Foreign.

Good morning and welcome back to the next amazing episode of Promoted.

I am your host, Renee Wootton Tomlin.

I am not a CEO.

Because you're a CEO, Felicity.

I'm an aerospace engineer, pilot and professional speaker working in sustainable aviation fuel, and.

And with me, our incredible host, Felicity Fury, CEO and co founder of We Aspire, the leadership program in Australia that's taking the civil engineering industry to the next level.

Do you want to tell us a little bit about We Aspire, Felicity?

I'm sure it's all the.

It's all the engineers, all the STEM professionals, really.

We help technical professionals step into leadership for the first time.

Arguably one of the most tricky leadership transitions.

So if you're an ambitious manager wanting to lead and be a respected leader, then we can say, certainly help you with that.

Well, certainly helped me with that in my career, too.

So find yourself a 4C theory, and if you don't have one, go and sign up to We Aspire because their work is incredible and it's changing the way that we raise incredible leaders in STEM industries across Australia.

Now, today, we've got a really exciting topic to speak through.

It's really relevant right now.

Award application season is ripe.

Felicity.

We have, we've, I think since March, award awards have been open and there are still numerous applications, opportunities to get involved and register yourself or nominate someone that you think is incredibly impressive in a number of different categories.

Trust us when we say every industry, every type of career out there, there will be an awards season, process and opportunity.

So before we jump into what we're doing and why we're doing it, Felic, can you talk to me about why awards are important and why we want to be applying?

I think it's a huge part of becoming a respected leader.

It gives you such a boost in the industry.

And I got my first award when I was 26 years old.

It was the Hundred Women of Influence.

And I just felt at the time, oh, my gosh, why am I even getting, like, actually a mentor suggested I nominate for it?

I thought, no way, no chance.

And then when I got the award, I said, why did you choose me?

There were people like Holly Ransom and Yasmin Abdel Majid in my category, Marita Chang, these, you know, real superstars.

And then there was me.

And I thought, oh, my gosh.

And the award organizers actually said, we saw that you had potential.

And I thought I was like, wow, that's really kind of them to do that.

But also having that under, you know, that next to my name when I Got introduced in different things.

It just gave me so much credibility and that, I want to say validation, but it gave me that respect in the industry and from other people, you know, oh, wow, okay, she's received that award.

That must really set her apart.

So I think it's a great differentiator, particularly as just starting out your career to achieve something like that.

And even the process of going through an award is really, really powerful because you get to document the different things that you've achieved.

And I guarantee you, everyone has something incredible they've achieved and it's about the framing of that.

So I think they're incredibly powerful to set you apart.

And I know, Renee, you've received a number of awards.

Have you had a similar experience or has there been something different that you've got out of the process?

For me, I think what I've come to appreciate about awards is that it gives you a spotlight to be able to advocate for something you really care about.

So I think when I first started getting awards, I think my first one was when I was an intern at Qantas, my first kind of big public one.

It was the Project Excellence award.

And at the time I'd done it because I had done a great project on the A380 to understand why it was being delayed out of Melbourne airport for some of its scheduling.

And I got up on stage, Alan Joyce was there, my project manager from Qantas was there.

And I was there as part of the Career Trackers Leadership Development Institute, which is a major kind of big gala that they throw once a year.

And that was my first experience of getting recognition on such a public level.

And it really threw me for six because I was like, oh God, how did I win this?

Like, wow, that's crazy.

Like again, a lot of self doubt.

But what it did was then set me up to get notice for opportunities.

I became, I don't know, I feel like awards kind of just change the game around.

Like who you get the opportunity to network with, what conversations get started, what job opportunities come out of it.

Like, it is quite an incredible rush of opportunity that comes when you get award recognition.

And I think that that's understated.

So a lot of people won't step into and apply for awards because they feel like self promotion.

It's uncomfortable.

But I would suggest that the opportunity and just the chance to change and influence people is so, so significant that I don't even think about the vanity that comes with nominating yourself for awards now, because I am on a mission for Me personally, to try and accelerate the energy transition to more renewable fuels.

I'm here to make sure that people hear my voice when it comes to leadership styles and making sure that young people get opportunities to step up and we have diversity at decision making tables.

Like my why is so clear that awards just continue to echo the influence I'm trying to drive.

So for me, they're honestly incredible.

Like my, my life has changed because of awards.

Totally agree.

And I think it's, you know, if you come down to some basic stuff of you've got two people on, you know, that you're looking for an opportunity, one's got an award, one doesn't, you know, it has you step, you know, step aside, be you in your category of your own really, if you've got some of those awards today.

I wanted to touch on some really specific things around award applications.

We've been, we've had actually the NARWIK Awards happening.

They closed today.

I just submitted one yesterday, which is very exciting.

But nominating someone else.

What's that?

Sorry?

What are the NARWIK Awards?

Tell us.

The national association of Women in Construction.

So we nominated Michael, my amazing husband, as a male ally, which is very exciting.

