From the President

You never know what influence you are having on people or what will come of it, but I urge you to make your influence brave, intentional and positive.

As an industry association advocating for our members, Consult Australia is experienced in how to influence people. But for most of us influencing people isn’t something we probably think about too much, though it forms a part of our every day. Influencing a client to choose you to undertake work, influencing the team you are part of to go with your idea, influencing your boss to give you a pay rise – we try to influence people all the time. How often do we actually stop and think about the influence we have and how we use it?

As I approach the end of my time on the Consult Australia Board, I have thought over what has been achieved in that time. Have I actually added value to what Consult Australia does over the 6 years I have been on the Board? Said differently, have I had a positive influence on Consult Australia? I am not going to try and answer this question, that is for others to say.

But I did make a conscious decision that I would use the opportunity on the Consult Australia Board to influence the industry’s approach to mental health. This was not something I joined the Board to do, rather it was something that I saw as an opportunity after joining the Board. As most of you hopefully know this is something that is very close to my heart. I have struggled with depression and anxiety for my entire adult life and a second layer of my struggle was my fear that other people would find out. I was scared that when they found out they would use their influence to limit my opportunities, to squash my career ambitions, to make life harder for me. I don’t want that to be the situation for other people – fighting the black dog at the door is hard enough.

Why did I take the opportunity to try and influence Consult Australia’s approach to mental illness? It was the influence of 2 people. Firstly, I had the privilege to sit in the audience and hear Dr Robert Care speak about his career. During his talk he spoke about “the black dog at the door”, something that really resonated with me. I had been lucky enough to be the MC of the event so had an easy opportunity to talk to Robert after the event. What struck me was that his motivation for talking about depression was to make it OK for others. Here was a man who is highly respected in our industry, who had held some amazing positions in Arup, talking about his doubts and challenges.

You never know what influence you are having on people or what will come of it, but I urge you to make your influence brave, intentional and positive. n

The second influence was my leadership coach, Sally Dellow. Sally and I met when I was lucky enough to be doing the HighPerformance Leadership Program through IMD and she has been working with me for about 5 years since. After I had blurted something out about depression at one point, Sally said to me that I had a great story to tell, and it could have a massive impact on other people if I could tell it. Together these two people influenced me to try and influence others on something that matters to me. It is not easy, and I find talking about my battle with depression and anxiety particularly draining, but it is something I hope is having a positive influence on others in our industry and that makes the personal discomfort worthwhile.

Gerry Doyle

President