Turia Pitt- CAFS

Katie Boatwright

Description

Background

Turia Pitt is a 34-year-old Australian mining engineer and athlete who gained recognition for
surviving severe burning during a marathon. She was born on the 24 of July 1987 in Tahiti,
French Polynesia. She is married to Michael Hoskin and has two children, Hakavai and
Celestine Hoskin. She is currently a motivational speaker and author which has helped her
become an Ambassador for Resurge International. Turia Pitt attended Ulladulla Public
School and Ulladulla High School. She then enrolled into the University of New South Wales
(UNSW) where she graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering (Mining) / Bachelor of Science
in 2010. In one of Pitts many books, she talks about what caused the burns that cover 65%
of her body, she states ‘In 2011, I was a mining engineer, living my dream life in the
Australian outback. Then, while competing in a 100km ultra-marathon, I was caught in a
grassfire. I was choppered out of the remote desert barely alive, with full thickness burns to
65 percent of my body. I lost seven fingers, had over 200 medical procedures and spent two
gruelling years in recovery.’

Achievements

Turia Pitt has accumulated many achievements throughout her life including being named
the NSW premiers woman of the year along with being a finalist for young Australian of the
year. Turia has been of the cover of Australian Women weekly and has become a judge for
Australian Woman of the Future Fund. Pitt has become a bestselling author, a two-time
ironman and humanitarian. Turia Pitt also helps raise money for many fundraisers including
Interplast. She is currently a well-known motivational speaker who talks about her
experiences at many different events.

Leadership style / traits

The leadership style which Turia Pitt belongs to is democratic. This is because democratic
leaders typically participate and allow others to express their opinions on the topic. Turia is
known for being passionate, indomitable, inspirational, generous. Her attitude and
commitment to make a difference by demonstrating that anything is possible. Her
personality is backed up by a "never say never" attitude, "anything can be achieved"
mindset. These traits help her to exceeds as an effective democratic leader.

Why I chose Turia

The reasoning behind choosing Turia Pitt is because she did not allow a tragic situation to
minimise or limit the way she viewed her life. She continued to excel and use her influence
and experiences to inspire others as she overcame her unfortunate circumstances. Turia
became a motivational speaker and talks to the public through different events and
encourages others who may have faced a devastating impact on their life. Turia is an
example of a determined and resilient woman who didn’t let a disability change her attitude
towards her goals and career. She has fought endless battles and overall is an inspiration to
others, this is why I chose her.

An examination of a challenge/hardship Turia has had to undertake/overcome on her way

to becoming successful.

A hardship Turia Pitt has had to overcome on her way to becoming successful was trying to
deal with surviving severe burning from participating in a marathon. She faced many
challenges as a complication of these burning such as having to spend 6 months in hospital,
losing seven of her fingers, undergoing over 200 surgeries and needing 2 years to recover.
The five decision making steps including access to resources, Complexity of the problem,
Past experiences & personal values, Attitudes to change and Sociocultural factors were
implemented to solve or deal with her struggles as a result of her burns. The access to
resources Turia received was kept confidential between her and the Hong-Kong based
organisers (they organised the marathon knowing there was a high risk for bushfires) which
was settled in the NSW supreme court in May 2014. It was rumoured that the settlement
was worth $10 million. This money helped her with the cost of all the necessary surgeries
and hospital visit Turia now needs which allows her to remain healthy and alive. Turia is also
eligible for the ‘The Disability Discrimination Act’ which makes discriminating against
someone with a disability unlawful and promotes equal opportunities, rights and aces for
these people. In terms of sociocultural factors, Turia was overloaded with support from her
husband and children. They attended her 43km run, 3.8km swimming and cycling 180km
events in which they supported all her the way and embraced her as she finished the races.
Her socioeconomic status has increased after receiving financial benefits to compensate her
tragic situation. Past experiences & personal values play a major role in Turia’s life. She has
stated on numerous occasions that three personal values she will teach her children such as
surrounding yourself with like-minded/positive people who support you, be grateful for
what you have each day and always work towards a goal. By doing these personal values,
Turia hopes her son will learn the importance of thinking about what’s he is appreciative for
each day, that hard work takes dedication and the importance of family. Turia has learnt
from past experiences that it is important to remember and remind others that you can
always look to family for guidance and support. She embraces this because of the support
she received from her family through her years of recovery and surgeries. Turia has had to
embrace change and adapt to a new view and perspective on her life along with her attitude
to change. She was no longer able to continue her engineering career but instead made a
new career out of motivational speaking and becoming an accomplished author. She had to
accept her new appearance and deal with mental health. She suffered from bullying in
regard to her appearance many times from fellow ironman competitors which made her feel
negative. The complexity of Turias problem was life altering, it pushed her to take up a new
career in motivational speaking and being an author. She has used her situation to help
others access resources and adapt to their own personal experiences. For example, Pitt has
raised thousands of dollars for many fundraisers which give others the opportunity to get
the surgeries they need. These factors influenced Turias decision making by allowing her to
give herself the best chance at becoming successful despite the hardships she has had to
face.
An assessment of Turia’s adaptability and flexibility.

