put my finger on why. I said to myself - I am a kick-ass mom, I work for Goldman Sachs, have a great husband and kid, live in a great apartment, and have great friends - so what was the problem?
My goals were focused on everyone else and not on me! I was previously active in my sorority and very focused on developing my local community, was involved in industry bodies and associations, all activities that developed my own personal skill set and talent. I noticed that it had all gone away in favor of spending time with my family while also balancing a demanding career.
I woke up one day and realized my life had slowly become work and family, both important, but something was missing. I didn’t recognize myself. I’m a person who is adventurous, loves to try new things, meet new people, see the world and new cultures. I am always highlighting firsts, because that’s who I am, but this seemed to be missing.
MGM: So what did you do? How did you find balance?
Tia: I sat down and created a vision board which included personal goals for myself.
Career: I invested in a coach. We focused on my personal value proposition and the skillset that made me successful to date.
Fitness: I got involved a local moms fitness group which was about fitness and wellness among mothers.
Community Engagement: I re-engaged my sorority sisters and sought out opportunities to engage with my local Jersey City community.
Impact: I joined a board of directors in an effort to reinforce my skills and meet new people. That experience has already developed me and opened new opportunities for me.
MGM: Wow, that’s an amazing game plan, so what was the result?
Tia: I set all of these goals for myself and it’s been rewarding to see the benefits. My family remains my top priority, but the lesson for me is to not forget myself. I’ve become an even better mother and my daughter gets an amazing role model. She doesn’t use those terms but she regularly shows me that she wants to do things exactly the same as mommy. I’ll take that for now.