I wrote a support let letter for Brisbane Airport Corporation for the Crystal Vision Award and also wrote a letter for the ASH who's going in as an emerging leader.

So I feel like it's very fresh going through this process.

And I don't know about you, Renee, but if you have something that's a strength of yours or a superpower, sometimes it just seems like it's easy and that everyone can do it.

And I've been speaking with a few people about writing award submissions over the years and I've been very fortunate to be asked for my advice from a number of people.

And I just thought it would be helpful for us to talk about some specifics today.

I know you get asked this as well, Renee, because it keeps coming up.

So I thought why not share it with everybody?

And a couple of key things I think about when writing an award.

I think the framing is so helpful and this is advice I gave someone just last week.

So a way that I love to start writing it is, is actually what is a statement that you want to start the award with, where it might be something like, you know, Felicity has been a leader and helped hundreds of people in their leadership journey as an example.

And then you just build the rest of that story of his evidence for that, his evidence that, his evidence for that.

So it's Easy.

Very much like we're talking in our last episode around speaking.

It's easy for the audience to listen to.

It's easy for the audience to rate.

So they're reading that.

And this is probably my analytical brain of, okay, well, Felicity says she's this person.

Do I agree with that?

Statement?

So you're just backing up with statement, statement, statement.

Another.

These are just going to be a whole bunch of tips that I would suggest to people.

Another one is these.

The judges read so many applications.

I've been a judge before.

It can be boring.

Like, so boring or so generic.

And so what is that like?

Again, similar to a speech?

What's like a hook that you can use that can really tell a story and have the judge want to read on.

So, for example, something I don't like talking about at all is when I was an engineer, I was sexually harassed in the workplace, and it sucked.

And there's been a whole bunch of discrimination I faced.

But actually, I did start off one of my award applications with, despite Felicity having these experiences, she wants to change the industry.

So actually having something that's very powerful, very impactful, of course, I feel.

Do you feel.

Not, of course.

Sometimes I feel uncomfortable talking about that.

And I don't want to understate the significance of that for people, but I really just wanted to really highlight that this is a really strong point, and this really matters to me.

Another recommendation I would have is actually write down everything that's unique about you, what makes you different from everyone else who is going to submit the award.

So recently, for someone we thought about who are going to be the people that are going to put an award for this category, we thought it's probably going to typically be CEOs of corporations, corporations who've done a diversity initiative.

Okay.

How do we make you different from that?

Okay, you've been a general manager.

You have this leadership experience.

So let's make, you know, build that credibility of.

You were in that category with them.

Like, you actually have that leadership experience, but you've taken it from a business angle and an impact perspective where you've actually changed your career to go work on this.

And that was the angle that we went with.

So what are those things that are unique about you?

And how do you actually build that story and that picture to make it stand out and have that just, like, one theme running through.

So people walk away from reading your application going, oh, that's this person.

They're.

They're dedicating their career to this, you know, initiative or to this work around leadership.

Renee, what are your top tips?

I feel like those are.

I mean, they're very specific around structuring and writing the award application, but that's how I think about it and how I frame it.

Yeah, it's a good question.

I think from a structure perspective, the first thing I want to look at is who's the organization that is running the awards?

Why are they running the awards?

So what's the eligibility criteria for an individual to apply and what are they looking for uniquely in the awardees that they're going to provide?

So, for example, I just applied maybe a month or two ago for the Australian Aviation Awards, and I spent time reading through, well, what is the criteria?

Who are they looking to support and award these incredible categories and awards to?

From there, then I tie in that narrative into my answers.

So I think that's kind of the first piece or first lens, I would consider the second piece is then a diversity of experience is probably the next thing.

So rather than just speaking about what I achieved in my job, maybe I'll speak about one specific project and then I'll change projects or I'll even change industries.

So what am I doing in my spare time, or how am I supporting charity work, or how am I achieving that in a work context or outside of work?

So they're kind of the things that I would typically look for.

Again, it's really dependent on the questions that they want you to answer, though, in the award application.

Next, I would say that once you kind of understand why they're running the awards, who they're looking for, and then what examples you have, I think it's, again, tying in a really nice story.

So it has to be impactful and straight to the point.

You can't, you know, if they give you 400 words or 500 words to answer each question to your point, Felicity, the judges going through these applications are going to want to understand and skim over your answers as quickly as possible, so making sure that narrative is super clear.

I love the recommendation you made around, like that first line drawing people in.

Super important.

I think one sentence to say following the star method, situation, task, action, result.

So what was the situation?

What did you do about it?

What action did you take?

And then what was the result of that?

So, again, trying to really structure that, I would really recommend using ChatGPT as well to curate that layering of context that needs to be included to be able to then submit that application.

Because it's a bit of creative writing, to be honest.

And if you're not a strong writer.

You can really be missed because you're not able to articulate what the issue is or what the contribution is that you've made.

I think that's.

I think that's a great.

Yeah, love it.

Love all these tips.

And I think that's really important around.

I love what you talked about, you know, really understanding the organization.

So who are they?

What are they looking for?

