Look for a book on preparing to become a parent, and you’re hit with a tsunami of the things. Cast your eyes around to devour something that includes the workplace angle too and you’ll be hard pushed to find it. But it’s an incredibly important step and one that we can’t continue to overlook and assume great engagement for parents in the workplace happens by accident. 

In this episode we’re talking about three things you need to know about helping someone prepare for parental leave. There’s heaps we could cover with this topic, so I’ve kept it to the point and with a blend of practical action and some bigger reflections to consider. 

The three things are:

The further resources I mentioned in the episode can be found on the Power of the Parent® Employer Resource Hub here - https://power-of-the-parent.com/employer-resource-hub/

Please do rate, review and subscribe if you find this podcast useful - it helps people find it and ultimately get the calls to action out in the world. It makes Charlotte feel great too 😆

For further info on Power of the Parent you can head to our website www.power-of-the-parent.com or connect to the founder, Charlotte Speak on LinkedIn.

Welcome, welcome to the first episode of 2025!

I’m kicking off with a big one, and I’m joined by Sophie Cliff - who today celebrates the publication day of her second book - The Hustle Cure. Sophie aka The Joyful Coach is a positive psychology practitioner, founder of Joy Futures and is usually juggling life with a toddler.

A really common question I get from leaders and line managers in organisations is about how we can create environments where everybody is valued, regardless of their family set up. We’re still very much in a world where long hours, burnout and busyness is a badge of honour. We also know that narrow definitions of success are holding many parents and caregivers back when we don’t quite fit those moulds. 

Sophie is the antithesis of all of that, so I was absolutely buzzing when we sat down to have a chat about the 3 things you need to know about harnessing your productivity. And they are:

The quote of the episode for me was ‘there’s a context collapse’ and I’m seriously thinking about how we get a line of merch to accompany Sophie’s new book!

If you want to find out more about the incredible work Joy Futures does when partnering with organisations you can find out more here: https://www.joyfutures.co.uk/

And if you want to celebrate publication day with her, here’s the link to order her latest masterpiece: https://sophiecliff.com/the-hustle-cure

Sophie has been on the podcast before for a longer conversation about how we treat our time, what’s happened to her ego since becoming a parent, the value in re-assessing what’s important to us and our own definition of ambition. Sophie shared some of the misconceptions she’s faced since starting her business (and how she faces into them) as well as finding joy as a parent and she kindly fitted in 3 practical things line managers and organisations can be doing to encourage workplaces to positively challenge their relationship with joy. You can listen here.

Please do rate, review and subscribe if you find this podcast useful - it helps people find it and ultimately get the calls to action out in the world. It makes Charlotte feel great too 😆

For further info on Power of the Parent you can head to our website www.power-of-the-parent.com or connect to the founder, Charlotte Speak on LinkedIn.

Not sure I should really call this an episode, because it’s actually saying cheerio to 2024 and I’ll be back in 2025! Whatever the coming weeks and months look like or mean to you, I hope you stay well, remember those boundaries and I’ll see you in the New Year!

If you want to submit a topic to be covered on the podcast next year, please email me [email protected] and I’ll get them on the plan!

Supporting parents in the workplace has become synonymous with parental leave returns (in my opinion) and it’s more than time for us to expand the conversation. There are so many facets when it comes to this topic, and one period of time that doesn’t get anywhere near the airtime it should (also in my opinion) is supporting parents of teens. 

In this week's episode I’m joined by Power of the Parent associate coach, Shwezin Win. Shwezin blends a combination of being a coach, a previous Chair of a workplace ERG and a line manager to bring to life some of the practical things that could help support parents of older children. We’re releasing this now ahead of that January mocks and exam period for many people - there’s still time to offer up support to your valued team members! 

The three things explored are:

Shwezin also references a previous blog post: here is Part 1 that focuses on parents and Part 2 - The Line Manager Edition is here.

If you’d like to bring this conversation into your workplace in 2025 please get in touch by emailing [email protected] to arrange a chat!

Please do rate, review and subscribe if you find this podcast useful - it helps people find it and ultimately get the calls to action out in the world. It makes Charlotte feel great too 😆

For further info on Power of the Parent you can head to our website www.power-of-the-parent.com or connect to the founder, Charlotte Speak on LinkedIn.

Worried you’re all performance and little substance? Fear not, this is the episode for you. 

We’re delving into three things you need to know about avoiding performative action. 

You know those ruts we get stuck in when it comes to recognising / celebrating / using national days, weeks and months? Well, they can serve and important purpose but also need to be carefully partnered with longer term, transformational action. 

The three things we’re talking about are:

We’re about to head into a New Year, so there’s no time like the present to have a check in on how you navigate these moments in time!

Please do rate, review and subscribe if you find this podcast useful - it helps people find it and ultimately get the calls to action out in the world. It makes Charlotte feel great too. 😆

For further info on Power of the Parent you can head to our website www.power-of-the-parent.com or connect to the founder, Charlotte Speak on LinkedIn.

