Big Careers, Small Children – Details, episodes & analysis

How can you self promote at work and invest time in building relationships as a busy working parent?

Today on the podcast Verena Hefti MBE welcomes Ferzana Bham & Bethany Pearson from PR Mums.

PR Mums is a community-led platform which offers former PRs (many of whom have left the workforce after having children) a pathway back into the industry.

Ferzana and Bethany share their expert advice and practical tips on self promotion, including how to forge relationships when you're time poor and effectively promote your achievements whatever your industry, especially when it might not come naturally to you.

We hope you enjoy the conversation.

PR Mums are working to establish an industry-wide model of best practice for parental policy – for the benefit of all current and future mothers and fathers; our children; and our parents. 

If you work in PR, please spare five minutes to complete this survey.

Show Notes:

• Find out more about PR Mums: www.pr-mums.com
• For more information on the Leaders Plus Fellowship head to www.leadersplus.org/fellowship

Shift work can be especially challenging when you're a parent to young children.

This week on the podcast our Leaders Plus Fellow Nathalie Holdstock, a Senior Sister and Emergency Nurse Practitioner, shares how she navigates working shifts in the NHS whilst raising two small children.

Nathalie shares practical tips for other shift workers, including why it's important to ask for what you need and what others who don't work shifts can learn from the experience.

We hope you enjoy the conversation.

The Leaders Plus podcast will now be on a short break over the summer holidays returning on Thursday 5th September.

Show Notes:

• Find out more about the Leaders Plus NHS Fellowship

We're delighted to welcome Denise Wilson OBE to the podcast.

Denise is the former chief executive of the FTSE Women Leaders Review and has led the UK’s business task force to increase the number of women on boards and in leadership positions.

She has made a significant contribution to gender equality in British business and is passionate about empowering women.

We discuss:

• How the UK made such massive strides in closing the gender gap at board level
• What still needs to change for gender equality
• How to get to an Exec Director position
• Why as a parent everything doesn’t need to be perfect but “good enough”

We hope you enjoy the conversation.

This episode is part of the future of work series, where we explore how work will change in the future to help everyone thrive and progress their careers equitably regardless of circumstances.

Show Notes:

• Connect with Denise Wilson OBE on LinkedIn.
• Download the latest FTSE Women Leaders Review
• Download the Leaders Plus Mental Load Checklist
• Find out more about the Leaders Plus Senior Directors Fellowship

What if being lucky wasn’t just by chance but a skill that you could master? 

Our guest this week is Dr. Christian Busch, the best-selling author of Connect the Dots: The Art and Science of Creating Good Luck and a Professor at New York University.

Christian has spent years exploring the connection between chance encounters and new professional opportunities and has fantastic insights on how we can all leverage luck to our advantage.

There were so many lightbulb moments during the discussion and plenty of practical tips we can all act on to improve our lives, both personally and professionally.

We discuss:

• What exactly is serendipity and how to cultivate more of it in our lives
• How to build a muscle so we can be better prepared for the unexpected
• How to address self-limiting beliefs
• How we can leverage the superpower of extroverts to our advantage

Connect with Christian on Twitter @ChrisSerendip

Find out more about the work of Leaders Plus, including details of our award-winning Fellowship Programmes and our latest events by signing up to receive our emails at leadersplus.org.uk/newsletter.

If you’d like to submit a question to the Big Careers, Small Children podcast please record it here https://www.speakpipe.com/BigCareersSmallChildren

Are you progressing a big career whilst raising small children?

Each month we send out a helpful round-up email featuring useful info and brave new ideas for ambitious mums and dads. Sign up now.

Applications are now open for our NHS Fellowship

Our FMLM accredited NHS Fellowship is a career development programme for working parents in the NHS who want to lead positive change. Apply by 11/07. Find out more.

How can you secure an internal promotion without working all hours and putting your hand up for every task?

Our guest today is Nadia Bunyan, HR Director at Global Witness, an international NGO that works to break the links between natural resource exploitation, conflict, poverty, corruption, and human rights abuses worldwide.

