The Power of Parenting Nervous System-First: Your Greatest Leadership Programme

Parenting Is Not a Career Pause. There’s a narrative that still floats around—that becoming a parent is a detour from your career, a stepping back, a pause. But becoming a parent isn’t stepping away at all. It’s an invitation to step into the most powerful, immersive leadership programme life could ever offer.

Relational Leadership Begins with Your Nervous System. Because so much of our leadership is relational, learning to listen to and respond to your nervous system is one of the most effective ways to lead. Your body is constantly giving you signals—clues about your energy, emotions, and needs. When you tune into those signals, you learn to respond rather than react. Parenting offers a constant training ground for this. Children are like unguarded adults: raw, honest, full of emotion. They teach us to understand our own inner world without the layers of overthinking.

Parenting Offers Daily Invitations to Grow. When you tune in to parenting you start to see what’s really available. Right there, in the mess and magic of it all, are invitations. Invitations to meet your own triggers. To notice how you react when your buttons get pushed. To unpick the unconscious patterns you’ve inherited and practiced. To practise resilience, and learn how to set boundaries with love. To co-regulate with another human learning the ropes of life.

Enjoy the Ice Cream Moments. The other day, I was running low—tired, a bit frayed around the edges. I could feel myself at a tipping point, holding a belief that today was going to be hard. And I knew if I didn’t shift something, I’d soon start seeing the knock-on effect in my kid: resistance, slow walking, pleas to buy everything in sight. But before any of that even had a chance to kick off, I caught it. I chose something different. It was a beautiful sunny day. I looked at my daughter and said, “Let’s go get an ice cream.” Not because she earned it. Not to prevent a meltdown. But because I could feel—deeply—that what we both needed was joy. Something light. A spontaneous moment of shared goodness. So we did it. Then we did the shopping—smoothly. Then we spent three uninterrupted hours in the doorway to our garden, building an Easter bonnet out of cardboard boxes, glue, and pipe cleaners.

Messy Magic is Leadership Practice. I had no clue how to make a bonnet. She certainly didn’t. But we figured it out together. We problem-solved, we played, we failed, we adjusted. No judgement at any point, just letting what was in the moment be. Paint, scissors, zebra-striped eggs, rainbow patterns, trial and error with staples and sewing and sticky tape. We made a mess. We made something beautiful. It was magic.

The Lessons Transfer. That experience—collaborative, creative, connected—is leadership in action. It’s what we try to teach in boardrooms, workshops, and coaching spaces. So let’s stop pretending parenting is time off from work. It is the work. Swap the Easter bonnet for a website, a proposal, a strategy session... and the same lessons apply: Tune in.  Create safety.  Find joy in the process.  Stay open to what emerges.  Build the capacity to hold challenge and move through it with love.

This Is Leadership!

Parents, lean in. Your career is not on hold. It’s right here, evolving, strengthening. And if you let it, this journey will expand not just your heart, but your work too.

If you want support in transferring your lessons learnt from living to working nervous system-first, join our 'This is Me' programme starting this Sunday - 11 May 2025.