Downtown vital for CEO's daily balance

Alison Taylor

Position: Chief executive, Mental Health Foundation

Age: 34

Number of employees: 25

What makes your day at work?

Really achieving something. Often you run between meetings but don't finish anything and that's frustrating. Also building in downtime - even if it's just a coffee with a colleague. If you don't have a break, your stress levels go up. Balance is important.

How did you get where you are today?

I came from England on a Churchill Fellowship looking at the public health system and fell in love with the place. I got a job with North Health, which interviewed me the day before I went home. My interest in mental health came from a project addressing discrimination and the great thing about the foundation is it combines my passions for public and mental health because we put the two together.

What's the most important lesson you learnt on your way up?

Listen! Leadership, support and direction come only from understanding what your team thinks. Most of my decision-making is based around what other people feel and working it out together.

What pitfalls have you come across in your career?

Having too much to do, not enough time and trying to keep everybody happy. You can get isolated in a management role and it's important to have people to talk to in confidence. What really helps is having good support networks.

What advice would you give to a young person starting out?

Keep an open mind. Don't think narrowly about careers, but what transferable skills you have. Keep revisiting your own vision of what you want out of life - not just work, but free time.

What is the biggest challenge for your company? For the economy?

Shifting people's thinking to being more positive. The focus on mental health tends to be about illness and service problems, but we all have mental health and it's important to know how to look after ourselves.

The Government is starting to do the right things, but there's still a funding gap, like not enough for prevention services - we can do a lot to stop people becoming unwell. We need to be thinking about long-term investment, not short-term political gain.

What would you have done differently?

To always remember to trust to my intuition. There were definitely occasions when I should have gone with my gut feeling.

What ambitions do you have?

To see an environment that encourages people in mental health to work more closely and to do my job well while maintaining close contact with my friends and family overseas. I'd like to get to 80 and look back and think WOW! I've had a great time - I did different things, met different people and went to lots of great places.

How do you relax?

One thing I love about New Zealand is all the outdoor stuff. Kayaking is my new love. Also, I enjoy being with friends, salsa dancing, designing the garden for my new home and good vegetarian food and wine.

• Alison Taylor spoke to Lesley Springall.