Charities & Business

Maternity and return to work coaching enables and empowers working mothers to thrive

Maternity coaching empowers your colleagues by supporting their transition from working professional to mother and then to working mother.

In no other instance would we expect our colleagues to undergo such a radical transformation in a year without support, training and investment in their development.

Heading off on maternity leave can be an exciting but nerve wracking time for women and the team around them. So often women are cheered out the door on the way to maternity leave with no real plan of how to keep in contact, how best to use keeping in touch days or plans for their return.

This often makes returning to work more stressful and overwhelming, as women feel they have to figure it out on their own with little structured support from their organisation. Often women tell me they don't feel they can be honest with their team for fear of being seen as if they are not coping.

Why is it so important to recognise this period of change and transition in your colleagues lives? Aside from demonstrating how much you value them, there are some very sobering statistics about the impact of returning to work after maternity leave on women's mental health.

53% of working mums link episodes of depression after going back to work with poor treatment at work ( (PTS and Gorvins, 2017) )
30% of mothers who return to work after maternity leave encounter a mental health issue ( (PTS and Gorvins, 2017) )
29% of HR execs admit they don’t know what the right conversations are to have with mums before and after maternity leave ( (PTS and HR Magazine, 2019) )

That's where maternity coaching steps in. I work with women about to embark on maternity leave to help bridge the gap between them leaving work and returning a year later, as a working mum. Through coaching women are empowered to plan for their handover, maternity leave and return to work. They feel supported by their employer and valued as part of the team.

Coaching is a confidential, non-judgmental space where women can work through their hopes and fears regarding their maternity leave and return to work. It provides space to examine limiting beliefs, reflect back and draw out strengths.

Research suggests that working mothers are more productive than their peers. Add to this that a woman's overall job satisfaction is strongly correlated to the family friendliness of her employer. It's time to say to mother's we see you, we value you, we will go to lengths to keep you.

Forbes, 2018

Included in my maternity coaching packages:

Preparation for maternity leave

These sessions usually take place in the two or three months before maternity leave begins. The content is entirely bespoke but can include:

Handover preparation
Working during pregnancy & managing workloads
Looking ahead to maternity leave itself & what it may entail
Managing key work relationships while on maternity leave
Return to work expectations & planning

Keeping in touch coaching

These sessions take place before returning to work. They can be combined with keeping in touch days or arranged at a suitable time outside of these. These sessions can focus on:

Making the most of keeping in touch days
Preparation for returning to work
Keeping connected to their baby once back at work
Consideration of ideal work arrangements
Exploration of key skills developed during maternity leave & how they can be used at work
Development of strategies to cope with sleep disruption and other parenting challenges
Creating and maintaining life balance as a working mother

Return to work coaching

These sessions take place once your colleague is back at work, usually within the first month, and can focus on:

Entry back into the workplace
Managing key relationships
Adjusting to changes in the workplace
Rebuilding confidence
Defining career pathways, professional development and training needs
Easing any anxiety, guilt or concerns about being back at work
Balancing conflicting demands of work and family life

Maternity coaching can also include:

A one hour planning session with the coaching sponsor at your organisation to create a bespoke coaching plan for your colleagues.
DISC personality profiling to allow your colleagues a greater insight into their pushes and pulls and how to use these to their best advantage through these transitions.

For more information please get in touch here

Team workshops

I run workshops for teams who want to make a change, improve how they are doing things, build on successes or simply spend some productive time together away from the day to day.

These days are bespoke to your team's needs in mind and can include:

Group and individual coaching sessions
Coaching skills training
DISC personality profiling
Mindset and motivation skills
Group maternity/ return to work coaching

I also offer a combined mentoring/coaching program for young women in the charity sector, please get in touch for more details.

Why me?

I love the charity sector and have a real passion for supporting women who are starting out or looking to make their first, second or third move into a leadership role. When I managed my first team aged 25 I was thrown in the deep end, managing a remote team of eight with a £3 million target to hit and no prior leadership experience. What could have been a nightmare turned into one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. I was lucky enough to find an incredible coach and mentor and now I want to pay it forward empowering women to achieve more than they thought possible.

I was working in a senior corporate partnerships role when I became pregnant with my daughter and know first hand the challenges female employees face regarding planning for maternity leave, making the most of KIT days, deciding whether to return to work, thinking through flexible working requests and the emotional side of transitioning back to work after having been home with a baby for the best part of a year.

I have ten years experience working for some of the UK's top charities, leading teams to work collaboratively with the corporate world. I've experienced the good, bad and the ugly from both sides and have seen first hand how much of a difference coaching can make to a colleague's self esteem, confidence and motivation in the workplace.

I'm an experienced facilitator, train the trainer and speaker. My years of designing charity fundraising campaigns for organisations has taught me how to listen to what's beneath the surface of a brief, get really clear on desired and expected outcomes and deliver these.

Find out more here

Some kind words

"Kimberley was very compassionate and gentle, which helped me getting calm and collected during a crazy time. At the same time she challenged me in exactly the right ways, picked up on language patterns and questioned my limiting beliefs.

Through Kimberley’s coaching I was able to set my goal and identify a path to get there step by step, starting with the branding to getting the website done.

Thank you so much for putting me well on my way and helping me realise that without a doubt I can do this and set up a successful business."

Maternity Coaching for Charit