Aedhmar Hynes featured in PRWeek Career Guide Story

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Text100 CEO Aedhmar Hynes was recently featured in the PR Week Career Guide 2012 in a story about motherhood and work.

The story highlights six female PR leaders and their tips for balancing work and family life. Aedhmar shares her insight on blending the various aspects of her life and how it’s enhanced  her relationships with both her children and her clients.

Here’s an excerpt from the article:

Aedhmar Hynes, CEO of Text 100, says she stopped aiming to find balance and instead tries to “blend” the different aspects of her life.

“We shouldn’t strive for balance because if there is an imbalance, which there regularly is, you end up feeling at odds with that,” says Hynes, who has two sons and two daughters ranging in age from seven to 19. 

“The more you can find ways to blend all the components of your life, the more balance you create.” 

For Hynes, that means educating her children about her career, whether it’s by bringing them to her office occasionally or telling them about a new tech client.

“My whole goal over the years was for my children to understand as well as they possibly could what I did,” she explains, “so when I come back after being away on business they can ask, ‘How did the big pitch go?’” 

Likewise, Hynes is transparent with her clients and colleagues about her children, even to the extent of inviting some of them to her home for dinner. She has found many clients respond by being equally open.

“I’ve always felt it’s developed closer relationships with clients,” she adds.

Next Fifteen CEO Tim Dyson is also quoted discussing the PR industry landscape for working mothers and how Next Fifteen enables them to advance:

Tim Dyson, CEO of Next Fifteen Communications Group, which owns Text 100, says the PR industry needs to improve for working mothers.

“If I look across the industry, there are still way too many men in charge,” he says. “I worry some of the best people in communications leave to have children. That somehow puts a glass ceiling on their careers. That’s the industry’s loss.” 

Hynes was one of Next Fifteen’s first female employees to have a baby, Dyson recalls. Her example pushed him and the rest of the holding company’s leadership to implement policies enabling working mothers to advance within the company. 

Before Hynes’ second maternity leave, the board promised her a promotion upon her return, a meeting she cites as a turning point in her career. 

“They created a picture for me that made me want to come back to work,” Hynes says. 

Dyson calls Hynes a “role model,” but Hynes remains wary of the idea that one can have it all. 

“The times when we see the perfect mother who seems to have everything together – we’ll never live up to that,” she says, adding that instead of comparing oneself to others, it’s much better to focus on yourself and say, “Actually, I can do this.” 

You can check out the full article and the rest of the Career Guide 2012 over at PRWeek’s website: http://www.prweekus.com/mothers-of-invention-career-guide-2012/article/255413/.