LOUISE McDOUGALL

Building on your strengths

Louise was introduced to the Xplore Career Resiliency program in 2007 by a colleague at Transurban. At the time she was looking for something to assist her in gaining more self-confidence and assertiveness, as she was about to step up to a management role. Louise had been targeted to take on a maternity leave cover for the HR Manager and so she wanted to ensure that she was ready for the challenge.

Louise would be part of the senior leadership team, therefore she needed to start thinking with the perspective of a leader and become resilient to any challenge that she would face. She was looking forward to working with and learning from other females on the program.

During the Xplore program, Louise shared a lot of her own experiences and was a great support to her 'buddy' and the other women - a network that she feels she could call on today if she needed some advice. "Angelina was a brilliant facilitator and I learned a lot from the guest speakers that came in to share their experiences too".

Carrying out the DISC profile was also something that Louise felt was vital to her own understanding of herself and her style. She was able to take this new understanding and apply it in her new position.

Although Louise transitioned smoothly into this new role, she unfortunately became ill and had to take a break to save her health. It was during this time that Louise was able to reflect on what she had achieved and where she wanted to go with her career.

In 2009, Louise decided to connect again with Xplore and undertake the Senior Career Resiliency program. She felt that she was having some trouble regaining confidence and knew that the Xplore program would give her the boost that she needed. She was looking forward to the one-on-one coaching sessions and working with a smaller, more intensive group.

Louise learned a lot more about understanding her own style and found that the expectations she had of herself were the only thing holding her back from being satisfied. "I always felt that I needed to consistently step up in my career and was putting enormous pressure on myself, no-one else had such high expectations of me than me!" There were many 'ah ha!' moments like this during the program that Louise could see were making a change in her, for her career and her health.

Louise started to question, "What satisfies me? What do I want to get out of my career?" She discovered that climbing the corporate ladder was not necessarily going to satisfy her, but rather the value that she could add to the organisation would. Learning and feeling challenged were more important and would enable her to make more of an impact.

This period of self-reflection helped to heal Louise and brought her to a place of understanding, not only of how she behaves but how she impacts others. Today, she utilises this the most out of everything she learned from the Xplore programs.

Louise returned to the position that she held before the maternity cover with added leadership responsibilities. She realises where her boundaries are and where she is best placed in her organisation in order for her, and the company, to benefit the most. Building upon her strengths to grow and learn.

"The program also made me realise the importance of having a network, both internally within the organisation and externally, something I had not considered too much before".

Louise feels that the Xplore program gave her the opportunity to step away and think about her career and where it fits with her life. She has grown both personally and professionally and has a deep understanding of herself that permeates to every part of her life.

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