Sometimes I've, like, been a judge and we've had some fantastic applications, but they actually want to see a variety of types of people win it.

So for example, they go, oh, We've already got 10 applications from a civil engineer.

We want to have a mechanical in the mix.

So sometimes you can just miss out because of that.

So you really need to figure out what makes you different and has you stand out from those people that can be similar from you as well.

I think that's really important.

And I, and I think the STAR Method is very, very powerful.

I think if there's one thing besides that framing kind of aspect or that, that starting line, one thing that people make a mistake on in award applications is not talking about the significance of the thing that they're working on.

So a simple example for me, I could say, oh, I was a project manager at Brisbane City Council when I was 23 years old.

How I say that?

Another way to say that is also Felicity was project managing $45 million worth of road projects at 23 years old.

That's pretty obvious.

Which one sounds better?

People think, oh, local council.

Or you can say it the other way.

Oh, 45 million.

23.

Oh, okay, that's pretty cool.

So what are some little things you can add in to make it significant?

Because also people don't understand the projects often that they work, that we're working on, but we know it really, really well.

So I think if you can really articulate that, that very powerfully.

Again, the STAR Method is a fantastic framework to use.

And lastly, on your point around.

Oh, my gosh, I just totally forgot what I was going to say.

I was just judging the Young Achiever Awards in Australia and I was judging a specific category.

And what was really interesting to me in that experience is that we had to kind of assess young people that are making a difference in their regional communities.

And we had kind of two very different cases.

One young girl who identified with the LGBTQTI community was, you know, bringing about a project that was really, really significant in her context because it was a small regional community, probably not as welcoming to the LGBTI community.

So, like, that individual is really putting themselves out there to make changes versus somebody who had established a charity that had contributed millions of dollars to cancer research.

And when you think about impact, the guy that's contributed millions to cancer research may appear to be the bigger contributor with the bigger impact, but actually sometimes it's the story about the person that's put themselves out and put themselves in a position where they're changing the narrative of their community.

Whilst the impact might not be directly as clear and as significant as a million dollars, for instance, that person actually got selected for the award because it was about young people making change and changing the narrative in their regional community.

So again, that comes back to understanding what is this award organization?

Why are they issuing them?

So that you can tailor your story to their specific interest.

Case the young girl, you know, that was pioneering LGBTQTI changes and non for profit ended up winning.

So, you know, don't always measure your impact by numbers or, you know, your own personal bias and perception.

Try and curate the narrative based on the impact that you're trying to drive because that's just as important as the numbers.

Yeah, such a good example.

I think that's super clear because.

Exactly.

Yeah.

So good.

Because yes, it can be.

Might not seem significant, you know, in those contexts, but it is actually really, really important work.

And that's up to that.

The writer of the submission to actually frame that, you just reminded me I did lose an award, the QUT Alumni of the Year award, to a guy who made a bionic heart out of like titanium and metal.

And I was like, that's a fair call.

I mean, I don't think anyone could not, like, up against him.

I was like, mate, like, I'm not a sore loser for not getting this.

You're incredible.

That is so cool.

The thing I was going to mention earlier was just around ChatGPT, I think it is a really powerful tool.

The way I used it recently in the award submissions I was helping with was I would write out my long brain dump version of everything I wanted to say.

I would deeply think and invest a lot of time thinking about the framing, thinking about those opening sentences.

The submission only was.

Was only three words long and I written 700 words.

So I did leverage ChatGPT to say, here's what I've written.

Can you condense it to make it flow and have, you know, keep the essence of it, keep the impact, but make it more succinct.

So I've used it in those kinds of ways more recently.

I'm sure there's like AI pros out there who've got even better tips than I have, but I think it's really important to have it written, be written authentically because often, you know, you can tell when it is generic.

And I think it's really important to make sure you keep that in there.

So, yes, to ChatGPT, I just use it to short cut things, which I think is the hard part is actually making it succinct.

Yeah, absolutely.

And just remember, if you don't put in effort, then you, your, your output is only going to be as good as your input.

So if you're putting a huge amount of information into these tools, you'll generally get an incredible output.

So always a big proponent of leveraging technology and everyone around us is doing that already today.

So if you're not doing it, you're kind of behind.

So how do you put that to good use and make sure that when we're considering, you know, the organization and what impact they're trying to drive and the eligibility criteria and your unique stories, how do you curate a creative response to all of that?

We do that with incredible tools that are able to do that for us very quickly.

So, yeah, I think that's all I have, Felicity.

Yeah, I think again, be aware of what awards programs and applications are available in your industry.

Again, can't speak to the influence and impact that that can have on your career.

The sooner you get involved, the better.

If you need any other support or you've got friends asking how they apply, please send them this link to our episode.

We hope this has been super useful for you and really appreciate you guys coming along with us today to hear about how we apply for awards.

So good.

Good luck with all your award applications.

Can't wait to see what you accomplish.

Thanks, Renee.

I loved your tips today.

It's been awesome.

Awesome, right back at you.

Thanks, Felicity.