“Winners never quit and quitters never win”
– Vince Lombardi.
Everyone who reads my CEO intros know I really love a good quote. To throw you all into a spin, I’m sharing this one because I really don’t like it.
As a child of the 80’s I grew up at a time when hard work and success was encouraged, and success was celebrated. Leadership books were doing the rounds like the well known The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey and How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.
Fast forward to 2022, and I believe we’re starting to realise that attempting to succeed at all costs, actually does actually come at a cost.
We don’t need to look any further than the number of Tasmanian politicians leaving public office, stating the long-term impact on their ability to spend quality time with their family or look after their health.
The challenges of managing increasing workloads isn’t just confined to politics, and is top of mind for the team at the ATDC. We know that many people in our sector are facing increasing workloads and more complexity their work while being asked to be proud of what they do and also take care of themselves along the journey.
That’s why we’re advocating for a range of workforce development priorities including increased funding, development of a long-term strategy, inclusion of lived experience perspectives, support for rising complexity and greater collaboration between public and community-managed sectors.
We also know that working in the alcohol, tobacco and other drugs sector is rewarding. You’ve told us (in our regular Workforce Surveys) that there’s something special about working in this sector – whether you’re a clinician working directly with people and seeing individual impacts in their lives, to leading large teams making a difference across whole communities. Perhaps your lived experience or desire to help people has drawn you to bring other skills to the sector such as finance, administration or communications. Whatever brought you to our sector, the satisfaction we know our workers feel is the sort of ‘win’ I can support.
It’s also important to acknowledge that it’s okay to reach out for support if your priorities change or if burnout is a risk. Self-care includes being brave enough to know when to make a change whether you are someone working in community services, or the Premier of Tasmania. Doing so does not diminish the impact of our work, rather it goes a long way to strengthen it.
Alison Lai
Chief Executive Officer
