return to work with confidence

Find balance and take control of your career

You’ve just spent a few months focusing on your baby, focusing on your own health, and now your return-to-work date is looming.

You might be experiencing a range of feelings: anxious about going back to your old job as a different person, a bit lost about where to take your career, lacking confidence after so much time away, not sure how your new routine will work out.

Six years ago, I experienced a difficult return-to-work after my first maternity leave, and I’ve seen friends struggling too. That's why I am putting this workbook out there: to help parents prepare for their return to work so that they feel confident and in control of their career.

For most parents, returning to work means going back to their old job. But it might also be something completely different! You may be considering going freelance, or starting a business. You may have been made redundant whilst on leave or you have already decided to resign. You can use this workbook whatever your situation is and you can skip the sections that don’t feel relevant either.

This workbook will give you a new perspective on your career, but also on your life organisation. It will empower you, make you feel more confident and less anxious about the future.

I’d recommend starting this reflection process three months before you are due to go back to work. Each section comes with a set of powerful coaching questions that will get you thinking. You can go through this exercise regardless of the number of children you’ve had already!

You

When you become a parent, you become a different person. Your priorities change, your values shuffle and your needs evolve. It happens slowly, unconsciously. We don’t really notice it. And when you get back to work after your career break, it hits you in the face. Because new-you goes back into the world of past-you. You’re suddenly in front of what you were used to, and sometimes it doesn’t align anymore. So let’s focus on you again by figuring out who this new-you is!

In this section of the workbook, we’ll look at what you’ve learned about yourself, and we’ll explore your new identity by exploring your values and your passions. The purpose of these questions is to acknowledge that you have changed when you became a parent and to start creating the outline of this new chapter of your life.

Your life

When coming out of maternity/parental leave, you might feel unsure of where your life and career is heading. And let’s be honest, sleep deprivation makes it hard to think about it! It’s difficult to project yourself into the future when you just want to have a normal night’s sleep.

When feeling a bit stuck, aimless, I always suggest writing your vision of the future. It’ll give a direction to aim for and it covers all aspects of life: family, health, work, finances, etc. With this vision in mind, you can then take stock of where you are right now and what you want to change. By the end of this section, you’ll come away with a set of goals and actions to focus on. Some areas of life may not need to change, so don’t worry about setting a goal for each!

Your career

Going back to work after maternity / parental leave can make you reconsider your career. You’ll ask yourself questions about your purpose, your motivation and your progression. Becoming a parent might actually change your outlook on work. Or not! Some parents go back to their role without a doubt and feel ready to continue doing their role. You may also consider starting something completely new, for example becoming a freelancer or starting a business.

This section will help you clarify your career vision and milestones. I would also recommend taking the time to explore your strengths, personality traits, skills and motivations to build a strong and authentic career brand. It will enable you to update your career growth plan and feel confident about your next steps.

Your organisation

In the lead-up to your return to work, you’ll be considering childcare options and flexible work arrangements. As you’re doing this, you will also be thinking about your personal organisation. It will be important to think of the boundaries that you want to set between work, family and solo time.

In this section, you’ll be able to draw a schedule to make sure you block time for everything that you want to do.

Growing your resilience

Your parental leave has been an emotional roller-coaster. And it is not over: your return to work will have its own new set of conflicted emotions! Setbacks and obstacles in the workplace may affect you on a new level.

That’s why it’s important to talk about resilience. Going back to work can be a time of vulnerability and self-doubt, so growing your resilience will help you manage the negative emotions and challenges that’ll experience at work.

Resilience is the ability to pick oneself up and bounce back when things go wrong, after a failure or a disappointment. Some people are more resilient than others, it’s part personality, part life experience.

What’s important to remember, is that resilience can be developed. You can learn new ways to deal with setbacks. In this section of the workbook, you’ll be assessing your current resilience level and you’ll decide which strategies to focus on to grow your resilience.

Your action plan

This workbook finishes with an action plan. In this section, it’s about taking everything you’ve just done and committing to small actions that you can start doing now.

I hope you found this useful! If you’d like more support to help you at this stage of your life, feel free to book a discovery call with me so that we can discuss how coaching can help you with your specific challenges and objectives.

I’ll also be organising group workshops on this topic in Walthamstow (London E17) so if you’re interested in joining one of them, keep an eye on my Instagram page!

It’s very important for me to keep this type of content free. My mission is to keep personal growth affordable and accessible. But if you found this content useful, I’d be grateful if you wanted to make a donation on my Kofi page.