Melanie Howard completes SA Innovation Hub mentoring program
Innovative opportunity to be mentored by a senior executive
Last year, two Resthaven managers participated in the SA Innovation Hub’s mentoring program which is designed to support and develop talented people in the aged care sector.
The SA Innovation Hub is a group of aged care providers who collaborate to share knowledge, innovations and research to benefit their organisations and clients. Resthaven has been involved with the Hub since the group’s launch in 2014.
Rather than involve formal study, the Hub’s mentoring program partners participants with senior executives from amongst the Hub’s membership.
Melanie Howard, Senior Manager Community Services at Resthaven was invited to join the program after stepping into a more senior role in 2016. Sara Blunt, CEO Kalyra Communities, acted as her mentor.
Melanie explains, ‘It’s an opportunity to work with someone who’s “been there, done that” and can share their experience – you can’t really pay for that.’
From the outset of the program, mentoring is tailored to individual goals and objectives.
‘We were able to choose our mentor based on their profiles, and match their skills and abilities to areas we wanted to develop. There were many mentor profiles available with a range of different skills and experiences.’
‘Sara had a strong background from working in different industries before moving into aged care. She’s also someone I wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to connect with.’
The program offers a range of benefits to participants – with encouragement and feedback being key features. ‘I think we both benefited from sharing ideas, aged care and non-aged care’.
‘The program gave me the opportunity to learn more about myself as a manager and respect my larger role at Resthaven,’ said Melanie. ‘This included appreciating the value of extending my network beyond Resthaven and aged care in general.’
Melanie described one of the direct benefits of this newly-acquired perspective. ‘I happened to meet the CEO of Parkinson’s SA at an event and after a few weeks, arranged to meet her to understand where Resthaven and Parkinson’s SA could work better together.’
‘Whilst I was aware Parkinson’s SA run groups with Resthaven customers, I wanted to explore other opportunities to work together to support more people living in the community.’
‘Through this connection, Resthaven sponsored the “Parkinson’s in the Park” event in April 2018 – this provided an opportunity for Resthaven to be prominent in a different aged care area.’
‘The mentoring program is as much about personal development as leadership development,’ Melanie commented. ‘In my conversations with Sara, we’d discuss how I could be a better mentor to my managers, and the difficulties of working effectively between an operational and governance mindset when dealing with day-to-day matters.’
Melanie met with Sara six times over the course of six months.
‘Having regular meetings kept me focused on my goals and objectives for development – which can sometimes be lost in the busy-ness of work.’
‘It was an opportunity to stop and reflect and learn more about myself – not a natural thing for me, as I have worked at an operational level for a long period of time.’
The SA Innovation Hub created the mentoring program as a pilot project in 2017. Following its success in 2017, plans are underway to offer the program again in coming years.
Melanie reported the experience of being mentored was less daunting than she expected.
‘I found Sara motivating and inspiring – just by knowing about her experiences and what she does – I’d be very excited about our next discussion.’
‘Sara was very encouraging. She was a good support as well as offering excellent advice.’
Similarly, Sara found the experience both enjoyable and beneficial. ‘To me, on one level, mentoring is about supporting the next generation of aged care executives to fulfil their potential for the benefit of all those who receive our services,’ she said.
‘It also gives me, as a mentor, an opportunity to learn and reflect as I listen to a different perspective,’ she explained.
‘I thoroughly enjoyed meeting with Melanie,’ Sara commented. ‘She is a very professional and knowledgeable manager and clearly is a developing leader in our sector.’
Melanie is one of two senior managers of Resthaven Community Services with line responsibility for four of Resthaven’s nine community services sites. She has worked with Resthaven for the past ten years – having previously managed Resthaven Riverland and Resthaven Western Community Services amongst other roles. She joined Resthaven after several years with the Department of Health & Ageing. Her formal studies include a Bachelor of Science (Health Promotion), a Graduate Certificate in Gerontology and is near completion of her MBA.