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I’ve concluded that I’m trying to powermap something that doesn’t exist – so that’s not really helpful.
Who do we think is the decision maker for funding LGBTIQA+ specific mental health services in country SA? If PHN’s only get 4% of the mental health budget, surely it’s not them? But then do I target each LHN Executive Director? Maybe it lies at the Parliamentary/Minister level?
**so hard**Better late than never Morgan!! Glad to see you arrived 🙂
I’m just here quietly losing my mind over our project, so I thought I’d come see if anyone is experiencing the same!
Week 4 Homework
I think the order I read the resources in is relevant to my thoughts, so I’ll list the order in which I read them:
– Developing 3 habits of transformational leaders
– 10 transformational leadership characteristics
– Are you a transformational leader?
I started out thinking about these parts of the first resource “It’s important to connect to our feelings so that we’re honest and open and energised by our own personal experience. Being willing to be strengthened by our human vulnerability is the true foundation for transformational leadership” … “Transformational leaders are masters at using relevant stories to connect with and move their people to action” and started to think I could maybe be a transformational leader, turning my experience of mental health, disability, LGBTIQA+, regional etc into a good thing, a strength, a foundation for change.
Then I moved on to the next resource and my thinking changed to “this transformational leadership stuff seems to require a lot of energy and positivity, and that’s just not me”.
I also had a real issue with the term “follower” throughout the resources.
In the last resource, the measures of transformational leadership challenged me – again with the positivity aspect – I don’t think I inspire others, and I don’t think anyone has every said my enthusiasm and positive energy are infectious!! (Also the delegation aspect – who delegates?! Is delegate even a real thing?! Why delegate when you can do it yourself?! But that’s a whole other conversation)
Then I started thinking about the different styles of leadership that were mentioned and decided that I was more comfortable with being an “authentic leader”, so I researched that. It did resonate with me a lot more, and sit more comfortably, then my brain questioned why.
Why is it more comfortable for me to sit with authentic leader rather than transformational leader? Is it the positive connotations of transformational? Is it because I’m mentally comparing myself to people I consider transformational leaders and not thinking I can achieve that?
I’d love to hear other people’s thoughts!! Are they as scattered as mine? I am definitely enjoying being challenged by the readings each week, these are conversations I’ve never had before – with myself or others!I thought the AI perspective was so useful, and easily translatable to peer work where we are encouraged to use strengths based practices but I did see a disconnect with Lived Experience work where so many of us are focused on using our lived experience to dismantle or “fix” systems that we talk about being broken.
It’s easy to be overwhelmed as a LE leader when we constantly use language like broken system, I wonder how much we’d reduce our burn out rates by just changing the language we use.
We’re just creating a new Clinican Services plan for my LHN so the AI perspective will help me, I already had asked for the consumer reports on what WASN’T working. This class changed my perspective and I’ll now ask for reports on what IS working and see how we can translate that to the other departments.
The difficult part I think, lies in applying AI to ourselves!
I also really appreciate Dr Diedra taking the time to share her valuable knowledge with us. I’ve written down many quotes!!I found this weeks reading and class very valuable because a lot of the ‘alternatives’ to white supremacist culture can also be applied to challenge ableist and heteronormative organisations and workplaces.
The part that really resonated with me was when it talked about not just having a tokenistic ‘diverse’ person in leadership, but that because we are all raised with the white supremacist mindset, we actually need a ‘critical mass’ of diversity to counteract the way the norms of the white middle class permeate each of us.
I also highlighted the “Transformational Relationships” part about taking time to see, greet and acknowledge each other – especially when there’s no time to do so.
I had never heard the term “equity washing” before, and it really hit home, again from a disability and LGBTIQA+ perspective.
I’ll finish my points about the reading with this note “Craete an environment that celebrates the courage to explore racial bias in all it’s forms…. acknowledge that we all carry unconscious bias and we each have a role in addressing it”.
I also wanted to note how much I appreciated the gardener video – the part where the pink flowers didn’t want the bees to pollenate because they thought there was something inherently wrong with them and believed the bees should pollenate the red flowers only really hit my mentally ill, disabled, LGBTIQA+ self hard. So many disabled folk are discouraged from having children from fear they’ll pass on their disability, and I know my own mental illness played a really big role in why I chose not to have children.
I know this week was about race, but it really impacted my intersections too, so I hope what I’ve said isn’t seen as disrespectful or dismissive.I was really grateful to read the Davidson article, firstly to know that Lived Experience has been heralded as successful for so many years, and secondly because it mentioned the lower cost of training peer workers or lived experience workers which is a topic close to my heart. Living in a regional area, our community mental health teams and other mh programs are severely understaffed and when they can attract trained staff, they struggle to find local housing for them. I was amazed to read that one of the state governments key strategies for attracting people to the mh workforce was to create and promote an overseas recruitment strategy – we actually have people in our regional towns that have the lived experience and would love to gain a qualification and work in the area, so this article really gave me motivation (and proof) to argue my cause.
