If everyone had this…

Yesterday was an emotional day for me.

It was the anniversary of my Mum’s death and her birthday.

That’s right, Mum held out so we’d only have to face one mega-hard day each year instead of two.

She was good like that.

Thanks, Mum.

It’s been 29 years since her battle with cancer. And it’s years like this when I struggle. Years when I have so much to tell her…

Delivered training to a beer company in Miami?!
She would have LOVED that!

Travelled to Zimbabwe to support The Catalyst Foundation?!
She’d have been so proud.

Her grandkids travelling the world becoming all-around brilliant adults?!
She’d be such an adoring Nana.

As always, it had me thinking about a few things…

You wouldn’t believe how many of her friends say to me, “You’re so much like her, you know!”

Of course, I love that.

And recently, thinking of Mum, I swung around to my other half and asked, “Hey! What do you think Mum’s top animal influencers would have been?!”

#LightbulbMoment

Hubby, “OH YEEEEEAH!”

Cheetah, Lion, Dog.

Just. Like. Me!

Driven, says it how it is, and keen to ensure everyone else is ok!

(My Dad is more Honeybee, bit miffed that trait didn’t pass down to be honest)

Mum had such a positive influence on me.

To have her as a role model in those formative years was everything.

And how important is that, right?

That’s when people are most impressionable; it’s the absolute best time to impart wisdom and develop them into confident, competent, and capable individuals.

I realised, in life and work, not everyone has that…

At the moment, neither of my daughters loves their jobs mainly due to poor leadership.

For regular readers *waves* you might remember that my youngest recently came back from travelling.

(It was a bit of a shock to the system to swap the surfs of Bali for an office 😅)

She’s only 19 years old.
This is her first job in corporate.
She’s new to the role.

And no one has owned her onboarding experience.

This bright, enthusiastic, new employee now feels lost and incompetent because there’s no clarity, no support… no leadership.

My daughter and other new starters are in their ‘formative’ years at one of the ‘Big 4’ and, as yet, they have no solid role models.

She has no benchmark for behaviour; what to do and how to do them because no one has been there to lead the way.

Already, her group of new members are thinking about leaving before they’ve even begun, go figure!

Unfortunately, positive role models can be hard to come by.

I feel lucky that I had my Mum (and even though they might not want to admit it out loud because it would be soooooooo uncool, I’m sure my daughters feel lucky to have me!).

As leaders, we owe it to our team members – especially the newbies – to be that role model.

They need guidance.
They need to see effective communication in action.
They need to be shown how to contribute to a safe and healthy environment.

Be that person for them.

We all need someone like that in our lives.

For me, one of the greatest role models I ever had, was my Mum.

Sigh.