Supporting managers

Helping managers feel more confident about leading leave and return.

Managers matter

For most employees, maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave isn’t experienced through policy. It’s experienced through people.

Managers have an enormous influence. The conversations they have, the assumptions they make, the confidence they project, and the support they offer all shape an employee’s sense of belonging long before leave even begins, and long after they return.

While organisations can provide the framework, managers bring it to life through everyday role modelling and interactions.

Most managers want to do the right thing. Supporting them to feel confident in how they do that doesn’t just improve the employee experience. It makes difficult conversations easier, creates consistency across the business and helps managers feel more capable too.

The challenge is that maternity and parental leave conversations can feel easy to get wrong.

That’s where we can help. We don’t expect managers to become specialists in early pregnancy, maternity, paternity, adoption or fertility policies.

What they need is the confidence to ask good questions, navigate uncertainty, know where the boundaries are and when to ask for more support for themselves.

Our aim is to help managers feel equipped to lead their team members with empathy, enthusiasm, clarity and confidence.

Building confidence, not scripts

From the first disclosure to the months after someone returns, managers don’t need to have every answer. We don’t believe in giving managers rigid scripts or expect them to follow conversations word for word. Every employee’s circumstances are too different for that.

Instead, we help managers understand the principles behind the conversations, giving them the confidence to adapt thoughtfully while remaining consistent for your organisation’s values and policies.

Support when it matters most

Managers don’t usually know exactly when they’ll need to support someone through maternity or parental experiences or leave. The questions are rarely identical. The circumstances are deeply personal. The best responses are never pre-defined.

We believe manager support should reflect that reality. Rather than relying on a one-off training session, we provide responsive, tailored and practical input when it’s needed most.

Support could include:

  • 1:1 manager support calls

  • Manager workshops

  • Practical resources

  • Q&A sessions

  • Speaking events

  • Conversation frameworks

  • Manager toolkits

  • Facilitation around complex subjects

Before leave

Helping managers prepare for conversations around planning, expectations, communication, workload, handovers, role cover, and supporting a positive transition into leave.

Preparing for return

Encouraging managers to think beyond logistics to rebuild confidence, discuss flexibility, manage expectations and create a positive, supportive return experience for long term engagement.

In unexpected situations

Providing guidance for managers supporting colleagues through fertility treatment, pregnancy and baby loss, neonatal care, adoption, partner leave and other complex circumstances.

During leave

‍Supporting managers to maintain appropriate communication, navigate changing circumstances and create opportunities for employees to stay connected in ways that feel helpful for everyone.

Beyond the return

Supporting managers as employees continue adjusting to working parent life alongside career development.

Working alongside HR

Managers don’t always know what HR are doing. And HR don’t always know what managers are doing. Sometimes, that means that nobody is feeling particularly confident about what they think they should be doing.

We help managers to understand how they can work as a team with HR to create the experience that they need their team member to have for a successful experience of going on leave, being on leave, then returning and progressing after it.

“The sessions with Lynn were invaluable in helping me re-frame my thinking and approach after returning from my second mat leave felt much harder than I had anticipated. Despite being with the firm so long, I felt very unsettled initially. Now, I can see a real shift in my confidence and approach that I believe will serve me far beyond this transition. I am very grateful the firm offers these sessions ”

“Lynn’s energy and support have been unwavering. She very quickly helped me see what makes me tick as an individual and tailored our sessions effectively. Her ability to take a complicated chain of thoughts and fears and help provide not only clarity but new perspectives has taught me so much about myself and my potential. ”

“I didn’t have the best of starts to my maternity leave and having seen so many peers struggle, it gave me the fear but you have helped me feel calmer about all the uncertainty. I actually feel like I can manage whatever the next year brings, both at work and at home. Thanks for being there, even when we weren’t scheduled to catch up”

Let’s help your managers feel more confident.

Informed and open minded managers create better conversations.

Let’s explore how we can support yours.