One of our challenges as women leaders is finding the role models we need to grow and advance our careers. They are certainly out there, but it's getting close to them that is not always possible. So when I get the opportunity to listen to an outstanding woman leader I seize it.

During the last week I had the opportunity to hear Dr. Judith Slocombe speak at a Business and Professional Women's dinner in Geelong. She is such an inspiring and amazing person and I want to share some of her story with you.

She is presently the CEO of the not for profit Alannah and Madeline Foundation. This foundation was set up by the father of these two children who were killed, along with their mother, in the Port Arthur Massacre. It's an organisation which works with children who have been subjected to violence and trauma, especially directed towards keeping children safe.

She also holds several directorships, including Open Universities Australia, Agriculture Victoria Services, South East Water Limited, and is Chairman of the Lort Smith Animal Hospital.

It's where she has been and what she's done in the past that makes her story so valuable.

Judith has given birth to nine children and while mothering those children she has had a career that has spanned many roles. She has been a veterinarian, business owner, senior manager in a large corporate and an entrepreneur. As well she has done a MBA. 

She has many credits to her name including being the Telstra Australian Businesswoman of the Year in 2001.

Judith practiced as a veterinarian in Australia and the UK, then established her own veterinary diagnostic laboratory service working from home. Her business grew to be the largest veterinary diagnostic group in Australasia. In 2001 she sold the business and has since held a number of senior executive positions including managing a major medical pathology business operating in Australia and overseas, with a budget of over $250m, more than 2500 staff and with laboratories throughout Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, India and Singapore.

What was so extraordinary, to those of us present who were mothers, is how she did that while being a mother to 9 children. She talked freely with us about that, paying tribute to a great partner who obviously is just that - a "partner". While she had to be a great organiser, the way she told her story, she could be any mother in any town in any street. Her challenges were mine and yours.

She did, however, acknowledge that in her professional capacities, she could not let anyone know she had 9 children. She said she would automatically be judged as not having the leadership skills to do the job. When she was sealing major deals, she indicated it would have been professional suicide to have the people she was negotiating with know about her children.

She sees three issues that are still challenges for women.

1. Workplace structure - workplaces designed by men and for men. She talked about the way meetings are scheduled at totally unrealistic times for mothers, in fact for parents- but men go anyway and leave the women to care about how children get to school and how they are picked up from child care.

2. Gender sterotyping. She experienced this on so many occasions regarding people's perceptions of mothers and leadership. Women are damned if they do and doomed if they don't. If you are too soft, then you haven't got what it takes to be leadership material. If you are too strong, you are no longer acting as a woman.

3. Lack of women mentors. 

She believes we are very much in the Glass Ceiling era, that there are opportunities out there and women with the talent and abilities to take them up, but there are many barriers to getting there still.

Judith's Tips For Success.

1. Set Goals. They give direction to your life. Her definition - A Goal is a Dream with a Deadline. 

2. Develop Self-awareness.  Without it she says you can't set your goals and you can't identify the barriers to you achieving those goals.

3. Take Control of Our Own Life. She acknowledges that we have many challenges and that things don't always go as planned, but that we take charge and do the best we can with what we have. We be proactive. Make the changes we can make and this will make a difference.

4. Work with the Pain. I was particularly pleased to hear her say this. I have always believed that enduring pain for growth makes people extraordinary. If we can work with the frustrations, challenges and disappointments, rather than deny, avoid or allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by them, we will bcome highly effective.

5. Focus on Important Things. Know what is important. This comes back to self-awareness. She made the point that we need to know what is unimportant and to be able to let go of it. She suggests setting goals of 3 things to do today - the most important things.

6. Energy levels. Looking after these are very important with exercise, sleep and good food.

7. Networking and Mentoring. 

8. Be True To Yourself.  She says that in leadership and management positions we often have to make decisions that others see as wrong. We cannot give the reasons for why we have taken that decision because there are issues of confidentiality. We are then criticised  for what we have done. We only survive that when we know we have been true to ourselves in that decision. We have to believe in ourselves. Again we can only do this when we are very self-aware and know we are acting from who we truly are.

So if you ever get a chance to hear Judith Slocombe speak don't miss the opportunity.

 

 

 

 

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