Many women tell me that they just can't decide whether they want to go back to a career or start a business after maternity leave or a career break.  Only you can make the decision. Join me in today's episode to discover the pros and cons of a career vs business plus get some ideas on how to start a business. Mentioned on the show and other useful links Discover your Core Values with my free download Check out my Hell Yes Hell No activity here Find out about my 1 day Career Confidence masterclass (early bird giving you £100 off expires 29 March) Ask your questions or share your feedback Comment on the show notes Tweet me @SherryRB using #ConfidentConversations Get in touch with me directly here Subscribe, rate and review in iTunes > For more Confident Conversations connect with me On Twitter @SherryRB On LinkedIn Continue the conversation about career, confidence and leadership on The Confident Mother Facebook page Get career, confidence & leadership tips direct in your Inbox every week when you sign up to The Confidence Guide

When you delegate effectively and with confidence, it puts you in a better position to make a bigger impact in your career because: you and your team get better results you are more productive you are making the best use of the skills and experience available you demonstrate your leadership potential The art of delegation is in how to get people to do what you ask without being too controlling or too hesitant.  Listen to today's show for top tips on how to delegate effectively.  Mentioned on the show and other useful links How to be assertive not aggressive blog post  Find out about my 1 day Career Confidence masterclass (early bird expires 29 March) Ask your questions or share your feedback Comment on the show notes Tweet me @SherryRB using #ConfidentConversations Get in touch with me directly here Subscribe, rate and review in iTunes > For more Confident Conversations connect with me On Twitter @SherryRB On LinkedIn Continue the conversation about career, confidence and leadership on The Confident Mother Facebook page Get career, confidence & leadership tips direct in your Inbox every week when you sign up to The Confidence Guide

Often the smart ambitious women that I talk to every week are not being assertive enough on LinkedIn. This week my theme is about being more assertive in the workplace without getting labelled as aggressive. At the same time I don’t want you to be underestimated. When I work with my clients, whether one-to-one or in a group, I notice that women who present as confident and assertive in the workplace .... well their LinkedIn profile tells a different story. If you want to make a bigger impact and attract the right career opportunities you need to be more assertive on LinkedIn too. Discover 3 smart ways that you can be more assertive on LinkedIn: Maximise your LinkedIn profile summary to 'big yourself up' Focus on the more senior roles not the junior ones from the past Add more skills to your profile Mentioned on the show and other useful links LinkedIn's profile analysis and how women present themselves Join the waitlist for my free 10 Day LinkedIn Challenge to help you make a bigger impact Find out about my 1 day Career Confidence masterclass (early bird expires 29 March) Deborah Tannen's Talking 9 to 5 book Ask your questions or share your feedback Comment on the show notes Tweet me @SherryRB using #ConfidentConversations Get in touch with me directly here Subscribe, rate and review in iTunes > For more Confident Conversations connect with me On Twitter @SherryRB On LinkedIn Like The Confident Mother Facebook page Continue the conversation on career, confidence and leadership in my City Conversations Facebook group Get career, confidence & leadership tips direct in your Inbox every week when you sign up to The Confidence Guide

  The last time I had a job interview I was a bag of nerves. And I know that's true for lots of my clients too, particularly if your last job interview was several years ago. That's why I'm delighted to pick the brains of career expert Sarah Archer. Sarah shares her best interview tips so that you can wow the interviewer and get the job! Sarah appears as a career expert for Guardian Careers and is the author of ‘Developing your Inner Coach’. Discover the secrets of success in job interviews as we explore: How to prepare for a job interview even if you've taken a career break How to answer competency based questions effectively How to make the CAR technique work for you How to deal with the questions we all dread How to cope with the inevitable nerves How to make an impact (for the right reasons) How and when to follow up Mentioned on the show and other useful links Email Sarah @careertree.org.uk Visit Sarah's website at careertree.org.uk Amy Cuddy's TED talk on body language and power posing Sarah's book Developing Your Inner Coach at bookboon Ask your questions or share your feedback Comment on the show notes Tweet me @SherryRB using #ConfidentConversations Get in touch with me directly here Subscribe, rate and review in iTunes > For more Confident Conversations connect with me On Twitter @SherryRB On LinkedIn Like The Confident Mother Facebook page Continue the conversation on career, confidence and leadership in my City Conversations Facebook group Get career, confidence & leadership tips direct in your Inbox every week when you sign up to The Confidence Guide

