How Margaret McDonald decided to step back from a career she loved

For most of Margaret McDonald’s nearly 30-year career at local design firms, including stints as a principal at Arcturis and HOK, work came before pretty much everything else.

“Yes, it was my occupation and what I was being compensated for, but it felt like it was my life, and it was beautiful and I loved it,” she says. 

The role of an architect—working on a team to help bring to life a client’s idea for a space or building—captivated and more than powered her for years. Long nights or working over weekends were just part of the gig.

“I was always a little confused by the [idea of] work-life balance,” she admits. “Carving out that one stops and one starts; I just never really understood that. I wasn’t good at that, or I didn’t feel like I needed to do that.”

That’s why it was big news earlier this year when McDonald made the decision to step down from her role as HOK’s St. Louis marketing principal and strike out on her own, founding her own consultancy, Motive + Method. 

As McDonald tells it, there were many catalysts that came to a head this year. But the seeds of this change were first sown more than five years ago, during the pandemic shutdown. In some ways, her story is one that illustrates how the new norms of the pandemic continue to upend the American workplace—but it’s also a deeply personal story involving her life as a whole: health, romantic partnership, and personal values.

Listen to the full interview with McDonald:

McDonald recalls her first date with the man who is now her romantic partner, Dave Ott, came in mid-March 2020. “The pandemic was really interesting for me in meeting someone, falling in love, and starting what is now a very significant relationship for me,” she explains. 

Her work at HOK was still something she focused on intently in the early pandemic, but the shutdown also afforded her more time to pursue new activities once “the day ended” and she logged off. Without a commute and reduced social events, McDonald took up regular walks, tended a garden, and cooked a lot more.

“I didn’t get into the bread thing,” she says. “I was making a lot of ice cream.”

After the most intense pandemic restrictions began to ebb, McDonald found herself slipping back into her familiar working habits, but they didn’t fill her up as much as they once had. 

“ Now that I had that other experience of a way of living, I started feeling more push-pull and started feeling a lot of stress and tension for myself,” she explains. She began skipping her walks and forgo making a nice dinner or spending time with friends or Ott because work was beckoning. 

“I had to experience the pandemic lifestyle and then experience the going back to realize there were more parts to a rich life to be living,” McDonald says.

It wasn’t until last fall that McDonald actively clarified what she valued most. “A hard day’s work” was on that list, but so was being creative, “working with my hands,” her now established relationship, taking care of her body with healthy food and exercise, and actively involving herself in the community. 

McDonald says she sought to balance those values with the responsibility and rigor that come with leading an architecture studio.

“ I was really working pretty hard on all of that when then a couple things personally happened that just kind of called it all out for me,” she explains. 

McDonald discovered a tumor and was diagnosed with breast cancer. She counts herself lucky that it was found so early and to live in a city with strong medical research institutions, which allowed her to avoid chemotherapy. 

But just as she was gearing up to return to work, the May tornado swept through and littered her tree-lined street in DeBaliviere Place street with heaps of debris. 

“Dave and I really talked it through,” she says, “and I was like, ‘I’m ready to do something different. I’m ready to walk away from what I have that I really love,’ to then say, ‘What else could there be?’” 

She admits it felt “awful” to tell the staff at HOK she would be leaving. 

“For all of us who’ve ever resigned from a job, you’ve had that pit in your stomach with the first conversation and then you just realize like, oh, this is just the first. Now I have all my team, my clients,” McDonald says. 

The resignation conversation led to an opening to still consult with HOK, which prompted the formation of her new firm Motive + Method. 

“Being a consultant allows me, on my terms, [to] find those things that I find engaging and rewarding and be really laser focused on them,” she says. “A week after [I left HOK], I felt a whole part of my brain open up. I’m really energized by that.”

McDonald adds it’s been surprising to see what people have already reached out to her seeking help with. 

“[It] is a really interesting way to understand how I am perceived, what people see as my strengths,” she says. “It’s ranged from helping [with] individual coaching to companies that are trying to do some interesting  strategic things within their companies that are in response to the way the architecture, engineering, construction industry is changing.”

In leaving HOK, McDonald says she received scores of warm messages from different members on staff sharing how her presence had left a mark, demonstrating how the sometimes narrowly perceived career path of an architect doesn’t have to be limited. And she suggests that her move into consulting continues the inclination she’s always had to blaze her own trail.

“When I really started my career, I was 27, 28. I remember being the older person doing the entry level ” she says. “Oftentimes people struggle with understanding not taking the typical path. Resigning from my job and becoming a little bit more of an entrepreneur and starting something with a lot of unknowns at 56, I feel like once again, it’s taking a different path, [and] I think we should all be much more supportive of that.”