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Successful individuals use coaching and mentorship to
help them unlock their potential. Not all

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coaches are created equal, and that's
why we work with the top five percent

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of coaches at Idemics. Welcome to
Coaches You Need brought to you by Idemics.

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Welcome to Coaches to Know a podcast
short designed to deem as divide coaching

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and help you our audience understand what
coaching is and how it can help you.

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I'm your host, Jamie, and
today I'm here with Coach Leslie discussing

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returning to work. Coach Leslie has
been coaching for five years, but not

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only is she a certified executive and
leadership coach, she has over twenty years

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of experience and human resources and leadership
development within Fortune five hundred companies where she

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has held senior management roles and is
trained in brain based coaching from the Neurological

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Institute. Her clients are mid to
senior level leaders who want to achieve more

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by showing up to work and home
as the best versions of themselves, and

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they're looking for support to figure out
what they want and how they can get

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there. So thank you, Coach
Leslie for joining us today. I look

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forward to discussing returning to work with
you, and I would love to start

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by first defining what do we mean
by returning to work? And you know,

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is there sort of a period like
what is the defined period of break

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that is implied when we're talking about
returning to work. Okay, first,

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I just want to thank you Jamie, thanks for the opportunity to speak and

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good to see you again. So
returning to work at popular topic these days,

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even from a return to work to
go back to an office versus working

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from home, it's created a lot
of uproar and confusion for people and really

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kind of created a situation where there's
a little bit of unevenness or lack of

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certainty. So returning to work can
be a variety of things. As I

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said, it's just taking an extended
period of time and ultimately planning to return

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to a job. So most commonly
we see that in maternity leaves. You

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know, people take off three four
months now some organizations even longer and they're

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pulling them saves out of the day
to day workforce. But also it could

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be somebody who takes off for personal
reasons. Sometimes it's health reasons, sometimes

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it's caring for a member of your
family when there's no one else too and

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suddenly becomes ill or other reasons.
But basically, it's you're out of the

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office. You're away from the office
for longer than standard three week or four

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week vacation, which is also a
long time, but usually it's for at

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least a couple of months, and
then they choose to go back into the

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workforce. Okay, thank you for
sort of latting the groundwork. So you

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know, we'll say it's a period
significant enough where people feel like sort of

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they're out of the groove of what
it is to be in the flow of

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the day to day. As you
said, I really like thinking of it

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in that way. So you've extracted
yourself from the the in and outs,

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the checking of emails, the knowing
what's going on, and so let's talk

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about let's dissect that a little bit
and talk about what tends to be the

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most challenging part of transitioning back from
being out of that day to day to

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getting back into that day to day. Yeah, I mean, in general,

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transitions are hard. Change is hard
for people. It's a situation where

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you feel a little bit less control. So you're going back into an environment

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with a lot of uncertainty and doubts
can surface from a number of places.

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It's my making the right decision.
Should I go back? In the case

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of a new mom, it's like, oh, my goodness, who's going

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to care for my child? Will
it be the same? Is this the

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right thing to do? Am I
being selfish going back to work? Will

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your children be self be safe?
I'm sorry if I go back? Will

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they be Will they accept me like
what's gone on in the period that I'm

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out? Will I even be able
to do the work? So there's this

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whole sense of uncertainty that just makes
people particularly uncomfortable. And again, in

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the case of a new mom,
there's a whole sort of physical and hormonal

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changes going on. So it's being
able to acknowledge the fact that you are

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going through some significant changes and figuring
out how to kind of navigate those changes

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in a way that you feel a
little bit more in control. And so

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that's interesting. So it's implied then
that a coach can really help you navigate

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the changes, probably by first developing
a self awareness of them, writing an

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acknowledgement that this has happened and I
am either identity wise no longer the same

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person or I have this this additional
mental load of concern and you know,

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and so talk about your process and
how you help your clients navigate from getting

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from the self awareness phase to you
know, almost probably managing the uncertainty with

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confidence. Yeah, there's lots of
different ways of approaching it, and it

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does vary slightly by client and what
their needs are, where they are in

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terms of their personal lives, their
professional lives, and what they're trying to

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accomplish. So coaching is typically what
are we trying to move towards and helping

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to unravel that is step one.
So as a coach, I'm a partner,

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I'm an ally and I'm a confidant. I help my clients to navigate

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through the change and help them return
to work feeling a greatest sense of control.

