Building leadership capability

Leaders at Rockhampton Regional Council learn to recognise skills amongst their team members which will identify areas for improvement.

Rockhampton Regional Council, Queensland, is harnessing the skills of its diverse and experienced leadership team to build the capabilities of current and emerging leaders within the organisation. 


The Organisational Development unit has been hard at work developing manager and leader toolkits containing a range of resources and frameworks to support self-directed learning, facilitate in-house workshops and build leadership capability.

One area of focus has been the development of the Values Aligned Skills, where Council has identified the skills and attributes that align with its corporate values, of One Team, Accountable, Customer Focused, People Development and Continuous Improvement. Human Resource Coordinator, Lawrie Whouley, said, “By clearly articulating what our Values Aligned Skills are, we are able to teach our leaders how to recognise these attributes amongst their teams and focus on areas of improvement. 

“We have even built them in to our performance review process and our recruitment processes to further shape and drive our culture that is defined by our values.”

A Leadership Capability Framework has been developed to set leadership expectations, align performance as leaders to the business direction and desired culture and support leadership development at all levels of their leadership pipeline.

Building Leadership Capability is a key focus for Council’s Human Resources (HR) strategy and initiatives over the next three years. 

It is envisaged that leaders and people will begin to see a link between HR initiatives or process improvements, and the four imperatives that make up the plan: Culture, Leadership, People and Performance.

Senior Organisational Officer, Ann Buchholz, said, “We are always looking at ways to demonstrate our value of Continuous Improvement and it is hoped that our Leadership Capability Framework will evolve to becoming an invaluable resource to assist with all aspects of
leadership development.”