Nadia shares fantastic advice on progressing your career internally, including the three things any parent who is trying to be promoted within their organisation can do today. The conversation also includes:

• How to ensure you choose your employer wisely
• Tips on changing sectors, particularly when looking for something family-friendly 
• Guilt and setting boundaries
• Balancing international travel when you are a working parent  
• How is hiring different for senior roles
• Plus plenty of interview tips

We hope you enjoy the conversation.

Find out more about the work of Leaders Plus, including details of our award-winning Fellowship Programmes and our latest events by signing up to receive our emails at leadersplus.org.uk/newsletter.

If you’d like to submit a question to the Big Careers, Small Children podcast please record it here https://www.speakpipe.com/BigCareersSmallChildren

Are you progressing a big career whilst raising small children?

Each month we send out a helpful round-up email featuring useful info and brave new ideas for ambitious mums and dads. Sign up now.

Applications are now open for our NHS Fellowship

Our FMLM accredited NHS Fellowship is a career development programme for working parents in the NHS who want to lead positive change. Apply by 11/07. Find out more.

Many listeners have told us that guilt is a challenge you're struggling with, particularly working parent guilt. 

This week on Big Careers, Small Children we are revisiting some of the best tips shared by our previous guests around guilt and learning to let it go.

Featured:
Wendy Merricks, CEO Jumar (Series 6, Episode 91)
Michelle Mitchell OBE, CEO Cancer Research UK (Series 4, Episode 52)
Laura Harrison, Co-founder Human Change Agency (Series 2, Episode 15)
Lucy Duszczak, Senior Online Sales & Digital Manager, YHA & Dr. Suhana Ahmed, Consultant Psychiatrist, NHS (Series 3, Episode 46)
Amy Gibbs, Former CEO Birthrights (Series 6, Episode 83)
Dr. Heejung Chung, Professor of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Kent (Series 5, Episode 78)

Find out more about the work of Leaders Plus, including details of our award-winning Fellowship Programmes and our latest events by signing up to receive our emails at leadersplus.org.uk/newsletter.

Are you progressing a big career whilst raising small children?

Each month we send out a helpful round-up email featuring useful info and brave new ideas for ambitious mums and dads. Sign up now.

Applications are now open for our NHS Fellowship

Our FMLM accredited NHS Fellowship is a career development programme for working parents in the NHS who want to lead positive change. Apply by 11/07. Find out more.

What does it mean to be a compassionate leader and how can it benefit organisations?

Kami Norland is a national and international speaker, facilitator and CEO of Integrative Re-Sources.

In this episode, we chat about compassionate leadership and how it’s not only possible but essential to create compassionate organisations.

Kami reminds us that we aren't just an employee but an individual bringing our whole selves to work. She shares her expert advice on:

• What it means to be a compassionate leader
• Why you should dial back productivity
• How to radically increase your attention span
• The best way to build trust with the people you lead 

We hope you enjoy the conversation.

Find out more about the work of Leaders Plus, including details of our award-winning Fellowship Programme and our latest events by signing up to receive our emails at leadersplus.org.uk/newsletter.

Participate in the Elevate Compassion Coalition on the first Friday of every month at 10.30am CT.

If you’d like to submit a question to the Big Careers, Small Children podcast please record it here https://www.speakpipe.com/BigCareersSmallChildren

Are you progressing a big career whilst raising small children?

Each month we send out a helpful round-up email featuring useful info and brave new ideas for ambitious mums and dads. Sign up now.

Applications are now open for our NHS Fellowship

Our FMLM accredited NHS Fellowship is a career development programme for working parents in the NHS who want to lead positive change. Apply by 11/07. Find out more.

Ever felt like you're not living up to your full potential and wished you could change your career? 

Karen Squires is an A&E Consultant at the Aintree University Hospital in Liverpool, but her career actually started in hairdressing. 

After re-evaluating her life in her mid-20s and feeling that she wasn't reaching her true potential, Karen made the brave decision to take a leap and pursue a career in medicine. 

