Anna Legarda-Locsin on mothering, work culture and breaking gender stereotypes
Anna Legarda-Locsin’s work with P&G Philippines for the past 17 years has helped shape the way we perceive some of the world’s most trusted brands, like the skincare brand Olay, whose PR program she launched in the Philippines in 2006, as well as personal care brands like Safeguard, Head & Shoulders, Tide, and Pampers, by designing and executing communications and PR campaigns.
Now communications director for the past seven years with a focus on Corporate and Public Affairs, part of her work has been about bringing out the best, not only in her company, but also with the agencies they work with and its people.
And she does it so well. In 2011, she was awarded the 6th Young Marketing Masters Award as the first-ever awardee for the Marketing Communications category.
In 2018, she served as the president of the Philippines Association of National Advertisers (PANA) in its 60th year and was the youngest chairwoman of the Ad Standards Council (ASC) in its 10th year; she has since remained active through board directorships over the years.
Personally? “The role of mom, teacher, guide, and guardian angel to my little boy Rocco is without a doubt the most important, fulfilling, joyful and challenging role I’ve had to date,” she declares, referring to her five-year-old son. Outside of work until the pandemic, she served in Christ the King Greenmeadows by playing and singing for masses with her choir group.
It all begs the question, “Can a woman have it all?” Legarda-Locsin answers simply, “Yes.”
Right in time for Mother’s Day, this working mom emphasizes the importance of support systems — and being one for those who need it, too.
The Philippine STAR: How do you balance your career, personal and family life, and passions?
Anna Legarda Locsin: I view “balance” as effectively fulfilling the needs and wants across various facets of life (career, personal growth, family, passions and dreams). I firstly accept that this will not mean giving equal amounts of time and attention to these facets all at the same time every day. Devoting time will certainly be needed and more time is always a big enabler.
I’ve been fortunate to have support and enablers across my professional and personal life.
Professionally, I am grateful for a career with a company that puts its people or its employees first. We have policies and programs that support an employee’s professional growth and their personal needs. P&G has had flexible work policies or work from home policies since the early 2000s (even before I was hired) and not because of the pandemic. We have flexible leaves we can use to give time to attend personal or family milestones as these do not exactly qualify for sick, emergency or a vacation leave. We have programs and lean-in circles that are like support groups for different segments of employees, such as Parents @ Work. This shared support or tips on homeschooling for parents early in the pandemic. We also have Mom’s Lean-In Circles; I’m in the one for Moms with Toddlers!
In my personal life, I’m very blessed to have a supportive husband and family. This helps to keep a healthy balance because this helps “share the load” both physically and mentally across different facets of life.
On personal practices, I time-block (especially for homeschooling) and I enjoy journaling and using planners, both as a hobby and a tool to keep life priorities and daily to-dos in check.
As a female leader, what and who has been the most significant enabler/s in your career and field?
In a career — regardless of your gender — surrounding myself with authentic, talented people or role models who inspire me, listen to me and support me and our goals.
My manager is very supportive and enabling, and also my mentor in Singapore. They are allies; they are both male and I appreciate many things that I gain from this. First, their openness to listen authentically and learn from the experiences I share and the help I need.
Second, diverse perspectives on approaching issues, a project, an important meeting. Third, their coaching and feedback that is honest, straight talk and given to help me grow.
I work very closely with teammates who are also female leaders of their field or function. Here, I equally value our similarities in approaching work issues, projects, meetings, and even balancing personal life, as they, too, lead their functions and are raising young kids.
I lead a team that is talented, dedicated, and gritty in delivering our goals. They make the work fun, fresh and fulfilling. I learn so much from them and keep updated through them.
Can you share a particular moment when you felt proudest for being able to challenge a traditional idea or break a certain bias/ stereotype in the workplace, in your projects, or in your personal life?
When I shifted roles from brand communications to corporate affairs in my early 30s, I had to learn how to be effective in a new external arena with a different set of stakeholders.
For perspective, in brand communications, I spent a decade building my personal and credibility on technical knowledge and benefits of our different brands and communicating this effectively to lifestyle and beauty media, social influencers, medical experts, and organizations. Many of the people I built relationships with had even become personal friends.
When I shifted to corporate affairs, I needed to be effective with a very different and wider set of stakeholders spanning ad industry colleagues and respected stalwarts, government officials and bodies, industry associations with companies represented by senior leaders or lawyers, disaster relief and crisis NGOs or bodies, and more business-oriented media.
I initially felt intimidated and out of my depth in terms of expertise, and I didn’t know or have relationships with many of the stakeholders. I can imagine they didn’t know me either and were curious about this “young” lady now representing one of the biggest multinationals externally on big industry matters. I represented P&G in industry associations, boards, projects and events or meetings. So I needed to immerse and learn advertising guidelines, current and upcoming legislations and regulations, and help shape and lead the industry to a progressive future.
First, I think it is a personal decision to let or not let perceived biases set boundaries for myself. I decided that I would be most effective and successful if I myself act beyond the bias, start demonstrating strong expertise that builds my credibility professionally and personally. I put in the time to learn the technical expertise I needed, and also humbly learned from P&G experts and external industry stalwarts. They mentored me from technical knowledge to sharing wisdom on how to approach sensitive matters effectively.
