Human on the Inside with Better Together Party’s Lucy & Bronwen
Human on the Inside. We’re big believers in the power of human skills. But don’t just take our word for it - the evidence for excellence powered by human (‘soft’) skills is everywhere! In this engaging, ever-enlightening series, we speak with industry leaders, innovators and game-changers to learn a little about their personal career journeys, and how human-led strategies, philosophies and cultures are proving a force for good in their working worlds …
Maxme: Welcome Lucy and Bronwen, and thanks for stepping into the #SuccessIsHuman Spotlight.
Together, you’re the Co-Founders of the Better Together Party - a Political Party & broader campaign you launched this year. Your mission as a Victorian independent job-sharing candidate is to show that politics can be done differently. That you could enable and support Victorians to see their needs better represented in Federal Parliament.
In 1 sentence (ok, we’ll give you 3-4), what does this work entail?
Lucy & Bronwen: Running a political campaign is a bit like running a startup - you have to be across every part of the operation and every day involves a little bit of everything. Because we are job-sharing, we try to play to our strengths as much as possible in the work we do. Roughly, Lucy does communications, marketing and stakeholder engagement and Bronwen does finances, fundraising and team management, and we both do strategy. But ultimately we both have to be across everything - from the big picture of how to reach 4.5 million Victorian voters, to how to change a typo on the website.
M: Together you’re a powerful collaborative force, and from a far, certainly look unstoppable! With that said, you bring equally impressive individual backgrounds to the mix - personally, and professionally.
Bronwen - you’re a finance professional, governance expert and gender equality consultant. Having worked in investment banking at Macquarie for a decade, you’ve also led Mergers & Acquisitions and Venture Capital investing for the parent company of realestate.com.au. Your commercial acumen, problem solving and decision making skills are clearly exceptional. In parallel, you’re a wife and mother of three small children, and thus understand the challenges of balancing a fulfilling work and family life in today’s environment.
Lucy - you’re a lawyer, communicator, cake maker and a believer that if you have the opportunity to make change, you have to take it. Your family emigrated to Australia from apartheid South Africa in the 1980s and you were raised on two fundamental truths – that democracy cannot be taken for granted, and you won the lottery of life to live in Australia.
How do these experiences speak to the purpose of Better Together, and what drives you as individuals?
Lucy: For me, it’s about seeing structural changes that will open up all workplaces - not just politics - to a new wave of leadership. My work in gender equality has shown me that over the last twenty or so years, we’ve made great strides in getting more women and people from diverse backgrounds into leadership roles. In a lot of sectors, including federal politics, we’re nearing equality, which is great. But the way we’ve done that is to say that you can only reach a leadership role if you’re willing to work within the same confines of traditional leadership roles - always on, always available, able to travel at a minute’s notice. Those leadership structures were designed for men. Mostly men with stay at home wives and a limited interest in their children’s upbringing.
That’s not the world we live in today - for men or women. We need to change structures to suit people, not people to suit structures. We can absolutely say that a person working part-time, or in a job-share role, can be a leader. And there are huge benefits to it. It will bring in a new crop of leaders with different perspectives and different approaches and I think can be hugely beneficial for organisations. But it takes a willingness on the part of the organisation and we think if we can show it can be done in Parliament, it will be a good step to encouraging other organisations to do the same.
Bronwen: For me it’s about making Parliament more representative of the people it represents. Like many parents with young families, I am not currently in a position to work full-time, 70 hours a week and up to 22 weeks a year in Canberra. Despite this, I have always been drawn to service. For example, joining my kinder and school councils in recent years, to having an impact in my community and to making people’s lives better. Working with Lucy opens up the possibility for me to do this role (and we will of course do it better together!).
Parliament should be like any other workplace where there are options for job-sharing and flexible work. This would enable a more inclusive Parliament and, over time, help people to see themselves a bit more in their MPs and Senators. Then, as Lucy said, the ripple effect should follow - Parliament actually shouldn’t just be like any other workplace, as the top level of leadership in the country, it should be leading the way. I have come up against the challenge of marrying flexible work and leadership many times in my career - and so have my peers. It’s time this changes (and the economic dividend will flow!).
M: Tell us a little about your personal education pathways - what led you both to where you are now? How closely do your formal qualifications match your current career?
Lucy: My formal qualifications don’t match my career at all! I studied Arts/Law at Monash, followed by a Masters in African studies at Oxford. My Arts Degree was in Art History and French, and my Masters was a mix of Sociology, Anthropology, Politics and Economics, all focused on Africa! After my Masters, I went into public affairs, first in London, then in Washington, D.C. and that’s what I’ve been doing since. While my Degrees technically have nothing to do with what I work in, I wouldn’t have had the career I’ve had without them. That’s because they taught me how to think - how to take a problem, think it through analytically, find a solution, and write up my thought processes in a clear and concise way. Being a lawyer for two years also taught me to be hyper organised, efficient and meticulous!
Bronwen: Neither do mine! I am not a career politician but this is also part of what we are trying to encourage and skills are so transferable. I studied Commerce and Arts at the University of Melbourne - this was a great opportunity to learn how to learn and delve into Finance, Accounting History and French. I went deeper on the Commerce side from here completing a Masters of Finance degree from INSEAD and the Company Director Course through the AICD. These qualifications helped me develop deep commercial acumen and communication skills among other things. While they were exactly what I needed to start a career in investment banking and corporate governance they have also equipped me for my pivot into politics!
