Thursday, September 3, 2026

Empower your staff to help you by becoming intuitive and confident with personal leadership

As the aged care industry undertakes workforce planning strategies to engage, develop, and retain a thriving workforce, one powerhouse skill that often gets overlooked is developing personal leadership capabilities.

Last updated on 25 August 2023

SPONSORED – As the aged care industry undertakes workforce planning strategies to engage, develop, and retain a thriving workforce, one powerhouse skill that often gets overlooked is developing personal leadership capabilities.

Personal leadership is a game changer in the workplace, as it focuses on equipping individuals with the skills and confidence to take ownership of their outcomes, attitudes, and behaviours. It promotes self-awareness, independence, perseverance, and accountability, essential for success across any role.

Why is it that a scenario can play out within the workplace but each staff member will have varying degrees to how they handle and respond to that same situation? It’s due to their Locus of Control (LOC).

What is Locus of Control?

Global studies over decades have shown that Locus of Control (LOC) is a strong predictor of many life and work outcomes. ​

LOC is a theoretical construct, first developed in 1954 by psychologist Julian Rotter, and refers to the degree to which an individual feels a sense of agency regarding the outcomes and experiences within their life.

Like other constructs within personality psychology, one’s LOC can be influenced by several factors and falls on a spectrum internal and external LOC.

An internal LOC refers to a person’s confidence that they can influence outcomes in their life. The things that happen to them are greatly influenced by their own abilities, actions, or mistakes and they determine their future, create their own success, and find ways around obstacles – skills that are valuable in the aged care space.

A person with an external LOC believes they are less in control of their lives, and it is instead up to external forces such as chance, luck, circumstances, and opportunities that are responsible for the events that occur in their life.

They tend to feel that things happen to them, make excuses, blame circumstances, and can often feel defeated, all of which can negatively impact an organisation, particularly in their culture, retention strategy, productivity, and absenteeism.

By attributing outcomes to our own behaviour, rather than blaming others or circumstances, the journey to becoming a personal leader and the benefits that come along with it are incredibly valuable.

The good news is achieving an optimal level of Locus of Control and developing personal leadership skills can be trained, and Generation Thrive can help you with this and is backed by 25 years of exceptional outcomes.

The benefits of enhancing personal leadership capabilities include:

  • Staff taking responsibility for their actions and learning from mistakes, leading to increased self-determination, perseverance, and accountability
  • Enhanced independence and confidence in their decision-making
  • Improved learning skills, growth mindset and enhanced critical thinking
  • Greater job satisfaction and engagement
  • Reduced stress and feelings of burnout, leading to better physical and psychological health

Generation Thrive has designed a comprehensive, measurable and evidence-based online program, Thrive@Work, to empower individuals within teams to develop their personal leadership skills, address challenges and optimise their well-being and satisfaction across their personal and professional lives.   

Their approach combines an interactive and engaging online toolkit, one-on-one personal leadership coaching and group workshops that develop critical and transferable skills in personal leadership, social and emotional intelligence, soft skills, and well-being management.

Organisations that have partnered with Generation Thrive report that individuals across their workforce grow from the skills, habits, and attitudes taught that increase their accountability, performance and mindset for continuous improvement and learning.

After implementing personal leadership training, one partner organisation saw a 36% increase in psychological well-being, positively impacting their team’s self-acceptance, environmental mastery, positive relationships, personal growth, autonomy, and purpose in life. 
 
Personal leadership capability training should be a must for any upskilling, pipeline development or retention strategy plans. With 97% of Generation Thrive clients taking more accountability for their success, explore the impact Generation Thrive has made to help the aged care industry achieve its strategic goals, remain competitive and improve its bottom line.

For more information visit Generation Thrive website.

AUG 27 – SEP 2, 2026

• leadership

How retirement communities can prepare for changing resident expectations

Hayley Campbell, Content Writer Changing resident expectations, ageing in place and increasingly complex support needs are reshaping retirement living. Dr Roger Pallant of the NSW Retirement Village Residents Association says leaders need to plan for that change and bring residents into the conversation.

• nursing

Australia has its first national nursing workforce strategy. Now health leaders must deliver it.

Arun Thomas, Chairperson of ACNFFC Australia has its first National Nursing Workforce Strategy, but a strategy alone won’t fix a 79,000-nurse deficit. Arun Thomas explores how the true test for health leaders lies in converting a 10-year policy blueprint into real, sustainable capacity on the ground.

• aged care

Why Australia’s aged care legislation struggles with community-led solutions

Yvette Willison, Content Writer After 15 years of planning, fundraising and refining a financially viable model, one rural Victorian community is still unable to build an aged care facility. Wedderburn’s experience raises broader questions about whether Australia’s regulatory framework can accommodate community-led solutions.

Get the good stuff, weekly.

Trends, tactics, no fluff every Wednesday.