"I was hardly ever academically engaged in high school and failed to matriculate from my HSC. But at 62 I'm in the best form of my life, teaching leadership development to people all around the world.
One of the best things I ever did professionally was to ignore the advice of my superiors and to take a substantial pay cut to work with a colleague I really admired and respected in a completely new role. It was a big step. But taking this step exposed me to a number of new career avenues that I had not expected. It encouraged me to study at a higher level, it helped me to become a smarter, wiser, more compassionate person concerned with social justice and fairness and of the importance of sharing those skills with others.
Later, I took another big step by accepting a redundancy from a role as a HR manager (the first time I had ever not had a permanent job!) and decided to do my PhD. I'd never been out of work in my life. It was really challenging at first and I felt very much alone in the world regarding my future.
Those two big leaps - taking a pay cut and making myself unemployed - lead me to where I am now. I learned to be prepared to take big risks (but to back myself) and to work much harder at understanding who I really was and what part I wanted to play in my future direction by working harder on myself. The sooner you learn about yourself and what your personality and values are, the sooner you can make better informed choices, personally and professionally. You're dead a long time."
Dr Peter McClenaghan is a Senior Lecturer in Organisational Behaviour and Leadership and a Master Coach in Leading Managing and Coaching by Values, based in the Business School at the University of New England. He consults to industry on human resources, strategic leadership, Crucial Conversations, values-based leadership development and team building. He has delivered strategic leadership programs for the Australian Institute of Management (now IML), the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), the ESADE Business School Barcelona Spain and the School of Economics and Business University of Tartu Estonia. Peter also presents programs in Malaysia, China and Vietnam, as well as a wide range of other public and private sector clients within Australia.
In this exciting LinkedIn series, Peter will share his experience as he tackles some common workplace and career dilemmas. Head to Part 2 for Peter's thoughts on ensuring your values are aligned with those of your employer.
