The end of maternity leave brings all sorts of emotions. You may feel anxious at the thought of leaving your child all day, excited at the thought of some me-time and a chance to have a hot coffee, looking forward to getting back to your career, or even questioning if you want to return to work at all.
However you feel (and it could be a mixture of all the above), know that it is normal to feel apprehensive about your return to work. You may be wondering how you will:
- Juggle work and family
- Manage to be an exemplary employee and a fantastic mum
- Set boundaries between work and personal life
- Be able to cope with all that your career and family life throw at you
I spoke to the wonderful Lizzie Martin, Executive Coach and Founder of Work Life Mother, about returning to work well after maternity leave. Here are her top 5 steps to consider when planning your return to work, ensuring you return more successfully and with less stress after maternity leave.
Step one – Defining success
Get clear on what success means to you. Some people want a role that allows them to work flexibly; others want to lead a project within a specific timeframe. Others may wish to manage their team in a certain way.
Everybody will have their vision of what a successful return looks like. And each vision will be different.
Knowing what success looks like to you is the starting block because then you can plan other steps around it. You won’t be in the driving seat if you don’t know what you are aiming for. You will find yourself being pulled and pushed in different directions, responding to what others think you should be doing rather than being true to yourself.
Step two – Know your skills and strengths
Build confidence in your unique professional value by recognising your skills and strengths. Many women lose confidence whilst on maternity leave and are worried they won’t have any professional value to add. If this is you, don’t worry. It is entirely normal to feel this way. It is also normal to have mixed feelings about your maternity leave cover and concerns that you have been replaced.
An online strengths assessment will help remind you of what you can do and the value you bring to your organisation.
Now consider all the brilliant skills you have developed since becoming a mum. How can you weave these skills into your job? For example, resilience, empathy, and crisis management are skills you learn and develop quickly during maternity leave. These are all leadership skills you can now transfer into your job, becoming a more vital and valuable employee.
Step three – Set your boundaries
It is essential to identify your non-negotiables. You will have identified these when working through step one and your measure for success.
Think about how you will communicate what you need from whom, when and where.
A boundary for you may be that you need to leave work at 4:30 pm to be home in time for nursery pick up. You may be nervous about having this conversation with your Manager and put it off. Therefore, you may feel more comfortable taking smaller steps to build up to that conversation. So practice having a smaller and safer conversation first.
Another factor to consider is the cost of not having that conversation. You want to have ‘the conversation’ but don’t have the confidence to take your Manager to one side. However, as a consequence of not having that conversation, you end up missing bedtime, arguing with your partner because you are both tired and spending 3 hours stressed at home. Is that pain, therefore, better than having that conversation? We sometimes make these conversations seem more significant than they are.
Step four – Networking
This step involves using your keeping-in-touch days and reconnecting with your old colleagues when you return to work.
When you return, you have a golden opportunity to connect with new people and build your internal network. Use this time to invite people for coffee meetings and discover what has happened in the department during your absence. You also have an excuse to introduce yourself to new people or to those who have been recently promoted.
Be strategic about who you network with on your return to boost your visibility.
Step five – develop a plan
Create a manageable timeline for completing all the steps above. Your plan may include the following:
- Who am I meeting with?
- Who do I need to set boundaries with?
- How am I going to set these boundaries?
- What unique strengths have I identified?
- How am I going to weave these back into my day job?
- When will I review my measure of success?
- Your longer-term career ambitions.
If you need more help following the above steps, Lizzie runs return-to-work workshops. These workshops are free and held on the first and third Wednesdays of every month. For more information, please visit the Work-Life Mother website.
You can find further information about Work-Life Mother and Lizzie’s services by clicking here.
And remember, if you’re a mum returning from maternity leave, we have a great selection of flexible, part-time, and work-from-home jobs listed on our Investing in Women jobs board. These jobs help you combine a great career with motherhood. To see the latest flexible and part-time jobs, click here.
And if you’re looking for a new job after maternity leave or a career break, read my blog post, How To Confidently Step Into Your Job Search After A Career Break, to give you the best chance of success in landing your dream job here.