Very often the women that I talk to about their career strategy, they hadn't even thought about using LinkedIn until they started jobhunting. But actually there are SO many reasons to get active on LinkedIn even if you're not jobhunting because it's such a powerful networking platform. And the best time to start networking is BEFORE you need to network. In this episode I share 5 powerful reasons why ambitious women need to use LinkedIn even when you are not jobhunting: Demonstrate your experience to lateral hires Set yourself up as an expert authority Get speaking opportunities Attract new clients Long-term career planning Mentioned on the show and other useful links Sign up to my free 10 Day LinkedIn Challenge  Discover top tips for networking face-to-face with expert Heather White in episode 17 Check out my City Conversations networking group Ask your questions or share your feedback Comment on the show notes Tweet me @SherryRB using #ConfidentConversations Get in touch with me directly here Subscribe, rate and review in iTunes > For more Confident Conversations connect with me On Twitter @SherryRB On LinkedIn Like The Confident Mother Facebook page Continue the conversation on career, confidence and leadership in my City Conversations Facebook group Get career, confidence & leadership tips direct in your Inbox every week when you sign up to The Confidence Guide

So many of the women that I often talk to or work with struggle to tame their inner critic. Those "You're not good enough" thoughts in your head. The fear of being 'found out'.  Often these thoughts stop us from doing our best work and making a bigger impact at work so that we can take our career to the next level.  Jess Baker is an independent Business Psychologist and Women's Leadership Coach. She’s worked for some impressive organisations in her career including Barclays, HSBC and Aon Consulting. I was intrigued by her 5 Day Tame Your Inner Critic Challenge that starts on 15 January. I invited Jess to give us the inside scoop on how to manage our inner critic so that we feel more confident. Jess shares three key facts to help us understand the inner critic (sometimes described as the imposter syndrome): Our brain is wired to protect us and prevent us messing up We can't 'stop' those inner critic thoughts But often those inner critic thoughts are based on lies or false evidence She then goes onto share some simple yet REALLY powerful techniques to tame and disempower your inner critic. Mentioned on the show and other useful links Join the Tame Your Inner Critic Facebook group Sign up to the free 5 Day Tame Your Inner Critic Challenge Connect with Jess Baker on Facebook Visit her website jessbaker.co.uk Ask your questions or share your feedback Comment on the show notes Tweet me @SherryRB using #ConfidentConversations Get in touch with me directly here Subscribe, rate and review in iTunes > For more Confident Conversations connect with me On Twitter @SherryRB On LinkedIn Like The Confident Mother Facebook page Continue the conversation on career, confidence and leadership in my City Conversations Facebook group Get career, confidence & leadership tips direct in your Inbox every week when you sign up to The Confidence Guide

Come January, everybody's turning their thoughts to New Year, New Career. But how do you go about getting that new career or new job if your CV is looking tired and jaded. Especially when you've taken a career break.  Today I talk to expert CV writer Orla Cahill. Orla has a background in HR. She is an associate member of CIPD and supports professional mums to re-launch their career after an extended period of absence from the workplace. Based in London, with clients all over the world, from Crouch End to California, Orla runs the CV Clinic.  We discuss:  The secrets to a successful CV How to target your CV for specific jobs The things you should never do on your CV The different types of CV and which works best in different situations  Specific tips for ambitious women who are returning to work after a period of absence e.g. a career break or redundancy Top tips if you are currently drafting a new CV. Mentioned on the show and other useful links Get in touch with Orla by email or by telephone 07730 488351 Join Orla's CV Clinic Facebook group And if you're sorting out your CV, get your LinkedIn profile sorted out too in my free 10 Day LinkedIn Challenge Ask your questions or share your feedback Comment on the show notes Tweet me @SherryRB using #ConfidentConversations Get in touch with me directly here Subscribe, rate and review in iTunes > For more Confident Conversations connect with me On Twitter @SherryRB On LinkedIn Like The Confident Mother Facebook page Continue the conversation on career, confidence and leadership in my City Conversations Facebook group Get career, confidence & leadership tips direct in your Inbox every week when you sign up to The Confidence Guide

