ANNIE WYLIE
Senior Manager - Digital Content at ReachOut Australia
Awarded a New Leaders Development Program Scholarship at Melbourne Business School, 2019
What sort of work does your organisation do?
ReachOut is Australia’s leading online mental health organisation for young people and their parents. Our practical support, tools and tips help young people get through anything from everyday issues to tough times – and the information we offer parents makes it easier for them to help their teenagers, too. Describe a typical day's work.
A typical day for me involves lots of discussion, negotiation and feedback. Leading content for the service means anything that we put out goes through me first, and with a team of 3 to manage, strategizing and providing feedback on implementation takes up a lot of my time. It’s my job to make sure that we’re meeting our users needs and creating behavior change with everything that we create. It’s also my job to collaborate with other teams in the organization such as Marketing, Research and Digital, which sees me discuss and negotiate priorities and shared goals. I also get to be creative quite a lot (although not as much now that I’m in a more senior role), helping my team and others come up with unique and innovative ways to respond to changing user needs. What were some of the key learnings from the course?
The course really taught me how to work with other people more effectively. In particular I learnt valuable skills in negotiation, selling myself and my ideas, understanding and controlling my impact on others, providing feedback to direct reports as well as others, coaching and honestly so much more! How has it impacted / changed / benefited your role and your organisation as a whole?
3 months after the course finished I was asked to act up into a more senior role and I’m still in that role now. I’ve been able to successfully transition into managing more people and responsibility quite easily as a direct result of the course. 2020 has thrown some real curveballs, and my ability to lead my team through the transition to work-from-home, some significant leadership and organisational changes, and an increased workload and pressure due to the pandemic, has really been put to the test. As a result of the New Leaders Development Program I’ve felt confident in taking on these challenges and have been recognised with an extension to my acting role until February 2021. How did you come to be working in the not-for-profit sector?
I’ve worked in the NFP sector for most of my career. As a deeply values-based person, it’s important to me to believe in what I’m doing and so the NFP sector is a natural fit. I love the feeling of purpose that each day brings, the work-life balance, and the fact that I know I’m making tangible positive change in people’s lives. What do you feel is most needed to sustain and build the impact of the not-for-profit sector?
We need recognition as a governmental level of the importance of attracting good talent to the sector, and therefore the need for more funding. It’s not just about higher salaries, but money to be innovative and try new things. The NFP sector needs to be trusted that we know our users well and that doing things differently can create even better outcomes than before. What is something interesting / unique / unusual about you?
I’m a drag and burlesque performer and try to bring some of my persona and stage presence to my leadership style too!
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