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Executive coach: PMS impairs women's decision making skills

Women in leadership positions should plan their business around their monthly cycle. Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) reduces the ability to think clearly and make sound decisions.

That's according to executive coach Sarah Macarthur-King. In a recent article published on Her Canberra, Macarthur-King shares her advice on how women in leadership can manage their PMS.

Macarthur-King decided to share her insights after she recently noticed a pattern in the way she conducts business, where she experiences three weeks of genius, followed by a week of "frustration, doubt, lethargy, procrastination and analysis-paralysis". After some further investigation, she realised her bad weeks coincided with the week before her period.

"During this short period, everything seems to go wrong, my mind cannot seem to solve problems logically and I literally feel like a pressure cooker about to explode", she writes. "Then, my period will show up and everything changes. It feels like a fresh day in spring, the fog in my mind lifts and all is well in the world again".

Since feeling like a pressure cooker isn't an ideal state of mind for women in leadership positions, Macarthur has kindly compiled a list of tips on how to negotiate the PMS "rollercoaster".

Aside from some arguably sensible advice like being mindful of how you're thinking and behaving, she suggests that women shouldn't make any critical decisions, shouldn't push themselves, and should not attempt to solve complex problems.

"If [decisions] are that critical, waiting a week won’t hurt. If you do have to though, enlist someone you trust to run it by for a sanity check", she advises.

Despite the article being directed at "those of you out there that can relate", plenty of people interpreted the piece to mean that women's monthly hormonal cycle reduces them to rambling, incapable beings whose brains don't function properly 25% of the time, and as such didn't find it particularly helpful.  According to Yahoo News, there has been such a backlash that the post had to be removed from Facebook.

ALSO READ: China now offers menstrual pain leave to women

Photo / 123RF

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