In 2012, Gladstone Regional Council’s Manager People and Performance developed a multi-tier approach to improving general leadership within the organisation and the way it influenced leadership in a volatile, resource driven economy.
“Council, as a significant employer and influencer in the region, has a civic duty to promote growth through strong leadership,” said Chris Phillips, Manager People and Performance.
This commitment by the organisation has seen the successful development and implementation of Gladstone Regional Council’s Leadership Academy.
The Academy has four key tiers presently targeting different areas of the organisation and relevant skill levels: executive leadership fitness, future leaders, aspiring leaders and the new supervisor induction program.
The Executive Leadership Fitness program provides a suite of reminder style programs that are relevant to senior employees daily issues.
From ‘difficult conversations’ to Leadership Master classes and Executive Coaching to targeted problem solving workshops, the program helps build the skills of senior employees who are expected to display exemplary leadership.
The Future Leaders is the flagship program of the Academy and is now into its third intake.
The program is across industry, inviting participation from every sector.
Typically three quarters of the 20 participants are not from Council.
The program has been so successful in the region that demand drove an early extra intake this year.
The ten-month course is designed to offer practical embedded learning and monthly leadership master classes, resulting in a nationally recognised Cert. IV qualification.
The Aspiring Leads program was born from the overwhelming internal response to the Future Leaders Program that see’s many more people interested than there are positions available.
The program is across industry however Gladstone Regional Council has reserved the lion’s share of places.
Finally the new Supervisor Induction Program is designed to give new leaders guidance.
More often than not people at this early stage are promoted on their technical skills, not their people management skills that could lead to a number of human resource issues.
The program has two modules, the first of which is all about the organisational expectations from time keeping and recording to Code of Conduct expectations- at a supervisory level.
The second module addresses the base skills needed to be a beginning leader and includes topics around managing people that used to be teammates and having the difficult conversations.
