Our annual Altitude Day roadshow fosters a space for resilience and personal growth, empowering over 2,000 young people across Australia on their journey towards excellence! Through powerful storytelling, guest speakers share their lived experiences, passions, and leadership insights. Demonstrating that the path to success is rarely linear and often shaped by persistence in the face of inner and external challenges alike.
Learning how to navigate and sustain self in leadership is a deeply personal journey. We asked our Altitude Day guest speakers to provide insight to their approaches and how their view of self has changed over the course of their leadership journey. These are the words of wisdom they had to share:
How do you maintain your sense of identity outside of your leadership role?
When our Altitude Day guest speakers dived into this question it was a common thread of belief that identity is shaped by our values. Darian Brooker, Sydney and Canberra guest speaker and founder of We, Future Leaders, told us her thoughts. “I’ve always seen my values to be the core of my identity. Knowing who I am and why my values are important to me, it makes life more meaningful both within and external to my leadership role.
Values shape the decisions we make, the connections we form, the initiatives we get involved with, the way we take care of ourselves and the way we show up for our loved ones (and for strangers)! Values are the ingredients to our thoughts, beliefs and actions.”
Great leaders are driven by their values and passions. Yet, we need to remember we are more than our leadership roles. Sustaining your sense of identity outside of those roles can be challenging. Toowoomba guest speaker and Director of Outer Space, Georgia Hayward, relates to this statement. “Honestly, it’s taken time to navigate this balance, but I’ve learned that I can’t just be my leadership role – I’m a whole person outside of it.
I try to stay connected to the things that remind me of who I am when no one’s watching like trying out a new recipe, watching my sister’s hockey game or helping renovate my friend’s new place!
I find that spending time with people who have known me long before I stepped into my leadership role, helps me to see the full version of myself within and beyond my role at Outer Space.”
”“With experience, I realised that my identity is not ‘performance’. My identity is not exclusively the functions of my role or how I perform them.”
Alana Murray
When we asked Alana Murray, Rockhampton guest speaker and Secretary of the CQ Lawyers Association Young Lawyers Subcommittee, about how she sustains her sense of identity in her role she linked it back to self-image and self-compassion. “Self-talk is critical in maintaining my identity through positive affirmations… Self-talk determines your confidence. It determines your attitudes.
Confidence is contagious. Confidence attracts others – and so it is a critically important tool in any leader’s tool belt. My self-talk – and the voices of those in my inner circle – keeps me grounded in my identity.”
Having external and internal ways to keep yourself grounded in your identity is how these wonderful leaders keep positive and sustain self.
How do you recognise when you’re close to burnout, and what steps do you take to recover? In what ways has self-doubt been a teacher for you rather than a barrier?
Amity Fielding, Gold Coast guest speaker and ocean conservationist, experiences burnout in a way that is all too familiar to most. “I start to recognise burnout when I feel mentally overloaded and emotionally distant from the work I care about. When I feel like I’m starting to lose my passion.”
It is important to recognise that this feeling of wanting to throw in the towel is a byproduct of burnout. Once you are in it, it can be hard to escape from. Darian Brooker shares, “Recognising that you are being close to burnout begins with being able to listen to yourself and knowing what your baseline and limits look like, and this takes introspection!
Burnout shows up in many ways for me and thankfully is courteous enough to show me warning signs in the lead up to reaching my limits.
Warning signs for me personally are physical symptoms like anxiety, tiredness, loss of appetite and migraines, social-emotional symptoms like irritability, impatience, loss of interest in socialising or hobbies, and the biggest red flag: ‘abandoning’ myself, i.e. not paying attention to my personal needs.
Recovering from burnout honestly requires a lot of rest, followed by serious changes in behaviour to prevent ending up back there.”
When we experience burn-out, self-doubt tends to creep in. Often times escalating the feeling and derailing opportunity for recovery even further. So, it makes us wonder, how can we begin to turn this feeling into a productive one? Georgia Hayward offered this piece of advice, “Self-doubt I think often feels like a flaw, but I am starting to see it as a signal…Rather than trying to get rid of the doubt, I try to reframe it – asking myself what am I afraid of? What do I need to feel supported? It’s helped me build more awareness and move through new challenges with generosity and confidence in the long run.”
”“Rather than trying to get rid of the doubt, I try to reframe it…”
Georgia Hayward
Darian Brooker also adds this pearl of wisdom; “Doubting myself doesn’t mean that others doubt me too! Receiving a ‘no’ or a ‘setback’ from someone or something else shouldn’t be something to fear and thus beating them to it by saying ‘I’m just not good/qualified/experienced enough’ doesn’t actually help me progress.”
We can agree that reframing self-doubt thoughts is an active method to push through burnout. This practise can teach us that we are allowed to give ourselves permission to rest and recover. That is how we get back to our ‘why’ and set ourselves up for success in the longevity of our journey.
What resources do you draw on in moments of intense stress or uncertainty?
Feelings of stress and uncertainty are inevitable. As we become busier and take on more projects it is vital to have these resources in place. Having a support system of people close to you is one resource our guest speakers reliably depend on. Amity Fielding shares, “Just being able to talk openly about how I’m feeling, without judgment or needing to ‘fix’ everything, helps bring clarity and calm. Often, it’s in those conversations that the next steps become clearer… Knowing I don’t have to carry everything alone makes a world of difference.”
Georgia Hayward reflects these thoughts but also adds that, “When my network isn’t readily available, I try to at least get it out on paper or voice note – even if it’s messy – because getting thoughts out of my head makes things feel more manageable. I’m someone who likes to feel organised and have a clear sense of direction, so I’ve had to remind myself over time that uncertainty isn’t a sign of failure.”
”“Focus on the game plan and the result will take care of itself.”
Barnaby Howarth
Barnaby Howarth – Sydney, Canberra and Adelaide guest speaker and resilience coach – reminds us that trust and certainty within ourselves is how we can confidently reach our final goal. Having faith that our game plan and our capabilities will get us there is key. Relying on our networks is not enough. Darian Brooker leaves us with this, “I recommend being proactive in building your safety net, but also always remember that if you’re stuck in intense stress or uncertainty without the safety net, you are capable of drawing upon your own knowledge, experience and problem-solving ability to get through!”
Pictured: Darian Brooker, Founder, ‘We, Future Leaders’
Hearing our guest speakers share their challenges and journeys has been incredibly uplifting. Whilst deeply personal and individualistic, our speakers have all drawn similar conclusions. How we treat ourselves and how we respect ourselves is vital in sustaining our well-being and personal development.
Whilst leadership stories are rarely linear, we can all see a demonstration of resilience, self-belief and a strong sense of identity. Our guest speakers have reassured us that it is normal to have challenges within sustaining self in pursuit and execution of our passions. Knowing that you can rely on yourself (and having your safety network to fall back on) is key to avoiding burnout and navigating stress.
A massive thank you to our Altitude Day guest speakers for sharing their knowledge and continuing to empower young people across the nation.
