Leaders that make a difference

Keynote address by Michael D'Ascenzo, Commissioner of Taxation
to the Public Sector Management Program Graduation Ceremony,
Canberra, 10 September 2009.

It is a pleasure and an honour to be here tonight. I extend a warm welcome to you all – official guests, agency leaders and representatives, program facilitators, and of course the graduates, their families and their sponsors.

In addition to Carmel’s thanks, I would like to thank the eight members of the Local Leadership Group who manage the program and guide its delivery in the ACT. Members of the group come from both the ACT and Commonwealth government sectors and play a key role in ensuring the program’s ongoing success. I thank each of them for their hard work.

In today's environment the public sector faces challenges and pressures it has never encountered before. More than ever, we need people who are equipped and prepared to face these challenges and deliver good outcomes for the community. We need leaders who can help us steer our way through an uncertain and changing landscape.

We only need to look back over the last 12 months to realise just how volatile and uncertain that landscape is. It is almost exactly 12 months since the collapse of the US investment firm, Lehman Brothers – the event that catapulted the world economy into crisis. The world has been riding the economic shock waves since that time though now we may be seeing the first green shoots of possible early recovery. Australia appears to have come through relatively unscathed but caution and prudence would still seem wise.

The past 12 months have also witnessed the impact of the swine flu pandemic, intensifying natural disasters in the form of fires and floods, continuing drought, and the ongoing debate over how we deal with climate change – to name just a few.

I believe change and uncertainty are natural givens. The challenges we face as a nation and around the world, such as climate change, water shortage, and the effects of an ageing population are large-scale and complex. They demand our attention and imagination. They also represent big issues that can’t be dealt with simply by outlaying large sums of money.

To meet these challenges, we need a public service that is responsive to the challenges of our dynamic world, and that has the capability to deliver, well, the outcomes set by government. We need a public service that is flexible, imaginative, and that works outside its own silos – across agencies, with all tiers of government and with the private and not for profit sectors.

By completing the Public Sector Management Program, those of you graduating tonight have put up your hands to be the kind of leaders we need. You are taking back to your workplaces new knowledge and skills that will help you do this. However, skills and knowledge alone are not enough.

Global leadership research undertaken in 2008/09 by the corporate training firm DDI World, has found that: 'Once reliable leadership crutches of positional influence and technical excellence are no longer sufficient enablers of leadership success.' In other words, position and authority alone will not guarantee respect and allegiance. What’s important is delivering good outcomes and to do that you will have to apply the leadership skills you have gained, and for you to model those leadership skills every day, in every encounter.

One of the most important behaviours needed is the willingness to face uncertainty directly, openly and honestly and, at the same time, to recognise that uncertainty brings possibilities and opportunities. Good leaders look for opportunities and welcome new ideas and innovation.

The APS Management Advisory Committee recently published a discussion paper to kick-start a conversation about how we can embed innovation into public sector culture. The paper stated: 'The public sector needs an environment that nurtures rather than discourages innovation – allowing staff to put forward ideas, take risks and learn from failures. For that to be achieved a different set of behaviours may be required from all levels of management.'

At some stage no doubt we have all asked ourselves, 'Why this way?' or 'Surely this could be done better?' Asking these kinds of questions is the beginning of new ways of thinking, seeing and doing. It is how imaginative, innovative solutions are born. It is one of the behaviours you will need to demonstrate if you are going to be the kind of leaders who can find pathways to solving increasingly complex problems.

But ideas alone will not guarantee outcomes so good leaders also follow through with action. In a speech to the Institute of Public Administration Australia in July, the Secretary of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Mr Terry Moran, said: 'Imagination has to go hand in hand with implementation…policy only works if it works on the ground.’

The work-based projects you completed as part of the program required you to translate your ideas into practical outcomes. This demonstrates the kind of project management skills that are so vital to program and service delivery. Continuing to apply these skills every day in your workplace means you will indeed make a tangible contribution to building a stronger public sector and a stronger nation.

Good project management also involves collaboration because we can’t achieve these kinds of outcomes on our own. That is why good leaders don't just point the way forward, they take their people with them. The public sector needs leaders who can engage and inspire others because we know that employees who are engaged are, more productive, more open to new ways of doing things and more motivated to achieve better outcomes.

This is what the Prime Minister was getting at when he spoke to the APS Senior Executive Service in June this year and said: 'The qualities of leadership that I believe are to be inspired and encouraged are: leadership that resolves to act, not simply to stand idly by. Leadership that seeks to inspire others to follow, rather than simply leaving people behind'.

The kind of leadership I’ve described is not for the faint-hearted. It is demanding and it comes with responsibility. By completing the PSM program you have shown you are willing to put yourself forward and grasp these kinds of challenges. I congratulate you on your achievement and the commitment you have shown both to yourself, to your career and to the APS and I wish you well in going forward, applying what you have learned and achieving your goals.

Work and study is a tricky act to juggle and requires the support of partners and families so I’d also like to acknowledge the sacrifices that your families have no doubt made to help you to reach tonight’s milestone.

Finally, I leave you with this thought: Your involvement in the Public Sector Management Program represents your agency's faith in you; their trust and belief that you do indeed have the qualities to be an effective leader and to make a difference. So, although the challenge before you is a significant one, I encourage you to believe in yourselves. Continue your journey of learning; wherever you see uncertainty, look for opportunity; do your best to be the kind of innovative, open and generous leaders we need in these uncertain times.

If you can do this – and do it everyday, not just in response to a crisis – you will help to build a stronger and more innovative public sector that will be even more effective in meeting the needs and expectations of our community; a public sector that can continue to evolve and rise to meet the challenges of the future, whatever that future brings.

Last Modified: Monday, 14 September 2009

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