Jawun: 2017 Learnings and Insights

12 / 80

Where are they now?
2015 Emerging Leader Belinda Field, a Wiradjuri
woman who is now CEO at Yerin Aboriginal Health
Services on the Central Coast of New South Wales,
where she has been based most of her life, says
participating in the program set her on the path she
is on now:
Emerging Leaders challenged and reworked
my understanding of leadership. I thought I
understood it because I worked to help families
navigate their rights and services. Then I saw
the bigger picture. In Cape York, in the East
Kimberley, in a Commonwealth Bank boardroom,
and even home on the Central Coast, the program
and the leaders we met taught me new stuff.
I learnt that it’s about stepping out of your ego,
stepping out of you. It’s about ‘stickability’. I also
learnt that you don’t make excuses as a leader,
you don’t lay blame. You are accountable to you.
After the program, Belinda was promoted to acting
general manager for Yerin, then became CEO. Yerin
was going through major budgetary and staffing
expansion, at a time when local health outcomes
were at a chronic low—mental illness issues and
drug-related harms were ravaging the community,
particularly its youth. Belinda changed the board,
brought the organisation back to an operating
surplus, increased community participation in the
health centre, and reignited Yerin’s links with regional
reform players offering valuable collaboration.
Emerging Leaders helped her navigate the
challenges of a complex and new leadership role at
Yerin, amid significant change:
Emerging Leaders was a defining moment in
my life. It prompted me to think personally and
professionally, and to reflect on my life.
I now know that you have to get uncomfortable.
At Yerin I had to make some very big decisions
that would affect the community. All eyes were
on me, financially too. I had a really rough ride,
my decisions were unpopular and at times it felt
like harassment. But the strength that I drew
in this program, and the people I met in this
program, saw me through.
It became about a principle: stand up for what
you believe in, even if you have to stand alone.
Jawun Emerging Leaders program, 2013
12 JAWUN2017 LEARNINGS AND INSIGHTS