EastCoast HR Group has approached prominent and everyday Sunny Coasters about their careers. Follow our Friday Feature to find out what inspires those around to go to work every day!
Linda Delamotte – Managing Director, Your Home Care.
What was your first job?
Kmart. I started working in menswear and was quickly moved to the cash handling team.
Who are the people that have made the biggest difference in your career and why?
People who have expressed confidence and support, and in doing so have allowed me to consider different opportunities or pathways that I may not have without their support. I am lucky that I have had several people like this over my career, and maybe due to them I have changed careers 3 times. So far.
What is the best piece of advice you have been given?
When experiencing difficulties with colleagues, don’t allow them to have too much influence on your thinking. Minimise their affect as much as possible. We can too often make it a focus of the workplace, and yet balanced out with all of the other colleagues who are great or just don’t cause any concern and all other aspects of the role, the difficulty with that one person may very well be quite a small part. We won’t always like who we work with and we just need to find a way to work well together.
Think back to five years ago. Did you envision your career as it is today?
No, not at all. and that would be the case for most of my working life. I have always pursued different skills/ experiences/ roles/ development, and I think that has led to me being open to evolving in my career throughout my work life. At times I didn’t think I had what was needed for a role, but if someone I respected believed I could do it, I used their confidence in me until I had proven my ability to myself.
How do you approach work – life balance?
On a very thin line ?. I love being busy and having many things happening at once, but this has meant that work- life balance has tipped the wrong way at times. From experience I trust that I am resilient and I can manage an imbalance for a controlled time, but then I make active steps to swing back to a healthy amount of rest and relaxation. The balance changes constantly so it needs ongoing monitoring.
What is your proudest moment in your career?
I am fortunate to have had a few. Right now I would say to have my business grow from startup to nearly 10 years old, employing over 50 wonderful staff. It hasn’t been easy but no great achievement does.