M: If you could share one piece of career advice to your 21 year old selves it would be ...
Lucy: It would be to remove all ego from my career and to be honest, it’s a piece of advice that I am still grappling with to this day. There is no such thing as “you should be in this position by this age” or “you should be paid this amount by this point in your career.” If a job, or a career path, is not serving you, then it is time to leave. Conversely, if you are really enjoying your job but it is not what you think you “should” be doing, then you should stay. Learn the difference between feedback on your work and feedback on your personality - the latter is not ok, but the former is so useful and will help you grow and thrive. Similarly, don’t take it too personally. A workplace is never going to be loyal to you, so don’t be loyal to it. Get what you can from it and move on. Sometimes in my career, I’ve been so bound by ego, I have made decisions that didn’t serve me. I’m trying to move away from that.
Bronwen: Maybe to work less and enjoy myself a bit more?! This was the time I was delving into my summer internships and then into my full-time career. I don’t regret this at all - it was a time when I had little other responsibility and was a perfect time to lean into building the base of my career. But starting out at Macquarie was 24/7. I lent into that. Now with my three small children I’m trying to do both - lean deeply into this campaign, which I feel immensely proud of (and is a lot of work!), and enjoy time with my husband and small children - job-sharing is enabling this.
M: Maximising the potential of individuals, communities and businesses through the power of human skills is the reason Maxme exists. Can you tell us a little about the role and / or value of human skills in Federal politics, and perhaps society more broadly, right now?
Lucy & Bronwen: Human skills are probably the most essential part of Federal politics and probably the part that is lacking the most in the current political system. We live in a representative democracy. That means that we elect a member of our community to represent us in Federal Parliament. That person should have two essential functions:
Liaise with their electorate about the issues that matter to them;
Take those issues to Federal Parliament and liaise with other Members of Parliament and Senators to action them.
That obviously sounds very simple yet it’s not. But to be effective requires maximising the potential of human skill. These skills include listening, empathy, strategic thinking, analysis and really clear and effective communication.
Unfortunately what is happening at the moment is that politics is dominated by the wrong motivations. Too many politicians are motivated by power, status and group think. They aren’t focusing on the skills I set out above and that’s why we see MPs shouting at each other and hurling insults during Question Time. It’s not inspiring or healthy for our democracy.
M: Self Awareness sets the critical foundation for all Maxme learning experiences. With that said … What are your respective strongest traits / personal superpowers?
Lucy & Bronwen: I think we should answer this for each other!
Bronwen: Lucy’s strongest traits are her determination, razor sharp communication skills and ability to bring groups of people together for a purpose. From not-for-profit organisations to places for women to connect and network to political campaigns - Lucy has both the ideas, and makes them happen.
Lucy: Bronwen’s strongest trait is her warmth. She’s really good at listening to people and making them feel heard and understood and comfortable in her presence. That’s so vital for being an elected representative of your community.
M: And on the flip side, what’s one human / ‘soft’ skill you’ve both had to really work on improving over the course of your careers?
Lucy & Bronwen: We can answer this one ourselves!
Lucy: I’m constantly working on recognising everyone’s unique skills and not holding everyone to the same standards that I hold myself to. This became more important as I started managing people and realised that everyone has different skills, and this diversity of skills adds to a team rather than detracts from it.
Bronwen: I’m constantly working on prioritising my time to ensure I use it to its full potential. I know we all have the same amount of time in the day but I strive to make time to connect with people whenever possible and leave them feeling better for having had the interaction. And feeling heard.
M: If you could share one piece of career advice with recent Uni graduates or candidates keen to work in politics or social advocacy, what would it be?
Lucy: There is this great Barack Obama video where he says - “just learn how to get stuff done.” And there is no better person to steal advice from than President Obama! My best advice to grads looking to work in politics or advocacy groups is to find a politician or advocacy group and go to them and say to them, here’s how I can help you. And it can be the most basic task - actually, the more basic the better. Tell them you’ll organise their email folder, or answer comments on social media. Just do something. It’s not only great for the organisation, but it’s great for you because you are learning. We have a team member on the Better Together Party, Lara, who is like this. She just came to us and said, tell me what I can do to help, then did it. And since then she’s become an absolutely integral part of our team. We love her!
Bronwen: Just do it and get involved! Go to events, speak to people in your network who have worked in and around politics and learn from them. Offer to take people for a 20 minute cup of coffee to ask them your questions - you’ll be amazed how many people say yes to giving you their time. Particularly if you are willing to give back and are keen to serve your community.
M: You’ve been granted funds to add one University graduate to your Party, but have 100 applicants, all with outstanding academic results. How do you find your perfect candidate - what are you looking for?
Lucy & Bronwen: Attitude. Attitude. Attitude. Many of the applicants will have the smarts to get involved in our campaign but if someone is positive, shows initiative and is a real doer it goes a long way to a productive working relationship.
M: In the words of John Dewey, “education is not preparation for life, education is life itself.”
What’s next on your #learning agendas?
Lucy: I would like to be able to use everything we have learnt on the campaign to change the narrative around how we work, particularly in leadership levels. It’s my hope that over the next 10 years we’ll see a change in not only how people in leadership work - flexibly, part-time, job-share - but who in leadership works differently, so more men, more people with disabilities, more people nearing retirement, just a more diverse group of people deciding not to work full-time.
Bronwen: Me too! This is the start of the next wave of structural changes supporting equality in leadership in the workplace
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