In this chat with Verena Hefti MBE, Karen shares how she trusted her gut instinct to follow her career dreams. Together they explore why our careers don't always need to go from A to B and how the meandering path can still move you closer to your goals.

Karen also shares her experience of being an older mother alongside progressing in her career. Including her diagnosis of secondary infertility and the multiple rounds of IVF, she and her partner endured before having their much longed-for second daughter.

Working in emergency medicine is a pressurised environment. Karen has fantastic advice for dealing with this whilst still being a present parent.

We hope you enjoy the conversation. 

Find out more about the work of Leaders Plus, including details of our award-winning Fellowship Programme and our latest events, by signing up to receive our emails at leadersplus.org.uk/newsletter.

If you’d like to submit a question to the Big Careers, Small Children podcast, please record it here https://www.speakpipe.com/BigCareersSmallChildren

Are you progressing a big career whilst raising small children?

Each month we send out a helpful round-up email featuring useful info and brave new ideas for ambitious mums and dads. Sign up now.

Applications are now open for our NHS Fellowship

Our FMLM accredited NHS Fellowship is a career development programme for working parents in the NHS who want to lead positive change. Apply by 11/07. Find out more.

Not everyone is in a relationship but those that are can spend a considerable amount of time trying to negotiate two big careers alongside raising young children and the commitments this entails.

This week on Big Careers, Small Children we are revisiting some of the best advice previous guests have shared around making dual career couples work.

Featured:
Nick Wilkie, Former CEO of the NCT (Series 1, Episode 5)
Dr. Jennifer Petriglieri, Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour INSEAD (Series 2, Episode 16)
Ruth and Colin Stuart, Dual Career Couple (Series 2, Episode 15)

If you are in a dual career couple you may benefit from our upcoming panel discussion where you will hear from other successful and ambitious couples discussing their thoughts on balancing parenting with two demanding careers in one household.

Find out more about the work of Leaders Plus, including details of our award-winning Fellowship Programme and our latest events by signing up to receive our emails at leadersplus.org.uk/newsletter.

If you’d like to submit a question to the Big Careers, Small Children podcast please record it here https://www.speakpipe.com/BigCareersSmallChildren

Are you progressing a big career whilst raising small children?

Each month we send out a helpful round-up email featuring useful info and brave new ideas for ambitious mums and dads. Sign up now.

Applications are now open for our NHS Fellowship

Our FMLM accredited NHS Fellowship is a career development programme for working parents in the NHS who want to lead positive change. Apply by 11/07. Find out more.

Today's guest knows a thing or two about working under huge pressure after being headhunted by Wockhardt UK to direct the development of the manufacturing process and facility to produce the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.

Alice Kan is the Pharmaceutical Director at Kan Do Ventures and one of the UK's Top 50 Women in Engineering. In this episode,  Alice shares what she has learned from managing the vaccine roll out whilst balancing her family commitments, including raising two teenage children.

A "recovering perfectionist" Alice cares deeply about working hard, having purpose and making a difference. She speaks passionately about setting boundaries and making choices that work for your family whilst progressing your career.

We discuss:

• Finding a job with purpose
• Challenging sexism, racism and misogyny in the workplace
• Setting boundaries
• Recovering from perfectionism and why good enough is okay
• Identifying when you're in flow and finding happiness

We hope you enjoy the episode. 

Find out more about Alice Kan at www.kandoventures.com

Find out more about the work of Leaders Plus, including details of our award-winning Fellowship Programme and our latest events by signing up to receive our emails at leadersplus.org.uk/newsletter.

If you’d like to submit a question to the Big Careers, Small Children podcast please record it here https://www.speakpipe.com/BigCareersSmallChildren

Are you progressing a big career whilst raising small children?

Each month we send out a helpful round-up email featuring useful info and brave new ideas for ambitious mums and dads. Sign up now.

Applications are now open for our NHS Fellowship

Our FMLM accredited NHS Fellowship is a career development programme for working parents in the NHS who want to lead positive change. Apply by 11/07. Find out more.