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And going back to what I said
earlier, control is the big piece

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of it. You know, the
uncertainty creates like a natural threat response in

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the brain, and you know,
we don't have control of what's going to

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happen. We don't know what's going
to happen. All that is creating this

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upheaval in the brain really, and
we're trying to calm the brain by creating

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some certainty, so they know I'm
on their side and they know that everything

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they tell me is confidential. The
process helps them to deepen their awareness as

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you brought up earlier, like what's
going on with me both internally and what's

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going on on the external environment,
and help I help them to gain greater

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clarity about what they want and to
feel empowered to move forward by gaining that

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knowledge. So again, depending on
how the situation, it might vary,

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but typically I start my clients with
some goal setting. I understand a little

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bit about where are they now.
What's going on is some situations they've already

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gone back to work and they're just
feeling completely overwhelmed. And in some situations

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they're planning to go back to work
and just they're emotional, there's tears,

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they're scared but they want to and
feeling a little bit of sense of guilt

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should I want to go back and
so forth. So there's lots of things

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going on. So a little bit
is kind of narrowing that down for them,

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is helping them to look at what
their emotions are, what's going on

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for them physically mentally, and what's
most important to them, is it what

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is the goal they're trying to reach, and to help them visualize that goal.

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So the more they could visualize your
goal there, the more capable you

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are of kind of saying, so
where am I now or what steps might

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I need to move forward to get
to that goal. So it's creating clarity

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around your goals, gaining increased self
awareness, and figuring out strategies to help

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you to move forward. But typically
my clients have two to three primary goals

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that they're working towards in a six
month coaching assignment. And the reason we

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go to that we narrow it down
so much is really that too many goals

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and I think when we're in that
state of transition and confusion and so forth,

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we have a trilliet things going on
in our head. So part of

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it is just narrowing that down and
the clearer we are on what it is

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we're trying to accomplish and not have
too many things that you're trying to reach.

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Right, if you have too many
goals, it just becomes overwhelming.

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So narrow down your two to three
top priority and then work through towards get

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what are the steps to getting towards
that I talk talk a little bit about

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the identification process because obviously, you
know, part of it the generating of

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a self awareness, Like how long
does that take? Right? How long

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does it take for a client typically
to become And I know everybody's different because

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this is a very bespoke type of
arrangement, but how long does it take

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typically for someone to get clarity?
You know, honestly, there's no science

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to that. It's an evolving process. And some people have clarity when they

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walk in the door. They know
they need a coach. They have very

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specific goals they want to work towards, and you know, I don't necessarily

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take them exactly as face value.
Initially we kind of dig into why are

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those your goals? What makes them
important to you? How important are they?

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But you know, what would happen
if you didn't achieve these goals?

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And would with the benefits be if
you did? So really trying to unravel

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what about that objective is so important
to you? What's it going? What

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are you hoping it changes? So
it's a combination of mindset, actions,

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thought processes, and so forth to
figuring out why is it I'm going there

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and having a clear vision of what
that somewhere what it looks like. Yeah,

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and so once they have the clarity
and they have the why does it

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is that that's what brings them maybe
a level of confidence to the people that

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you're coaching so that they can move
forward or in like, you know,

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do you help outline for them here
are the steps you should take? Or

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does the client help outline those steps
for themselves? Yeah, no, Jamie,

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that's a great question, you know, depending why the circumstance. Sometimes

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I give them some little assessments as
well, so it gives them some more

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self awareness. I often, in
the case of people going back into the

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workforce, off recommend they do like
a values assessment and get really clear on

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what's important to them and what their
values are. I might do some self

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awareness things kind of assessments as well, just to give them broader insight into

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what their objectives are, what might
be triggering them, why, and so

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forth. So it varies, again
based on what the needs are of the

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person. But so there are tools
that I use during coaching to help create

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increase self awareness. I also do
that through a combination of asking probing questions,

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you know, I dig in with
the person. They may say something

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face value, It's very easy to
say, oh, this is what I

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want to do, and through my
questions of tell me what it is about

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that that's important to you, tell
me why it is you want to do

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that, what would happen, what
would the benefit be to you of going

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in that direction, what might hold
you back from going in that direction?

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And then ultimately the clearer you are
and the more sense of what it is

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you want to do it because you
do feel a little bit more empowered to

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I understand my needs, I understand
what I want to accomplish, and I

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know why, I know why this
is important to me, which creates a

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sense of clarity, a sense of
empowerment, and a better sense of control.

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So if you remember we start with
a transition is a feeling of a

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lack of control. Through the coaching
process, it helps them to feel more

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in control and be more aware of
their own needs. That's very interesting.

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I have yet to hear anybody define
transition in that way. A transition feels

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like a lack of control, and
the idea of getting to the other side

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is really to to gain back that
control and confidence and a feeling of sense

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of empowerment. Like you can do
it. Yeah, exactly exactly. That

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is that's that's amazing, and that's
a wonderful note for us to end on

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today. Coach Leslie, I want
to thank you so much for your time

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and speaking with That's today about returning
to work. If you to my audience,

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if you would like to work with
Coach Leslie or one of our other

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qualified coaches, please visit us at
the idemix dot com and thank you very

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much for listening today. Thank you, Jamie, it's great talking to you.

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Thanks for listening. Please subscribe wherever
you listen and leave us a review.

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Find your ideal coach at www dot
vidmx dot com. Special thanks to

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our producer Martin Maluski and singer songwriter
Doug Allen. A