Purpose, perseverance, people: 11 career lessons from Julia Gillard’s story

The story of Julia Gillard’s career as prime minister is ultimately underpinned by resilience.

This is something we’ve written about before, noting our former prime minister certainly deserved the label of being a ‘tough warrior’ offered on the night her tenure at the top came to an end.

So, having picked up a copy of her political memoir My Story, I wanted to share a few insights she offers regarding just how she managed her career in politics.

1. Be willing to cry – just not necessarily for yourself. Gillard was determined not to cry when she gave her final press conference as PM. While she had shed tears of sadness for Australians who had suffered in natural disasters, relief after passing the NDIS and grief when she lost her father, she didn’t want to cry for herself. “I was not going to let anyone conclude that woman could not take it. I was not going to give any bastard the satisfaction. I was going to be resilient one more time.”

   However, she later concedes she shed tears while meeting with party elder John Faulkner when she realised Kevin Rudd no longer trusted her (just prior to the Labor leadership spill). “It is the only time in my political career I have shed tears for myself, the kind of tears I was determined never to cry as prime minister.”

2. Resilience requires purpose. Gillard says its resilience that enabled her to keep going on, but that’s it’s impossible to be resilient without having a sense of purpose.
3. Don’t reflect, move on. On the evening after she was sworn in as prime minister, Gillard ended the day back in her apartment with her partner Tim Mathieson and a couple of good friends eating a “hasty” Chinese takeaway meal. “I quickly turned away from reflections about what had happened to planning for the following day.”
4. Jump at opportunities, no matter what the workload. As deputy prime minister, Gillard took on double what a usual cabinet minister would manage – by serving as Minister for Education, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and Minister for Social Inclusion. She concedes it was a huge load, but that having served in opposition for nine year, “I was not going to miss my chance to deliver change.”
5. Don’t ignore the paperwork. As both deputy PM and PM, Gillard faced an endless cycle of paperwork – something she says she managed by sorting into colour-coded piles. “Keeping up with the paperwork was something I forced myself to do and prided myself on.”
6. Retain confidence in even the most difficult challenges. Gillard says she knew the 2010 election “would be the toughest challenge of my life.” Still, she remained confident she was up to the challenge and she always believed Labor could win – even when it became “the election campaign from hell”.
7. Being the only woman can feel “lonely”. Gillard writes that she was “so visibly the oddity” – often the only woman in a business boardroom. While facing a room full of men doesn’t necessarily make them unfriendly, she says it did result in some simply not knowing how to treat her.
8. What you wear will “draw disproportionate attention“. Gillard figured this out well before becoming prime minister but was still disappointed to see what she wore often being reported on as more important that what she was doing. “During the days of my prime ministership I came to realize that the issue of appearance for a woman was not simply a judgement on her clothes, but that it morphed into a judgement of who she was as a person.”
9. Retain a “sense of self”. As the country’s first female prime minister, Gillard attracted a spotlight nobody had dealt with before. She realised the needed to retain a ‘sense of self’ that was distinct and separate to how she was defined and portrayed in the media. “I have never defined myself through approval in the eyes of others. Everyone likes to be liked. I am no different. But I have always had an inner reserve, a sense of purpose that drove me on even when I did not feel liked.
10. Purpose, perseverance, people. These three words together, writes Gillard, are her own version of Elizabeth Gilbert’s best selling book Eat, Pray, Love. It’s purpose, perseverance and people that underpin resilience — which is just like a muscle that grows stronger as we use it. “Needing to persevere in pursuit of a goal provides the work-out that muscle needs. It is one of the many reasons that I believe schools should have a high-expectation, high achievement culture It will breed resilience.”
11. Face adversity with purpose and clarity. Gillard imparts the following to those who are experiencing difficult situations: “Know your purpose”; “Nurture your sense of self, who you are in your own eyes, not as seen through the eyes of others”; “Make choices about how you will react to events” and “Cherish your family and friends”.