❤️ A Durack International Women’s Day initiative to celebrate and promote inspiring Durack women ❤️
⭐ Charlene is the Pilbara Manager for Anglicare WA, operating our vital headspace centres across the Pilbara and providing crucial early intervention mental health services to young people with mental health challenges affecting their wellbeing. Charlene has also worked to implement various programs across the Pilbara in primary healthcare, mental health, disability services, suicide prevention and chronic disease and has been instrumental in setting up the Pilbara headspaces, with the new Karratha facility, opened last year, being the 150th centre in Australia. Charlene is committed and dedicated to supporting the wellbeing of her community and lives by the motto of ‘Supporting Pilbara People to Thrive’.⭐
An interview with Charlene
What advice would you give to your younger self, considering the unique challenges that women often encounter in leadership roles?
No, you’re not imagining it! You are being underestimated. But knowing this empowers you to approach, create and develop opportunities to grow your career. There will be strong women who see your potential, who don’t underestimate you and reflect back the best of you; listen to them, follow their lead and they will take you to amazing new places. Remember how at the end of a training session, when you were so exhausted you couldn’t lift your arms and your state netball coach would tell you to go and post up and practice shooting? Getting accuracy for the tired shots, the ones that will make or break a tight game, was an important life lesson. It taught the importance of creating good habits which have a powerful impact on life because these good practices become an unconscious part of your routine, like brushing your teeth. The key habits to develop for leadership are sleep, eat for health, regular exercise, learn mindfulness, have gratitude, be compassionate to yourself and others and always learn new things. If these are all part of your routine, you’ve got a really strong foundation to build on. My last bit of advice for my younger self is that leadership is a difficult metric to self-measure. You can’t determine whether you are a good leader or not, only your team can. Listen to those around you and be guided by them.
Who are the role models that have inspired you?
I am inspired by so many people! My mum invested so much of herself to build my self-confidence and resilience in my younger years. Both my parents taught me that success isn’t anything particularly glamorous, it’s about not giving up on your goals, but also knowing when changing up your approach is the right thing to do. At Anglicare WA, I work with remarkable women who model strength, resilience, compassion, intelligence, ask great questions and simultaneously consider the big picture while being attentive to the small details. I am incredibly grateful for these inspiring women whose leadership inspires me to lift my expectations of myself and to achieve more for this region. When I am looking for inspiring words to help me frame a situation, Maya Angelou is my go-to, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Is the quote that I use to guide my actions in leadership.
What word/s describe your leadership style?
Democratic. I’m working to create psychological safety across our widely dispersed teams in the Pilbara and can only achieve that by getting input from the people on the ground. Our staff are incredible people! They are literally some of the best humans I’ve ever known, and the work they do across our Pilbara communities is changing people’s lives. Their input is gold. It is a privilege to work with these amazing people and I am incredibly grateful that when I do make an error, the team will tell me so that we can discuss it as a group, make any changes needed and move forward together.
What words of inspiration can you share with women in regional, rural and remote Western Australia?
Women in the regions are strong, resilient, adaptable and we don’t sweat the small stuff. We prioritise authentic connections, we find ways to laugh when things are tough, and we care for our communities. Our resilience and authenticity are a highly valuable skillset that we all have because without it, we don’t stay here long. Whatever you want to achieve, you’ve got this!
We thank you Charlene, for what you achieve for your community and regional, rural and remote Durack 💙