MAREE SUMERTHA

Support others with your knowledge and experience

Maree has been working at CBA for over 30 years, so when the opportunity was presented to her to attend the Xplore Senior Career Resiliency program she agreed, but at the same time was rather ambivalent as to any benefit.

Maree remembers when she was on her way to the first day of the program, she was apprehensive and “quite frankly, dreading it!”. She had the perception that she wouldn't fit with the group and it just wouldn't be her kind of thing. Although she felt this way, Maree was determined to go in with a positive attitude, something that is very obvious in her character.

As soon as the first session was over Maree had a big confession to make. She addressed the group and told them the story of her journey to the session and she was willing to admit that on this occasion, the program had proven her wrong. “Just from this first day I could tell this was going to be the most beneficial program I'd ever done, I was excited to get back there for the next session”.

What Maree thought was the most surprising aspect to the program was the focus on talking about your strengths, something she thinks that other training programs lack as they tend to focus more on your weaknesses and self-improvement. The Xplore program gives people a chance to share their experiences in a non-threatening environment and learn from each other with practical concepts.

Maree enjoyed talking about her strengths, supporting those that had been in similar situations to her in their career and learning from the other participants. “Claudia was a fantastic facilitator, she made sure we were all on the right track but essentially we owned the conversation which made it a much more empowering and relaxed atmosphere in which to speak your mind”.

Maree learned to peel away all the ‘stuff that bogs you down' and really hone-in on her key strengths. One of the tasks set by Claudia was to ask 5 people to give their feedback on her strengths, Maree found this very confronting and it was a difficult task for her to perform. She picked people that she knew would give her their honest opinion and found it one of the most humbling experiences she's ever had – she still refers to them on occasion today.

Maree also learned from this experience the power of her network. She doesn't like the word ‘networking' so much as it sounds “too impersonal”, but rather sees her network as professional and personal relationships that come together to support you through changes in your life and your career. “It's not about business cards and selling yourself to me, it's more about the relationship we can build over the long term and helping each other out”.

At the time that Maree attended the Xplore program she was feeling a little unhappy in her role but she couldn't pinpoint the problem. She was never one to be frightened to ask questions when she didn't understand something, but she was finding herself lacking in confidence to ask the questions, leaving her feeling a bit inadequate. The one-on-one coaching sessions with Claudia started to reveal where the problem might lay.

Around this time, Maree was invited for coffee with her manager's manager, she went all prepared to talk to him about her work but when she sat down what he said surprised her. “I want to talk about you , I sense you've lost your fizz”. This was a big blow to Maree because although she knew she was unhappy she didn't think that she was being negative or wearing it on her sleeve.

This comment really spurred Maree to find out what the problem was and ‘get her fizz back!'. During her sessions with Claudia, she realised that she had been holding on to a confrontation she had had previously with her manager. She spoke with another confidante as well and decided the best course of action was to confront her manager about this, which she did.

The relief was fantastic and Maree started to feel as though she was regaining her confidence and not feeling so uptight. She had challenged herself like never before and she found it liberating. She made some changes to her working environment that gave her fresh challenges and she started to feel the ‘fizz' returning!

As the Xplore program came to a close, Maree invited her manager's manager to the final day and luncheon and announced to him and the group that she had found her fizz again – thanks to him for identifying it and Claudia and the group for supporting her to find it again. She was glad that she had challenged herself to lose her preconceived ideas of what the Xplore program would offer and had really thrown herself into it.

The Xplore program really had a positive effect on Maree and she is more than willing to recommend it to others.

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