The Parental Leave Playbook

Chapter SixTouchpoint 3 Action Plan

THE PATH TO parenthood is inherently unpredictable. Still, a comprehensive and clear—yet flexible—plan is your best asset as you prepare for parental leave. Taking the time to think through your vision for this exciting life transition and then putting it in a format that can be shared with stakeholders will pay off (I promise!), even if you have to abandon your plan A in favor of plan B.

For some lucky folks the structure and process of action planning is exciting and lights them up—they can't get enough. Although I admire them, the very words action planning make my eyes glaze over a bit. In my imagination I see spreadsheets and hear a voice droning on about things I'm not interested in paying attention to. When I'm already feeling too busy, you would have to pay me handsomely to add something like this to my overflowing plate—even if an expert promises it will help me.

If you share my ingrained distaste for this sort of thing, here is a secret: action planning does not have to be tedious. It can be empowering and help you develop as a leader and human. This is one of the biggest events of your life and it deserves the time and headspace to reflect and plan it well. This gift of time and presence with your own thoughts is something many of my clients feel is difficult, even impossible, to give themselves. They rationalize that they have so many other more important things going on that they will try to fit it in after dinner or on a subway ...