And now for a moment of vulnerability.

Each morning I get an email from Harvard Business Review. It’s “The Management Tip of the Day.” Many times, I skim it; sometimes I just delete it. This morning, I stopped and read it – “Today’s Tip – Break the Silence Around Infertility.”

It was a condensed version of an article by Serena G. Sohrab and Nada Basir titled, “Employers, It’s Time to Talk about Infertility.” Sohrab and Basir do a nice job of distilling a broad, complex topic into something that’s consumable for the reader and thought provoking for the workplace. For a challenge that is becoming increasingly prevalent, much is discussed about pregnancy and parenthood... not so much about the journey to get pregnant. This is about the same in society in general as it is in the workplace. However, according to the article, “Many women hesitate to share their infertility struggles because of concerns about its impact on their careers. According to a survey from Fertility Network UK, 50% of women did not disclose their treatment to their employer out of fear that the employer wouldn’t take them seriously and over 40% due to concerns about its negative affects on their career prospects.”

Obviously a very important topic with implications on everything from productivity to engagement to people policy, but here’s why this particular article stood out to me.

In my opinion, one of the absolute best articles on authentic leadership was introduced to me by the Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute. It’s another HBR article titled, “Discovering Your Authentic Leadership” by Bill George, Peter Sims, Andrew N. McLean, and Diana Mayer. It was required reading for me and now it’s required reading for my coaching clients. The piece talks about several interwoven topics in an effort to define the seemingly elusive matter of authentic leadership – one being “Practicing Your Values and Principles.” Another is “integrating your life.”

“To lead a balanced life, you need to bring together all of its constituent elements—work, family, community, and friends—so that you can be the same person in each environment. Think of your life as a house, with a bedroom for your personal life, a study for your professional life, a family room for your family, and a living room to share with your friends. Can you knock down the walls between these rooms and be the same person in each of them?”

So, here I sit with core values of balance, compassion, and contribution, a recent article on Walking the Talk, and a practice that challenges my clients to “knock down the walls” between their personal and professional lives to be authentic and courageous.

To honor all of those things, I was inspired to write this article because I have first-hand experience with navigating infertility while working full-time. I was one of those women at the frequent early-morning appointments, juggling the unpredictable procedure times, serving as a human pincushion, keeping my “secret”, all while making sure my performance at work didn’t suffer.

I was also fortunate. I had flexibility in my schedule and excellent medical coverage that insured (quite literally) that I didn’t have the $50,000+ bills that some shoulder.

I also have good company – both visible and invisible. The more you talk, the more you hear of so many women that have struggled with infertility, miscarriages, and other unexpected detours on the way to parenthood. Yet this remains something that few feel comfortable talking about in the world of work and in the world as a whole. Universally I’ve heard what a difference it makes for people to realize they are not alone and, also, how frustrating it is that we don’t have a culture that makes it easier to be open in the first place.

My hope for writing this article is that maybe it contributes to sparking one more discussion about the challenges on the road to parenthood. Maybe it helps one more woman – or man – lead the “balance[d] life” they talk about in the Authentic Leadership article. Maybe it helps more of us show compassion to each other and to ourselves around trying to make the great jigsaw of life work.

I applaud HBR for bringing this to the forefront and starting to make it part of the conversation. I am grateful to my husband for supporting my display of public vulnerability and for his unconditional support.

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.