Canning Vale man Jeffrey Mews went from working two jobs and long hours to support his young family to managing ANZ WA’s flagship branch.
Now he is being recognised for his hard work having been nominated for the Young Leadership Award in the WA Young Achiever Awards.
Mr Mews, 29, became a father at 19 and in order to support his family gave up university and started working two jobs in retail and banking.
Since then his hard work has paid off moving his way up to branch manager of the state’s biggest ANZ branch within nine years and even receiving the CEO Recognition Award.
He said his main motivation was to provide for his family, which has grown to three children.
“We weren’t planning for our first (son) to come along as we were young, 19, when we found out (my partner) Rach was pregnant,” he said.
“At that point I immediately took as many shifts as I could with my employer, Target and I had just started part time with ANZ so also tried to work as much as I could with them.
“Luckily I was moved into a full-time teller role with ANZ and I continued working Thursday nights and Saturdays at Target for as long as I could.
“Knowing that I had my wife at home expecting and then looking after our son I wanted to do everything I could to support them.
“Having a single income on a young family does put a lot of pressure on the income earner but I was very lucky to be encouraged and supported by my partner and extended families.”
Mr Mews said he takes a consultative approach to leadership and listens to what his team has to say.
“Most people would say I’m too relaxed, I don’t stress when the pressure is on, I like to listen and take on board the point of view of others before making decisions that will have big impacts particularly with staff,” he said.
He also gave some advice to other young people hoping to make a difference.
“I think people need to be the best that they can be at what they do, too often people feel they have failed when comparing themselves to others and what others have achieved,” he said.
“If you’re passionate about something and find it rewarding to do, it shouldn’t matter if there is someone that can do it faster than you or better than you.
“What should matter is you’re happy you’ve given the task, job or whatever it is 110 per cent and achieved what you wanted out of it.”
The WA Young Achiever Awards aim to encourage, reward and promote the positive achievements of young West Australians up to and including 29 years of age.
Winners will be announced on March 21.
