Know your worth as a young leader

When I got my feet under the desk in my first management job, I quite often found myself wondering if I am well placed to put my opinion forward in major discussions given the people I’m surrounded by have many more years’ experience and knowledge under their belts. These thoughts then turn into, if I ask questions or ask for guidance, am I proving to people that I am too young for this role? I would also wonder, if I put my opinion forward are people even going to listen to anything I have to say because of my age and are they going to take me seriously? I am now managing a national evidenced based program to raise awareness on dementia and create social change for people living with a diagnosis of dementia, their loved ones and the wider community.

If you are a young leader in a management role and have had any of these thoughts, trust me when I say this YOU ARE NOT ALONE. It is incredibly valuable to experience these thoughts as a young leader, as it challenges you to reflect more deeply and further develop your ability to understand and know your strengths to purposefully put forward your opinion to sharpen your self-awareness. Remind yourself that you’re in the position you are because someone believes in you as a leader and is giving you an opportunity that you may not necessarily see within yourself, but they do.

The best piece of advice I can give you is, find yourself a mentor or mentors at the beginning of your journey. Find a mentor that you can be vulnerable with and not necessarily from the sector you work in. Having a fresh lens from someone who isn’t involved in your industry, is quite often inspiring to gain insights and other perspectives to encourage innovation and approach challenges from different angles. I personally have 5 mentors that have supported me throughout my career. Their advice, guidance, knowledge and for some their shoulders to cry on when you feel like you’ve got nothing to give has gotten me to where I am today.

A personal growth opportunity to step up in my career was my recent appointment as the Deputy Chair of the NextGen National Ambassador Council for Leading Age Services Australia (LASA). But wait, is that self-doubt forcefully making its way back into my head? Ummm YES it is. Every feeling I’ve just mentioned came rushing back. I even seconded guessed myself the morning of presenting to our National Council. I spoke through these feelings with Samantha Bowen, Principal Advisor of LASA NextGen who I know has been in position of self-doubt and she asked, why don’t you feel as though you can’t do this?, what are your main concerns ? Three answers immediately came out after ask asked. I have no experience sitting on a board, I have no experience as a Deputy Chair of a Council and lastly my fellow Council Members have incredible knowledge and skills to put forward and a completely different lens over our industry and they may be better suited.

If this isn’t self-doubt, I don’t know what is. Sam then reinforced that I needed to start somewhere and leverage the experience of those around me and that I needed to be exposed to a position that I was well suited for and stop doubting myself if I wanted to throw my hat in the ring. I thought about it for two hours before presenting and reflected on my ‘WHY’.

Is this an opportunity to be part of a transformation of an industry that puts fire in my belly and purpose in my life?

Is this an opportunity to inspire others and drive the next generation of leaders to step up and challenge themselves in age care?

Is this an opportunity to emphasise how impactful being part of the aged care industry can be to attract and retain our young leaders?

Do I want to be leading these changes with my fellow Council members and reshape the future of age care?

The answer to all of this was YES …. I thought to myself that the fire and passion I have in my belly for this industry derives from being able to challenge industry norm and empower our sector to evolve into a relational model of care. We are experiencing a significant mindset-set shift in how we engage, communicate and deliver care, which is forcing our industry to collaborate and change direction to meet the increasing health needs of our ageing community. LASA Next Gen is a national initiative designed to attract the best and brightest young leaders and professionals to steer the age services industry through a period of unprecedented growth and change and into the future. It is designed to promote the changing face of aged care and profile our industry to young professionals as dynamic, innovative and life-changing. Sam is an inspiration to many and is attracting, retaining and leading young leaders in our sector by building the capacity and capabilities of many ambassadors who now feel like what they say matters and they will be heard.

We know we all have flaws and aren’t always going to have the answers, but the trick is knowing who we are and what those are and constantly challenging yourself to become a better leader by tackling these head on, even though fear might be right behind you. Trust your instincts and understand that you are in that position because you have a unique set of skills that will continue to develop the more experience you gain, the more challenges you face and the more times you fail and this is now what excites me. Thoughts of self-doubt never gets any easier when you embark on a new and exciting/scary journey in your personal or professional life. However if you are determined to make a positive difference in an industry that has the capacity to create social change, well that’s what you need to remind yourself when you jump head first into an opportunity that answers your ‘WHY’.