Leadership is incredibly important in any organisation and having a good leader can inspire and motivate anyone to achieve their very best.
We’re very proud to share that our General Manager Louise Joslin has received a 100% CEO rating on our company Glassdoor profile (view here). With this, and recently winning The Leadership Award at The Oxfordshire Care Awards, it is fantastic to see that Oxford Aunts is being represented by a great leader. We asked Louise to share her leadership story with us.
Louise Joslin our General Manager shares her story on becoming a leader
“As we all know becoming a leader isn’t something that happens overnight; it’s a continual journey. I can honestly say that I am a fortunate person in that I believe my work is my vocation and that makes even the toughest days bearable. I fundamentally believe in what I do, what my organisation delivers and how engaged I am with the people who work within it.
Like many, I ‘fell’ into care…
I spent most of my 20’s moving in different directions unsure of what I wanted to do once I left education. I tried a variety of jobs but nothing really resonated with me. And then there was a seismic shift in my life when I had my first child. Charlie was born too early (28 weeks), very poorly as a result and with lots of complications. He also has Downs Syndrome. The life I thought I was going to have was now looking very different. I will be honest and say it took me some time to accept my new circumstances. Ultimately it was my love for my child that propelled me into the care sector as I wanted to understand all aspects of it. It will be a world I share with him for the rest of my life. It’s the understanding of an unpaid carer, a parent, a person who must source care for a loved one, that balances a lot of what I do today.
Many of the choices and decisions I make, take into account how others may feel.
There is a wonderful saying ‘walk a mile in my shoes before you make a comment’ and this is one of my golden rules when I am talking with families who are trying to find the right care solution for their loved ones. I always consider the carer’s role and how a situation may look from their perspective. It’s very difficult when some families don’t care about their carer and I spend a lot of time educating, getting alongside people and helping them to build better relationships. I also work hard to help my team with this aspect too.
So finally the reason I think leadership is so important – it’s how I help people to understand who we are, our personality, our tone of voice and absolutely critical – our values and how we treat each other. These cannot just be words, they must be in every action we take. We will be human, we will make mistakes, but it’s what we do about it that really matters and that we learn all the time”.
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