Sandra Moran is the newly appointed Chief Marketing Officer of WFS: A WorkForce Software Company.

She’s spent more than 25 years of her career enabling global software and technology companies to strengthen their brand and accelerate revenue growth through a customer-centric approach.

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1) You’ve started a new role during a very disruptive period for business and life. How does your current role allow for flexible or remote working? How does that fit into your life and routine?

I am extremely fortunate to be working for a company that values work-life balance and actively seeks ways to ensure employees are encouraged and able to maintain it – even before COVID. 

I arrived at a marketing team that values talent over location and we had a large population of employees that were thriving remotely and working well together. 

Even before the pandemic,  the team found ways to work effectively and now that all employees have shifted to remote work, we continue to leverage technology to collaborate and share with our global team. 

I am only a month into the position, working from my own home office, but have experienced first hand that we are a company that values results over time put in and as a global organization that occasionally requires people to work in other time zones, I have many options to find a balance that fits me as an individual while still delivering the work required to meet our business goals.

2) What does work-life balance mean to you and how do you work to achieve that goal?

I’ve stopped thinking about work-life balance as a daily or weekly measure. I like thinking about work life balance over the long-term. There are times when work’s goals and objectives require more time and attention than others.

There are times in my life when my other roles as a mother, wife, daughter, volunteer or community member,  require more from me. 

Being able to adjust my schedule to accommodate the many joys and demands in life, helps me to find a work-life balance that meets more of my needs, with more happiness than to look at any single point in time. 

Taking a longer term view can help people at various life stages give themselves permission to find the right work life balance for that period of time and chart a path that matches their definition of success – even as it changes over time.

3) In the past 12 months, have you started or stopped any routines or habits to change your life?

I am sad to admit that the past 12 months have stopped any good workout habits I was able to maintain. I’m someone who needs the structure of a class to attend and friends to join there. I’m eagerly awaiting the reopening of life as we knew it. 

Never a television watcher, I now know the joys of binge-watching on Netflix, which I have come to regard as an essential life skill – especially when relating to my children.   Please, I need a new season of Ozark so I don’t have to start watching the series again.

4) Do you have any favourite books, podcasts or newsletters that you’d like to recommend?

I am an avid reader but books that stand out in my mind as favorites include: A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, I Know this Much is True by Wally Lamb, East of Eden  by John Steinbeck and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini all beautifully rich with great storytelling and full of rich historic details. 

I love learning about history through stories of their impact to the people who lived through them.

Another stand out book that changed my thinking was Talent is Overrated by Geoffrey Colvin which explores what is the source of exceptional performance. 

Geoffrey Moore’s, Crossing the Chasm, changed the way I think about marketing strategy early in my career and the best positioning book I’ve read remains, Positioning: The battle for the Mind, by Jack Trout and Al Ries.  It should be a must read for all marketers.

I had a long commute so I enjoyed a number of podcasts and am a huge fan of TED Talks. It enabled me to listen to insights on so many topics that I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to hear first hand. 

Favorite podcasts include: McKinsey’s Discussions in Digital and McKinsey on AI and I’ve heard a number of great episodes in B2B Revenue Leadership podcast.  I usually try to listen to a mix of inspirations, strategy and practical execution so I have a diverse list of podcasts I tune into.

5) Are there any products, gadgets or apps that you can’t live without?

Like many, I’m never far away from my phone.  Checking in, being in touch and exploring new music on Spotify are all brought to me with this constant companion.  I don’t mind being “on” and dealing with work in-the-moment.  I feel like I am accomplishing more when I can chip away at tasks when I have a spare moment or two.

6) If you could read an interview about work-life balance by anyone, who would that be?  

It would have to be someone in a similar role and life situation for it to be of great value. Other professional women, working to be great balancers of the demands of family, work and friends for it to be of great interest to me.  Although it could be fun to see how others live, I am more practical and looking to learn any new tips and tricks that keep people in balance.

7) Do you have any last thoughts on work, life or balance that you’d like to share with our readers?

I believe the definition of success is highly personal and for most, it changes over various stages in your life. The balance between work and life, what you prioritize and what you are willing to do change with it.  

I believe if you embrace the view that balance is better viewed over a period vs at point in time, you can give yourself permission to let it get out of balance at times to achieve your goals.  This isn’t a good long term strategy. 

Allow yourself to measure success by achieving what you set out to do. At times, that might mean more personal or family time and at others more focus on achieving a milestone at work.  If I could only speak to my overly ambitious 20 and 30-year-old self to tell her it was going to be okay and to enjoy the ride.

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