Turia Pitt is a flexible and adaptable leader as she is able to quickly adjust her attitude,
styles, techniques and strategies in unpredictable environment such as her motivation
speeches. She is able to assimilate new ideas/plans into her events while maintaining her
key points and achieving her goals. Being a leader who can adapt easily is an important
quality to have as it allows you to connect with different audiences and environments.
Without this skill, you may not be as an effective leader because you remain narrow
minded. Flexibility is a key feature to acquire as it allows you to be versatile and modify your
leadership skills to improve and benefit the topic you’re speaking on. These skills allow
leaders to have positive relationships because it shows you are willing compromise which
then allows trust and safety to be brought in the relationship. This creates an atmosphere
where everyone feels heard, seen and have their opinions taken into consideration. Turia is
a popular ‘keynote’ speaker and needs to change up her leadership style to fit the
environment of speeches, whether that be schools, businesses, communities or other
groups which shows she is a flexible and adaptable leader.

An assessment of the effectiveness of Turia’s leadership skills.

Turia is an effective leader since she is a clear communicator and has a positive mindset
which allows her to exceed in a wide range of leadership tasks. She has many leadership
skills such as being able to relate to the topic and people she is talking too. She emphasises
and deeply care about the issues she speaks on. She advocates for the people who feel as if
they don’t have enough power to make a difference. Turia is a creative and enthusiastic
leader which gives her the ability to succeed. She has many successes throughout her life
like helping over 6000 people to achieve their goals in many areas of life through her
program 'School of Champions'. She has also completed two ironman’s and raised
thousands of dollars for fundraisers including interplast. Turia has released many books and
autobiographies about her life and experiences. However, Turia has had many fails
throughout her career which she recently shared in order to demonstrate everyone makes
mistakes. For example, Pitt stated that her first speech she gave after she got her burns
results in her running off the stage, she said ‘I was booked for an hour. I got scared,
mumbled through some nonsense for five minutes, before fleeing from the stage (and when
I say fleeing, I mean, I ran. I physically RAN from the stage),'. Another fail that Pitt admitted
too was confusing the location of the NSW Premier's Women of the Year in 2014, which she
was a finalist for, she mixed the event's 'Parliament House' location for being in Canberra,
and didn't realise until she was interstate that the event was in Sydney. Turia has since
explained that these mistakes along the way of her career have helped her to become a
better leader by knowing and now understanding the importance of effective leadership
skills. Overall, in my opinion Turia is a very influential leader because she inspires positivity
and beats every expectation society has placed on her. She radiates happiness and passion
for helping others which makes her an exceptional leader.

Bibioloigraphy
British Broadcasting Corporation ,(30 May 2014), <https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-
27631201>

Halogen, (2019), <https://www.halogen.org.au/content/3-key-leadership-insights-from-turia-

pitts-story/gjzqnd?permcode=gjzqnd >

Harriet Edmund, (25 August 2017),

<https://www.macarthuradvertiser.com.au/story/4880940/turia-pitt-on-the-three-things-she-
will-teach-my-son/ >

Keynote entertainment,(2020),
<https://www.keynoteentertainment.com.au/speakers/motivational-inspirational-speakers/
turia-pitt >

Prajwal Furtado, (31st October 2021), < https://dailynewscatcher.com/turia-pitt-biography/ >

Turia Pitt, (2019), < https://www.turiapitt.com/my-story/ >