31. May 2026

I went back to work twice as a full-time working mum. It changed how I lead and why I built The Growth MENTOR™...

There’s a moment that doesn’t get talked about enough. Not unless you've found your 'tribe' and are one of those mum's that's actually honest....

Not when you go on maternity leave. Not even when you have your baby.

It’s the moment you go back to work. The moment you return to the place you left, usually months/a year ago - as a different person. Full of anxiety about how 'it'll work' now you've got a child/ren, what the hell you look like, how you'll stay awake and focus for a full days work. The list goes on.

I’ve done it twice. Twice I’ve stepped back into a full-time, high-performance role. Twice I’ve walked back into fast-moving, commercially driven environments where expectations hadn’t changed, but my world completely had.

And both times, I remember thinking the same thing:

“I can do this… but I’m going to have to figure it out on my own because no-one in my team have children.....let alone are a Mummy and working full time, in the office 5 days.”

From the outside, nothing looks different. You’re still experienced. Still capable. Still ambitious.

But internally, everything has shifted.

Your time is no longer your own
Your mental load has doubled overnight
Your priorities are sharper, but your margin is a lot bloody smaller!!

And yet… the expectation is that you just slot back in.

No real structure. No real support. No clear alignment with your manager on what “good” now looks like. And what really used to piss me off, was the "half day?" comments as I'd leave for the day to start my next job - Mummy. Despite me forcing a flexible schedule and being in by 7:30am and having to leave at 4:30 to get back to nursery by 6pm pick up.

Where businesses get it wrong

Most organisations don’t lack good intent.

They offer policies. They offer flexibility. They offer return-to-work conversations.

But what’s missing is practical, real-world support that actually works in a high-performing environment.

Supporting working mums isn’t about lowering standards, or giving them more benefits to others, It’s about enabling performance in a different context and making your team feel heard, seen and supported. And when that’s done well, the impact is huge.

When I returned, I didn’t need someone to tell me I was doing a great job. (Even though this would of course have been lovely!)

I needed:

Clarity on expectations
Confidence in my decisions
Space to think and operate effectively again
Alignment with my manager on what success looked like
I needed to be respected of my boundaries and have the confidence to enforce them

And I needed it quite quickly, because business doesn’t slow down. And to be honest, the expectation was I was up to speed quickly as I wanted to step back into my senior position.

The Growth MENTOR™ wasn’t built from theory.

It was built from experience, mine, and the hundreds of conversations I’ve had since with other working mums and senior leaders.

I saw the same pattern SO much. Amongst my fellow mum friends, my team mates returning back to work and listening to those women who were due to go to maternity leave (and Dads on Paternity leave) on their anxiety of return BEFORE they'd bloody even left!

High-performing women returning to work but not fully landing
Managers unsure how to support without impacting performance
Businesses quietly losing talent they couldn’t afford to lose

Not because capability wasn’t there. But because the right support wasn’t.

When working parents are properly supported:

They regain confidence faster
They make stronger, clearer decisions
They communicate with more intent
They perform at the level the business actually needs

And importantly: They stay. They progress. They lead

From a business perspective, this is about:

Retention of experienced talent
Performance and productivity
Manager effectiveness
Long-term leadership pipelines

The companies who get this right don’t just support working mums.

They build stronger, more resilient organisations because of it.

For the working mums reading this...

If you’ve gone back to work and felt like you had to figure it out alone. you’re not wrong.

And you’re definitely not the only one.

For the leaders and decision makers...

If you’re serious about retaining and developing high-performing talent:

This is an area worth paying attention to.

Because the gap isn’t capability. It’s support. Support my team and I can offer - and offer really bloody well!

If this resonates...

I work with organisations to put practical, structured mentoring in place that supports both individuals and managers, without compromising performance.

I also work with a lot of women who are due to go back to work from their maternity leave and feeling apprehensive about it - I help them go back with confidence, ambition and boundaries.

If that’s something you’re thinking about:

Let’s have a conversation.