It’s time to give parent and carer networks the once over! In this episode we’re picking 3 things you need to know about ERGs - and to be honest it was a long list to pick from, so this will no doubt be revisited in the not too distant future. And although the niche of Power of the Parent® might be parents in the workplace, you could apply much of this discussion to other ERGs too. 

The three things we’re focusing on today are:

You can also find some further ERG tips and support on the Employer Resource Hub on the Power of the Parent® website https://power-of-the-parent.com/employer-resource-hub/

Please do rate, review and subscribe if you find this podcast useful - it helps people find it and ultimately get the calls to action out in the world. It makes Charlotte feel great too. 😆

For further info on Power of the Parent you can head to our website www.power-of-the-parent.com or connect to the founder, Charlotte Speak on LinkedIn.

I’ve got company this week!! In today’s episode we’re hearing three things you need to know about supporting single parents in the workplace, and what an absolutely wonderful, practical and supportive list it was from Orla Donoghue, founder of Solas Coaching. 

The three things Orla brought to thai episode are:

There was so much to take away that I feel saying ‘three things’ is a massive understatement. Orla generously shared her day to day suggestions, the questions you could ask people and the tweaks you could make to existing comms and engagement channels to really understand how different family set ups are experiencing your workplace.

At the heart of the conversation and examples Orla shares, there’s a clear message - we need to value each other's time and respect the carefully choreographed routines (regardless of family set up actually!)

If you want to find out more about Orla and the impactful work she does, you can find her on LinkedIn or the Solas Coaching website.

This week's episode is bringing to life an incredibly important but sometimes overlooked conversation (in my experience) - how we combine policies with lived realities. Those market leading, award winning policies we see heralded as the saviour from many employers are indeed needed. But so is digging deeper to understand the organisational narrative and experiences really facing parents, cares and line managers on a day to day basis. 

The three areas we’re focusing on are:

It is completely possible to have awesome policies that create a base level standard for everybody in an organisation and be able to treat people as individuals - we just need to get curious, creative and be realistic about what that can look like!

I also mention another podcast episode about organisational narrative in this episode, so here’s the promised link for that:

https://frombabieswithlove.org/en-au/blogs/how-hr-leaders-change-the-world/episode-163-how-strategic-narrative-helps-you-achieve-hr-goals-neil-morrison-chief-people-officer-staffbase?srsltid=AfmBOoqgptNy922g6gY0iNH6sPsrKZLOK47LO_XSMI8vFVfncABFkNVt

Please do rate, review and subscribe if you find this podcast useful - it helps people find it and ultimately get the calls to action out in the world. It makes Charlotte feel great too 😆

For further info on Power of the Parent you can head to our website www.power-of-the-parent.com or connect to the founder, Charlotte Speak on LinkedIn.

In the latest episode of the podcast we’re heading down the line manager conversation. It’s rich, it’s varied and there are many many metaphorical stones to be turned, so where did I start?

Well it wasn’t an easy pick but these three focus areas felt like some of the foundations as well as where the myths are often lurking. We take a walk through:

There’s a lot more to touch on with this whole episode, but that final point in particular will be revisited all by itself in a future episode!

I also mention in the episode a Gallup report. If that’s something you want to have a read of or make use of the stats in a business case somewhere, here’s the link you need: https://www.gallup.com/workplace/236927/employee-engagement-drives-growth.aspx

Please do rate, review and subscribe if you find this podcast useful - it helps people find it and ultimately get the calls to action out in the world. It makes Charlotte feel great too 😆

For further info on Power of the Parent you can head to our website www.power-of-the-parent.com or connect to the founder, Charlotte Speak on LinkedIn.

Today we’re bringing the conversation to a topic that carries a heap of complexity - burnout. We’re going to combine parents, the workplace and some practical notes to consider as an employer when someone is experiencing burnout, and is combining family life with a career. There’s a lot to digest and if you’re looking for further support on managing burnout, there are lots of sources of help out there. Here are a couple of immediate access resources:

The book I mention in the episode can be found here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2023/02/parental-burnout-symptoms-tips

In the episode I’ll explain the difference between burnout and parental burnout, before diving into the 3 things you need to know:

Whilst it’s a huge topic, it’s something that comes up a lot in client work for us at Power of the Parent® so although we’ll never cover everything in a podcast episode, these headlines felt like an important part of furthering the conversation for parents and carers in the workplace. What you’ll also hopefully spot is that these headlines actually apply beyond those with caring responsibilities, so it’s important to remember how applicable some of this will be to everybody in your organisation. 

Please do rate, review and subscribe if you find this podcast useful - it helps people find it and ultimately get the calls to action out in the world. It makes Charlotte feel great too. 😆

For further info on Power of the Parent you can head to our website www.power-of-the-parent.com or connect to the founder, Charlotte Speak on LinkedIn.