The RIRDC Rural Women’s Award opened on August 1st. This is a great opportunity for Rural Women across Australia to receive a $10,000 financial bursary to implement their Award vision. Each State and Territory winner and runner-up also has the opportunity to participate in the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) Course and will be supported to develop an individual integrated leadership plan. I strongly encourage women to apply, it is a wonderful chance to develop skills and take the next step in your life journey.
I was fortunate to be involved in this fantastic Award as the SA winner in 2004. It benefited me in many exciting ways including leadership opportunities, career development, expanding my network and through mentoring. I was just stepping out of a career in public and private rural training to work with Bill in our business, Ag Consulting Co, developing my own place in the agricultural consulting world.
My project involved developing a facilitated learning group for rural women, becoming accredited to deliver the Myers Briggs Personality Type Indicator (MBTI) and being mentored to develop my career and leadership vision. As I reflect back over the last 8 years there are many direct links back to the award. Some of these ……
- Working with Lindy Nelson and the Agri Womens Development Trust in New Zealand is a result of Lindy searching the internet as she completed her research project on rural women’s leadership. Lindy found the information about the award and the the training I was doing. A phone call followed and three years later I am now travelling to NZ to facilitate programs for Lindy to develop women’s leadership skills.
- The mentoring I received with Nicola Deakin not only assisted me in focusing on my career, her experience in coaching and NLP has seen me complete training in both, as well as becoming licensed to facilitate coaching training. We now build coaching and mentoring into our training and projects where ever possible to ensure learnings are implemented.
- The MBTI training has been amazing – I have lost count how many times I have facilitated this workshop over the last 8 years. I have contextualised the content for farmers, advisers, researchers and resellers. This understanding of personality has influenced my interactions at all levels including facilitation techniques, coaching and workshop delivery. It has become a standing joke in our home – and what personality type is that person mum?!
- Leadership opportunities following the award included chairing Government committees, and it gave me the confidence to take on roles such as Chair of the Ag Excellence Alliance, National Chair of Partners in Grain and to apply for the Board of the GRDC.
So girls give the RIRDC Award a go! Nominate yourself or someone else this year so they too can enjoy a wonderful journey.
For more information vist the RIRDC website http://www.rirdc.gov.au
The picture is a group of women in NZ at a recent First Steps Program.
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Comments on: "RIRDC Rural Women’s Award – Reflections" (2)
Giving it a go is what this award is about. Rural women give it a go all the time. They step outside their comfort zone when first engaging in rural farming and community life every day. Somewhere along the way they forget how brave they are and start feeling unconfident about what they already have. Like Jeanette I took the plunge and did a leadership programme 5 years ago, this lead to my research, which lead to the formation of the Trust, which lead to inspiring, equipping and developing a pathway for women agricultural leaders and governors. It was the beginning of changing my direction, finding my true passion and strength. Every time I have stepped out of my comfort zone the reward has been enormous. On our first steps programme we have a saying that came from my daughter who is in the air force, it goes something like this “ If we doubted our fears instead of doubting our dreams imagine how much we would accomplish. Go on give it a go!
You’ve got very well stuff right.