Have we lost ‘got-your-back’ leadership? – Part 2: Jennifer Andrewes on diagnosis, walking that walk, literally, metaphorically and all the etcetera’s

Jennifer Andrewes is a communications expert and leader who has worked at high levels in government for years. She has now added blogger and published author to her cap. 

Within her time in high-level managerial roles, Andrewes discerned the decisions of others in their approach to leadership. In response she became aware of an unavoidable choice, what would she accept, and sow into? Part one of her story details a value set of collegial openness, to leveraging all skills and backgrounds in a team, of leaders asking questions as strength not vulnerability. 

Over the years, her value set has not merely been a theoretical framework, to be drawn upon from time to time. Andrewes shares an acute moment of vulnerability that she faced, where those value sets would be honoured or brushed aside. 

Confirmation of bad fit

“I had been living with the first and obvious symptoms of the Parkinson’s for a while but they didn’t show up that often or consistently, I discarded them as a passing ‘whatever’, then I got into that leadership position, high profile, that wasn’t collegial, I’d not long started when I experienced a really bad tremor”.

Andrewes candour in what happens next brings with it a weight of attentiveness, a vulnerability that the narrative on leadership needs and deserves, “when it came to that big tremor, when I first really experienced it, the scenario was where I had to stand up in front of a large team of people and present. Something I could have done in my sleep without any problems at all”.

“In this new role, my body completely lost it, it ‘showed’ as if I was extremely nervous and anxious, which was not in my character, and in the new role, in the cultural leadership environment where I was feeling hemmed in to know everything, [the tremors were seen as weakness]”.

“It was mortifying”.

Andrews shares, “I was really conscious that I was being judged by everyone, by what they saw before them, and I didn’t have any understanding of it at the time, and they certainly didn’t. I thought, ‘gosh, this is awful, what is going on here?’”

Afterwards Andrewes received an early diagnosis of Parkinson’s, and at the same time she knew she had to get out of a work environment that was abrasive and unsettling. She pursued change. She knew she needed it, in the face of a life-changing diagnosis she affirms that professionals can and must pursue what fills their cup. This is good, professional and beneficial all-round. 

By a long shot she wasn’t done because of her diagnosis.

Substance of team culture

Andrewes shares a tension point that many holding diagnosis and maintaining excellence in the workplace wrestle with, “I didn’t feel, professionally, that I wanted people to look at me differently or define me by that, or discriminate against me in any way at all, for what I knew I was completely capable of delivering, and who I was.”

“But it got to the point where actually I realised it was costing me way more energy to try and hide it and mask it to people who, actually, I was spending probably as much, if not more time with, on a day to day basis, than my family, than actually just telling them.”

It is here Andrewes’ stories showcases what is possible, what can happen if culture is pursued by all, from highest leadership, to newest hire, “and I feel really grateful for what happened in that job, that employer, that immediate team, that boss.”

Andrewes simply, without fanfare shared her diagnosis and intention to keep doing exactly what she had been doing, her leadership role.

“The people around me [at work] were the sort of people, and we made up the sort of place where it was completely safe to do that. They were, and to this day, just like people who are just completely upbeat, enabling, supportive.”

She directly condemns what can happen when conditions are announced, “I was aware of, and I’m aware of other people around me in the profession who have been directly or indirectly, knowingly or otherwise discriminated against, lost opportunities or felt like they’ve lost opportunities because of the condition.”

And yet it is what happened to her, bearing witness to what can be, that the truth of possibility is cemented away from discrimination yes, but also from platitudes and well-wishes. 

What Andrewes experienced should be the benchmark, “since telling my boss over seven years ago, when I was still working full time, after telling them, I still had the opportunity to shine in my job but more than that, to take on higher responsibilities and act as general manager”.

A team united

For the hundreds of professionals, with a condition, who bring high-performance and compassion to work, to connect with team-members, as leaders and as humans, the hope is to have a diagnosis known and then smoothly absorbed into the irrefutable evidence. That evidence being that they are thriving in delivering exactly what they love to do, their job.

“After I made my diagnosis public, I just absolutely did everything that I normally would do in my job, and that was that”.

Andrewes names the fear that lurks, “a lot of people with whatever they’ve got going on, they are very afraid of revealing themselves”.

Andrewes shares what happened after she gently made it known, “as a team, it was freeing, I found myself having conversations with people because they felt safer with me. Everybody’s living with something, whether it’s them, or their kids or family members”.

“In that role I saw my boss being incredible, and I appreciated them being human, that they didn’t need to be on a pedestal, and that was the same for people I managed.”

Walking the walk

After her diagnosis, Andrewes got into walking. And walking in a big way, “with walking and long distance walking, everybody agrees that it can really help and enable, it was a no-brainer for me”.

“I can walk. It’s free. I can walk out my front door. I can walk during my lunch break, I don’t have to wait for anyone”.

And she’s been off ever since, “doing the Camino, I didn’t know if I could even do this walk, and I thought, well, I’ll just have to go for it, and it was such an incredible experience”.

“It delivers more than physical benefits, it was mental and spiritual as well. I had this insight, because of the dopamine connection with Parkinson’s being compromised, when I was walking, I was feeling happier, and I could reduce the medication a bit, I wasn’t experiencing the symptoms in the same way as I was experiencing them in normal life”.

“I had a realisation that there’s something in this”.

In her leadership journey, through her walking, Andrewes has been profoundly surprised at how much a simple walk can help.

“My experience was learned, and I’ve definitely brought this from after that first Camino into my working life, what I brought straight back was actually, when stuff’s getting tough or harder, when you don’t have the answer to something, and, you don’t often have the answer to something straight away, then feel validated in taking the time. Take a walk.”

Walks and working through unknown

Particularly for aged care leaders, as the tumultuous change keeps roiling through the sector, it is worthwhile to reaffirm, leadership will not have all the answers immediately. Time to think strategy, through multi-faceted issues is critical, to do so while walking is grounded science. Andrewes advocates, “just take a walk around the block, walk to work, walk home from work, walk at lunchtime, then sleep on the problems, have a walk in the morning”.

With good-natured laughter she doubles down, “take that walk, get out, and something like creative juices just start, and you may not even really think about it. Keep walking, and invariably something will pop into your brain, you’ll know who you need to chat to if you don’t have all the intel yourself, you’ll have something, you’ll have a way forward”.

Andrewes continues in her humour, sharing, “I’ve often thought and had chats with people along the way, with leaders in various fields [Helen Clark, NZ’s former PM among them], if only all the world leaders, and people making decisions, can you imagine what would happen if they all took a long pilgrimage walk?”

“How different would the world be?”

Andrewes story is a powerful testimony of leadership knowing its value sets, of valuing different perspectives, backgrounds, abilities and carving out a place in workplace culture for leveraging these for team benefit and goals achieved. 

Asking questions as a leader, alongside assuming ultimate responding are not mutually exclusive. Inviting insight from all team-members is health not weakness or vulnerability. And regardless of diagnosis, public or not, honouring what people are capable of past a condition is vital for resilience and substance in any professional team.

With these ingredients, Andrewes found, people stay. That’s good business, that’s good culture, that’s good results. And if a problem is a doozy, without missing a beat, she’ll encourage you to walk it through.