This is the first in a monthly series where I focus on an inspiring Female Leader and we learn what drives them, what challenges they think women face and how they overcome them.
ZALI STEGGALL OAM MP
Whether or not you support Zali’s politics, you’d have to acknowledge she’s a high achiever. She’d be the first to admit her privileged background has helped her but she’s had to work hard for what she has achieved and we can learn a lot from how she approaches challenge.
Zali is an Olympic medallist, a former barrister and is now the Independent MP for Warringah, having unseated Tony Abbot in 2019. She’s the mother of 3 children, has been through divorce and has now remarried (and yes, I do think that is relevant).
Last year I interviewed Zali. Here are 3 of the areas we covered, and her insight into them.
On the Need for Women to Back Themselves
As Zali described to me her pathway to success, it was clear she found the failures only served to motivate her more to keep trying. She managed to keep backing herself whatever the results. When things didn’t go well, she didn’t let that change her opinion of who she was and what she was capable of.
“You have to have a strong belief in backing yourself and you can’t be afraid to fail because there’s always a risk that that will happen, no matter what it is that you’re trying to do.
Whether it’s business, whether it’s falling in love, whether it’s doing a sport, or entering politics. There are no guarantees of success in life, but the one guarantee there is, is that you won’t have regret if you give it everything you’ve got.”
On the Power of Independence for Women
In politics, as often in business, women find they have to climb a male-structured edifice to make progress.
The structure is biased against them and often requires them to have male backing in order to succeed.
There is another way, where you make your own rules and give yourself the authority to follow your own ideas. It provides maximum freedom and, for many women, an easier way to make a big difference.
I’ve been self-employed most of my life precisely because I wanted to make a direct impact and I was prepared to take responsibility for rowing my own boat.
Zali believes that women should consider the freedom and power that independence provides.
“So the traditional way of entering politics is via the party machines. With the party machines, overwhelmingly men are the executives of the parties. Men overwhelmingly make up the membership of parties. And so again, that influences who gets selected as candidates. So I think the barriers to entry for women have been the system.
I think the independent movement is incredibly powerful in that sense. I sit next to my fellow independents. We have spirited, lively discussions about issues. We work hard to represent our communities to do the best we can, but we’re not tied up and wasting time on the internal politics of parties.”
On the Difference Having Diversity in Leadership Makes
We’d all like to see more women in parliament and in leadership positions, but as Zali points out, this is not just in order to be representative, or even to add more collaborative skills to the mix, but also because their perspective (and the perspective of all diverse parts of the population) brings about meaningful and positive change for EVERYONE.
“So I guess something very simple would be looking at the consequences of decisions. So, for example, a decision that might seem like a completely non gender-based one like shutting the borders to respond to COVID, for example, and having very limited exemptions for travel.
Now that in itself doesn’t look like a gender decision, but the reality is, a large cohort that was having trouble with that was first-time mothers. 30% of the Australian population are born overseas or have parents overseas. So if they are applying for their parents to
come out and assist them in those early years of life, to be able to get back to work, care for young children, that wasn’t a recognized exemption category. Now, the people that made those decisions, obviously are the men in cabinet, who didn’t really think that this was an element that required flexibility. But that has an indirect impact on a lot of women, they’re not able to return to work in a way that they normally would have if they had access to that family support.
And if you could do with some additional guidance, hacks, inspiration or support, you can book a call with me here
3 TOP TIPS FROM ZALI STEGGALL
- ‘Don’t let anyone else put a limit on your ambition and what your hopes and dreams are of what you can achieve.’
- ‘To reach your goal it’s always that process. What’s the big overarching goal or problem? And then what are the baby steps you can implement, focus on what you can control to take you on the journey to get it done.’
- Build your support team. ‘I also have an amazing husband. My partner Tim, we are a team. No one does this on their own.’
CLICK HERE to book an informal chat to discuss your journey and how I can help
How inspring!