Research from LinkedIn tells us that men and women present themselves differently on LinkedIn and this affects your promotion prospects. Sad to say, it's not to the advantage of ambitious women.  Discover the three things you can do differently on your LinkedIn profile to improve your promotion prospects when you describe: Your experience  Your skills  Your summary  And then I'll tell you what else you need to do in the workplace to improve your promotion prospects.  Mentioned on the show and other useful links 10 Day LinkedIn Challenge - join the priority waitlist here Book your place on my 1 day live Career Confidence  masterclass Check out my career networking directory here  Listen to episode 17 with Heather White on networking with confidence Ask your questions or share your feedback Comment on the show notes Tweet me @SherryRB using #ConfidentConversations Get in touch with me directly here Subscribe, rate and review in iTunes > For more Confident Conversations connect with me On Twitter @SherryRB On LinkedIn Continue the conversation on career, confidence and leadership in my City Conversations Facebook group Get career, confidence & leadership tips direct in your Inbox every week when you sign up to The Confidence Guide

Following last week's episode on beating burnout in the workplace, and given that Christmas is often a time that pushes our stress levels to the max, I invited Val Stevenson to discuss how to survive Christmas without a crisis. Val is an independent coach and consultant who specialises in building resilience in organisations and individuals. In this episode Val shares her knowledge and experience as we explore: How can we survive Christmas without a crisis? Christmas can often be a ‘groundhog’ day experience, how can we do something different but still keep the spirit of a family Christmas? And more fabulous tips for keeping well at Christmas and enjoying ourselves. GUEST: Val Stevenson HOST: Sherry Bevan Mentioned on the show and other useful links Website: VS Coaching VScoach.com and The Art of Work theartofwork.uk.com Email: vstevenson @vscoach.com Ask your questions or share your feedback Comment on the show notes Tweet me @SherryRB using #ConfidentConversations Get in touch with me directly here Subscribe, rate and review in iTunes > For more Confident Conversations connect with me On Twitter @SherryRB On LinkedIn Like The Confident Mother Facebook page Continue the conversation on career, confidence and leadership in my City Conversations Facebook group Get career, confidence & leadership tips direct in your Inbox every week when you sign up to The Confidence Guide

In this episode I explore burnout in the workplace with Sarah Sparks.  Sarah is an award winning Executive Coach, Speaker and Trainer who works with senior leaders in the Corporate World helping busy professionals have career success as well as health and wellbeing, and in particular helping them work differently so they avoid damaging stress and burn-out. Together we discuss the signs of burnout, how to avoid burnout and whose responsibility it is to spot the signs in the workplace. GUEST: Sarah Sparks HOST: Sherry Bevan Mentioned on the show and other useful links Visit Sarah's website at SarahSparks.co.uk On Twitter @ChooseToThrive Ask your questions and share your feedback Comment on the show notes below Tweet me @SherryRB using #ConfidentConversations Get in touch with me directly here Subscribe, rate and review in iTunes > For more Confident Conversations connect with me On Twitter @SherryRB On LinkedIn Like The Confident Mother Facebook page Continue the conversation on career, confidence and leadership in my City Conversations Facebook group Get career, confidence & leadership tips direct in your Inbox every week when you sign up to The Confidence Guide