Veronique Gibbons

As a Regional Workforce Development Lead based at Pinnacle Midlands Health Network, Veronique leads Te Ara Tupu a Manawa Taki Regional Workforce Hub.

This is one of four regional hubs Health New Zealand |Te Whatu Ora has contracted to help coordinate and administer training and support across the primary and community healthcare workforce. Veronique will lead this work across 11 primary health organisations (PHOs) and community health providers within the Midland | Te Manawa Taki region of the North Island.

“Play better with the people who’ve the ability to effect change”

Veronique decided to self-fund Not An MBA because she wanted to lead with more impact from a position of influence. She says: “Often I get seen as the person with the answers, but I never seem to be in the position where I can lead with influence. I feel like I'm always the person stuck in the middle, not the person leading. There's always a feeling of having my wings clipped.”

“I wanted to know how to play better with the people who’ve the ability to effect change – our executive leadership team. Big executive-made decisions are a closed book. I want to feed into that decision-making. I wanted language that enabled me to ask better questions and have better conversations. I wanted to understand how to make change.”

Being more intentional with how you present yourself

Part of influencing other people is understanding what they need from you. Not An MBA gave Veronique more awareness of the importance of approaching people in the right way. She explains how she learned to be more intentional. “Who are you talking to? Is it someone working with you? Is it someone on your executive team? I’ve tended to be the same with everybody, but now I see people in different roles expect different things. It gave me an opportunity to reflect on how I presented myself and how I want to present myself.”

“We looked at our strengths, then I asked colleagues what they thought my strengths were. When I did that, the answers married up, but they weren't the strengths I want to display. I work hard, I work long hours, and I'm always helpful, so people come to me for that. But I want to be seen more as someone who leads; with empathy, and decisiveness. I want to be in the room when those strategic questions are asked.”

Not an MBA gave Veronique a better insight into how to become someone who’s asked about those critical future-focused topics in the right way. “If I want to change how I appear to others, then I need to show people the strengths I want them to see. The point isn’t to be something you’re not. It's being aware how you’re seen, and asking is this how you want to present yourself?”

“Other people's circus is not my circus”

The Regional Workforce Hub development has been a challenge because Veronique has been under pressure to get the hub up and running in a short space of time. She says: “Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora wanted us to demonstrate impact early, so we’ve been building the plane while we fly it. It has been go, go, go. We’ve been focused on doing operational stuff and needing to be agile and flexible; and trusting my gut that we were making the right decisions”. Not an MBA has given Veronique tools to handle that pressure, and the discernment to be strategic even in the midst of such a fast-moving programme.

“Since the course, I've been really thinking about strategies and priorities, and that's led how I focus my day. In a meeting today people were talking about it'd be good if this happens and that happens. But they're nice-to-haves and improvements. We're still working on the main issues, and at the moment, we need to focus on those rather than the nice-to-haves. It was encouraging to have that insight rather than just say yes all the time.”

The ability to prioritise gives peace of mind, even under pressure. Veronique says: “I'm calmer even though I've got a shedload to do. I’m allowing things to happen in a realistic timeframe rather than trying to do it all. Other people's circus is not my circus. The key thing is focusing on our priorities and working out if something is the right thing to do now, and the tools I learned in Not an MBA are fantastic for that.”

“Recognising I can't control everything”

The health system in New Zealand is complex, underfunded, and buffeted by political winds. No one person can fix the system – it’s far bigger than that. But you can show up, identify where you have leverage, and influence the areas you can change.

This is the situation Veronique finds herself in. She explains: “At this stage, the contract is only till June next year. There are lots of variables which could influence the future of the Regional Workforce Hub.  One of the beauties of the course is becoming comfortable operating in uncertainty. In my work, I've always tried to control what was happening to a certain degree. When you move into a space where you're not in control and you’re able to be comfortable not knowing the outcomes, that's a different way of thinking altogether. I’m recognising I can't control everything and accepting I've still got value.”

Veronique has also become more aware everyone is operating under constraints.

“Everyone's a piggy in the middle somewhere, and as Alicia says, the system is the system. I recognise people are under pressure and decide what I’ll take onboard and what I'll push back on. Now I feel I can have my say and be heard. I’m finding my voice and advocating more for what I believe is right. I can point out where people are being tokenistic, or where we’re not doing things we advocate for. I feel able to call it out in a better way, with a better understanding of the constraints of our system.”

Clearer priorities and permission to breathe

Veronique is in a tough in-between phase, where she’s a team leader without a team. She says: “When we’re new to our roles, we all say yes. As we get higher up, we're meant to start saying no. Well, I'm still saying yes because my team is me, although we are recruiting. But since I got this new toolset. I haven't felt overwhelmed in the same way.”

“I recognise there are things I need to do that aren't priorities. So currently I'm doing all the admin for the hub while we're hiring an administrator. But if I'm focused on something strategic, I can't stop and answer emails. The day-to-day running of the organisation can sit for a while, rather than being an interruption all through the day. I can manage my time differently, focusing on the important stuff I need to do.”

“Not An MBA gave me permission to breathe. I've spent a lot of my working life doing reflection, and this was deeper than any reflection I've ever done. This course helped me get to the crux of how I make decisions to a deeper degree than ever before. And it helped me understand why I think about things too deeply when I don't need to – to understand rumination versus reflection. It was fantastic. I wish I'd done it years ago.”