How to get the work life balance that is right for you

Confident Conversations is a weekly podcast show for ambitious women about confidently balancing work and life, hosted by me, Sherry Bevan, Author, Coach & Speaker. A former Global Head of IT Service for a City law firm, I now work with ambitious women to help them get clear on the career they really want then find the confidence to do it.

How to get the work-life balance that is right for you

This week’s episode is about work life balance and how you can achieve it. I invited Clara Wilcox at The Balance Collective to join me to discuss this topic.

Clara has built on over 15 years of recruitment, leadership, and coaching experience, and the most important qualification of all in her eyes, being a parent, to create The Balance Collective.

Her fascination with what “makes a person tick” and personal development started with her degree in Psychology, many moons ago, and has continued through her work as a Branch Manager of a bespoke recruitment consultancy, to her Management role in a not-for-profit employability skills organisation.

An eternal student, she is also a qualified Project Manager, DISC practitioner and is currently completing her coaching accreditation. Her clients comment that her approach “makes sense”; she likes to call it “coachject management” (coaching and project management combined!)

The Balance Collective is a social enterprise working towards reducing maternal unemployment through training and coaching. Clara helps parents to create the work-life balance they want through career and return to work individual and group coaching, as well as offering CV and flexible working request feedback, mock interviews and consultancy to business.

In the show we discuss:

A definition of work-life balance
How important is it to have that balance
How, as parents, we are role modelling for our children
The difference between ‘want’ and ‘should’
Why it feels so hard to get that balance right – technology and society’s expectations
For women going back to work after a career break, how to approach employers about flexible working or part-time work

Clara’s top tips for ambitious women who want to confidently balance work and life “You can do anything but you can’t do everything. Be realistic about what you can achieve in a day.”

GUEST: Clara Wilcox
HOSTED BY: Sherry Bevan