Becoming a parent is one of life’s greatest joys, and a fabulous time to re-focus on your career. Although I’ll admit whilst pregnant with my first born George, this is not how I saw life as I discovered I was being selected for redundancy! I was angst-ridden and lacking in confidence. Two kids later and sharing parental leave with my husband before it became a mainstream option, I now appreciate how precious, empowering and performance enhancing this period of your life can be.
Key to our family success was taking the time to explore what we all wanted from our careers and our family life together. Today both Peter and I offer independent confidential development support, helping both mothers and fathers consider all the key aspects of maternity and parental leave
We help women to plan and effectively manage the lead up to maternity leave, examining topics such as setting your team up for success in your absence, planning for changes in personal finances, communication and development whilst on leave, building your support network, managing your energy and wellbeing, and creating an ideal working pattern on your return. The aim is to give mothers everything they need to successfully transition back into their existing or new role post maternity.
We help fathers who decide to share the parental leave to support their family in the early days manage the transition to and from the workplace. We offer a safe space to explore the emotional and practical aspects of this transition, helping expectant and new fathers reflect, prepare and act on their goals for career and fatherhood.
Coaching brings renewed focus
One of the benefits of nursing your new baby back to sleep in the wee small hours is that you have plenty to time to think about your priorities. Coaching provides the framework to enable you to bring them to life. Working out your short, medium and longer-term career development goals, and how you can realise them in the workplace given your changed circumstances.
From an organisational perspective, offering coaching at this critical time of transition enables organisations to demonstrate how much their key talent matters to them, improving retention and engagement. In as little as 3 sessions pre, during and post leave coaching employees can be supported to smoothly navigate and maximise the development opportunities presented by this unique period of their careers.