Jan­ice Lear­mond-Criqui

Be­fore a leader can ef­fec­tive­ly lead oth­ers, they must first learn to lead them­selves. Self-aware­ness is one of the most im­por­tant qual­i­ties of ef­fec­tive lead­er­ship be­cause it al­lows in­di­vid­u­als to un­der­stand their strengths, weak­ness­es, val­ues, emo­tions, and mo­ti­va­tions.

A self-aware leader un­der­stands how their ac­tions, words, and de­ci­sions im­pact those around them. They recog­nise their bi­as­es, ac­knowl­edge their lim­i­ta­tions, and re­main open to learn­ing and growth. Rather than be­liev­ing they have all the an­swers, they are will­ing to lis­ten, seek feed­back, and re­flect on their per­for­mance.

Lead­er­ship is not sim­ply about di­rect­ing oth­ers; it is about set­ting an ex­am­ple. Peo­ple are more like­ly to trust and fol­low lead­ers who demon­strate au­then­tic­i­ty, hu­mil­i­ty, and emo­tion­al in­tel­li­gence. Self-aware­ness helps lead­ers re­main ground­ed, par­tic­u­lar­ly dur­ing chal­leng­ing sit­u­a­tions when dif­fi­cult de­ci­sions must be made.

It al­so en­ables lead­ers to man­age stress, re­spond thought­ful­ly in­stead of re­act­ing emo­tion­al­ly, and build stronger re­la­tion­ships with their teams. By un­der­stand­ing them­selves, lead­ers be­come bet­ter equipped to un­der­stand and sup­port oth­ers.

Ul­ti­mate­ly, lead­er­ship is an in­side-out process. The jour­ney be­gins with self-re­flec­tion and a com­mit­ment to per­son­al growth. When lead­ers are aware of who they are and what they stand for, they in­spire con­fi­dence, fos­ter trust, and cre­ate en­vi­ron­ments where in­di­vid­u­als and com­mu­ni­ties can thrive.

My life pur­pose has al­ways been root­ed in a de­sire to make a mean­ing­ful con­tri­bu­tion to peo­ple, or­gan­i­sa­tions, and com­mu­ni­ties. Through­out my pro­fes­sion­al ca­reer, I have been for­tu­nate to serve in var­i­ous lead­er­ship, ad­min­is­tra­tive, train­ing, and gov­er­nance roles, each of which re­in­forced my be­lief that ef­fec­tive ser­vice is about cre­at­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties, solv­ing prob­lems, and help­ing oth­ers reach their po­ten­tial.

Work­ing across the cor­po­rate, com­mu­ni­ty, and non-prof­it sec­tors al­lowed me to see first­hand how lead­er­ship can pos­i­tive­ly im­pact lives. Whether through train­ing and de­vel­op­ment, com­mu­ni­ty en­gage­ment, cul­tur­al ad­vance­ment, or or­gan­i­sa­tion­al gov­er­nance, I found great ful­fil­ment in help­ing in­di­vid­u­als and in­sti­tu­tions be­come stronger and more ef­fec­tive. This pas­sion nat­u­ral­ly evolved in­to a com­mit­ment to pub­lic ser­vice, where the fo­cus ex­tends be­yond in­di­vid­ual suc­cess to the broad­er de­vel­op­ment of so­ci­ety.

As a woman, my per­spec­tive has sig­nif­i­cant­ly shaped how I ap­proach lead­er­ship and ser­vice. Women of­ten bring a unique bal­ance of em­pa­thy, re­silience, col­lab­o­ra­tion, and de­ter­mi­na­tion to de­ci­sion-mak­ing. Through­out my ca­reer, I have learned the im­por­tance of lis­ten­ing care­ful­ly, build­ing con­sen­sus, and cre­at­ing en­vi­ron­ments where di­verse voic­es are heard and re­spect­ed. I be­lieve that some of the most ef­fec­tive so­lu­tions emerge when peo­ple feel val­ued and in­clud­ed in the process.

Be­ing a woman in lead­er­ship has al­so taught me the im­por­tance of per­se­ver­ance. There have been oc­ca­sions when I need­ed to nav­i­gate chal­lenges, over­come skep­ti­cism, or prove my ca­pa­bil­i­ties in spaces where women were tra­di­tion­al­ly un­der­rep­re­sent­ed. Those ex­pe­ri­ences strength­ened my con­fi­dence and re­in­forced my com­mit­ment to sup­port­ing and men­tor­ing oth­er women who as­pire to lead.

My ap­proach to de­vel­op­ment is there­fore both peo­ple-cen­tred and re­sults-ori­ent­ed. I be­lieve that sus­tain­able progress re­quires strong gov­er­nance, ac­count­abil­i­ty, ed­u­ca­tion, and con­tin­u­ous learn­ing. At the same time, it re­quires com­pas­sion and an un­der­stand­ing that be­hind every pol­i­cy, project, or de­ci­sion are re­al peo­ple whose lives may be af­fect­ed.

Per­haps most im­por­tant­ly, I have come to ap­pre­ci­ate that lead­er­ship is not about po­si­tion or ti­tle; it is about ser­vice. Whether work­ing with com­mu­ni­ty groups, cul­tur­al in­sti­tu­tions, young pro­fes­sion­als, or busi­ness lead­ers, I view every op­por­tu­ni­ty as a chance to cre­ate pos­i­tive change and leave or­gan­i­sa­tions and com­mu­ni­ties stronger than I found them.

Look­ing ahead, I re­main pas­sion­ate about em­pow­er­ing in­di­vid­u­als, par­tic­u­lar­ly women and young peo­ple, to recog­nise their val­ue, de­vel­op their skills, and con­tribute mean­ing­ful­ly to so­ci­ety. De­vel­op­ment is ul­ti­mate­ly about peo­ple, and pub­lic ser­vice pro­vides a plat­form to help shape a fu­ture where more in­di­vid­u­als can thrive, suc­ceed, and make a dif­fer­ence in their own com­mu­ni­ties.