Over time, I was able to demonstrate deep expertise in corporate affairs, build stronger connections and build my credibility with a very diverse set of internal and external stakeholders. I’m grateful for their trust in me to lead industry bodies such as PANA and the ASC. I also gained a wonderful set of mentors and friends along the way.
What do you think are the common or biggest barriers for women to succeed in their careers?
P&G has learned from and connected with external organizations such as the Philippine Commission on Women and UN Women. I’ve learned a lot from them on the aspects of unpaid domestic care and work–think childcare, elder care, home care — that women and moms mostly take the lead versus their partners or other family members. What can help bust this barrier for women are policies and efforts that enable their greater entry and participation in the paid workforce in a way that doesn’t diminish fulfillment of their domestic care role, such as child care, for example.
In P&G, for example, we have our industry-leading Share the Care policy. It provides at least eight weeks of fully paid parental leave to all P&G parents — regardless of gender or biological or adoptive status. This helps to bust outdated stereotypes that females must be the sole and primary caregiver to new kids in the family, while the men go out and work. It is inclusive and gives equal opportunity and time for all parents to bond and care for their new children.
How about in your personal experience?
Separately, in my personal experience, it is time, preset frames or notions — whether from self or others — and the ability to articulate the support we need.
Time: Because the many roles we lead takes time and it’s limited. What helps is to articulate what help looks like to those who can enable more time for me, or share the load with me. My husband is a great dad and partner in raising our toddler. His sharing the load with me creates more time (and sanity!).
Preset frames or notions: Sometimes we are the ones who set the limits for ourselves based on what we know or how we grew up, sometimes it is others who do it based on what they know or how they grew up. That’s why it’s called bias. What helps is to reframe or see beyond the boundary or the frame first to what outcome you and everyone are working towards, and then listen to each other on what can best enable this.
Ability to express the support or accommodation needed: I believe in the good — that most people who have a stake in you, your career, your goals or the business you work on together will want and try to help where possible.
What advice would you give to the next generation of female leaders?
Be and know yourself and your goals. Surround yourself with the people, role models, and inspirational mentors who will support you and keep it real when needed. Do it and pay it forward.
How does being a mother play into your role as a high-ranking official in your company?
This gives me firsthand insight into what other mom-employees aspire for, the barriers and challenges along the way, and what support we can provide in the workplace so they can be their best and most authentic selves at work. Knowing that, I can advocate and create awareness for this so that we can keep championing an equal opportunity and inclusive workplace.
I saw this firsthand long ago when our current Equality & Inclusion (E&I) sponsor spoke up for the need for well-appointed breastfeeding rooms in the new office. No one else had advocated for it before her, not because they didn’t want to but because no one was aware of how meaningful this would be to nursing-mom employees who are returning to office.
Would you say that your mindset towards work and life priorities has changed ever since you became a mom?
My priority has always been family before work – even when I was younger and single, or when I was married without a child yet. That has not changed until now and my career choices have consistently reflected that. Being a mom has just made it clearer and therefore much easier to make decisions in work and life choices. My number-one priority is to raise a kind, loving, God-fearing child.
Being a mom has also been my biggest and constant growth journey to date! It has been my most important, fulfilling and challenging role to date!
Did you feel at any point in your career that you had to choose between motherhood and your career? How did P&G’s policies and work practices help you fulfill the two most important roles in your life?
No. I’m very grateful that P&G is a company that puts its people first. It understands how supporting the needs of its employees helps us perform and give our best at work. I’ve never felt that I was delayed or passed over for a career opportunity because I chose to take maternity leave and have a child. On the contrary, I even received a call asking me to consider some career plans and options after my return from maternity leave.
I’m grateful for fully paid maternity leave days and a really good medical benefits plan where everything was covered for when I gave birth. Our medical plan helps me with family health needs. Flexible work arrangements or work-from-home helps me effectively balance time and be effective at work and at home.
And the company has many events that really make it welcoming and enjoyable to be a mom, a woman, and a P&G-er. My favorite one is P&G Halloween, which is where all the P&G kids come to the office to trick or treat, attend the party, and have fun with their parents or the other kids.
What are the lessons you have learned from the significant enablers in your career that you still apply and share to this day?
It is important to focus on developing one’s strengths (instead of weaknesses) and on outcomes (instead of personal traits). I recently had an “a-ha!” moment from one of our top management interviews. It shared the perspective of coaching behaviors related to making an impact or achieving an outcome, as opposed to coaching personality traits and styles. I found that mind opening because oftentimes – even how we ask questions, frame situations and barriers – it is sometimes anchored on the biases of personal traits.
It is said that being a mother of a son is one of the most important things you can do to change the world. How are you raising Rocco to be a good person?
My number-one goal is to raise Rocco to be kind, loving, and God-fearing. I also want to guide him to think critically as he gets older. He will learn more skills and experiences without me physically by his side in the years ahead.
What can you share with mothers who are raising sons as well?
Boys are high-energy and also malambing, so my tips: Patience, calmness, and crisis management are key! Have a sense of humor! Teach them to manage expressing their natural physical strength as a boy. Don’t play-punch girls like mom. Even if it’s playing only, it’s still a firm punch! One moment I’m scolding him, another we are dancing and laughing.
