Those were the messages of wisdom presented by four dynamic women who were invited to a Dunstan High School meeting for future leaders last week.
Following the Inspiring Wāhine conference, in Alexandra last Tuesday, this panel of Central Otago women reconvened in the Dunstan High School library to talk to girls who were selected by their teachers as future leaders.
Academic, rugby star and the first woman appointed to the NZ Rugby Board, Prof Dame Farah Palmer led the panel, which included Rural Woman NZ national president Gill Naylor, Horticulture NZ regional representative Chelsea Donnelly and Central Lakes Trust chief executive Barbara Bridger.
Each woman spoke about their leadership styles and highlighted some of their experiences.
Dame Farah said that her career path had altered over the years as opportunities arose and she saw things she wanted to change.
"Every time I think I’m getting a bit flat or a bit bored, I shift a little bit and change focus and I do something still in the area of education, because I’m really passionate about that."
She said leadership comes in many forms, so you do not have to be the person that everyone sees as the leader all the time.
You might be working in the background demonstrating leadership.
"I’m not the person talking all the time, that doesn’t come naturally to me.
"I describe myself as a quiet leader, a leader who does things behind the scenes rather than out the front.
"But when you are in a crowd of people who are all six foot tall, ex-locks and they’re all like ‘who’s got the loudest voice’, how can you stand out from that?"
She said she likes to choose her moment to speak in situations like that.
"I’ll wait for the noise to kind of go down and then I’ll say something that I feel is really, really important but really pointed or I will go and talk to people in smaller groups and convince them of my idea and then they’ll go into the meeting and they’ll talk about my idea.
"I don’t care how it gets across the line as long as they all hear it.
"So sometimes you might not be the one sharing your idea, it might be somebody else that everybody else is listening to and I’m OK with that."
All the women spoke about imposter syndrome and how that had, at times, limited their willingness to try new roles and experiences.
Ms Bridger said a man would look at a list of 10 attributes needed for a job, decide he had three or four and apply.
Women tended not to unless they could tick off eight or more.
Dame Farah encouraged the students to find things they loved to work towards.
"Choose things that you are passionate about, choose things that you feel you really want to invest in."
