LOCAL GOVERNMENT LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
Strategic Public Leaders
Strategic Public Leaders helps you leave a legacy you can be proud of.
We bring governance and management together and learn the skills you’ve always needed to think long-term, get out of the operational weeds and make great decisions for your community.
WHO THIS IS FOR
Elected members and executive managers who want to become more strategic and effective civic leaders.
Governance officers and other select staff may also attend as appropriate.
FORMAT
Two days of interactive leadership workshops with all Councillors and the executive team at an off-site venue.
Coaching and strategic planning support as needed and by arrangement.
OBJECTIVES
Empowering strategic local government leaders to deliver community outcomes
Most leadership development programs are off the shelf and targeted at the private sector. Elected members learn to be company directors, Council officers learn to be corporate executives - and communities miss out on the leadership they need.
Strategic Public Leaders is exclusively designed for local government leaders. You'll learn proven strategies that work in this uniquely visible and regulated sector. All content is tailored to suit the pressures and privileges of local government and delivered by a local government expert.
We don't lose the crowd with boring slide-shows and complex theory. We get runs on the board fast by learning skills you can put to the test in the room. That means that by the end of two days, Councillors and executive managers have new tools and strategies at their disposal to run better meetings, make better decisions and move beyond the pull of the operational to make a real difference.
Get out of the weeds
Go beyond potholes and barking dogs. Learn to ask great questions, interrogate systems and make changes to the big picture.
Make better decisions
What is a great decision made of, and how do you produce it? Feel more confident choosing a future direction with decision skills.
Respond to change
Your conditions will change as soon as the ink on your last strategic plan is dry. Learn how to lead through uncertainty and make progress.
“One of the best things about working with Alicia was that it brought the team closer together. Council staff and Councillors are the closest I've seen in my three years in Council. And many people I've spoken to, who’ve been here longer than me, say the same thing.”
- Liam Wood, Mayor, Mildura Rural City Council
Local leaders need to see the big picture
You are operating in a state of constant flux. Community needs and expectations, regulatory constraints, organisational change and political upheaval demand more, better and different from you all the time. Organisations and communities will be left behind without leaders who can collaborate, change course, and take strategic risks.
As senior local government leaders, you must chart a course for your community. You must understand the long-term forces and consequences at play, see how the pieces fit together and recognise the challenges, barriers and competing interests that make it difficult for others to create lasting change.
This responsibility comes with the incredible privilege of representing your community’s best interests and making decisions - popular or not! - that will serve the greater good.
Without your leadership, decisions that change the shape of your community will be short-term, fragmented and biased. People need you to fully inhabit the potential of your role and resist the urge to become bogged down in the everyday.
Your community deserves the best of you
Community leadership is different from running a business. The goals, trade-offs and context are very different – making decisions more complex and, potentially, more impactful. We must think long-term, act right now, and operate in a highly regulated, visible environment that balances political representation and operational constraints.
Strategic leaders make visible, intentional choices that drive change and transformation for a better future.
When our leaders are strategic, they play a long game, carefully building relationships and establishing building blocks that will shape organisations, serve communities and deliver lasting impact. Lifting leaders out of their technical and operational comfort zones provides the direction, systems and support to navigate change and grapple with the future.
With more strategic leaders, your teams make decisions that turn your vision and direction into actionable work programmes. Decisions stick, managers are confident and engaged, and there is high trust between governance, management and community stakeholders, enabling everyone to focus on what they do best.
“People go to so many trainings and some of them thought that this would be another regular course. But very quickly, they realised Alicia had a very different approach. She’s hands-on, getting us to think big picture and do group exercises. That approach appealed. I could see enthusiasm building as the day went on. By the end of day two, we were all sharing what we’d learned and how we could apply it to our sticking points as Council.”
Anne-Marie Cade, Mayor, Glen Eira City Council
TOPICS
What you'll learn
Local government faces three common strategic problems:
- Short-termism and narrow perspective weakens Council's big-picture impact
- Misaligned objectives between Councillors and Council managers slows down progress
- Overambitious expectations dilute effectiveness through scattered and inconsistent decisions.
Addressing these three problems requires three fundamental shifts: Perspective, Relationships and Decisions.
Perspective
Lift your gaze and leverage your impact. Expand your perspective to consider the horizon, significance and context of your choices, and leave a legacy you can be proud of.
Relationships
Do your job - and only your job. Unite leaders around a shared purpose and build governance and management relationships based on role clarity, reliance and respect.
Decisions
Create robust strategic decision processes. With clear direction, Council officers, stakeholders and the community are empowered to do amazing things.
Every SPL programme works on these three shifts, tailored to your Council's specific needs and priorities. Once we review the results of your Attendee Survey, we'll better understand your needs.
All workshops cover:
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Role clarity between governance and management
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Local government strategy - and your role in it
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Decision-making tools and frameworks
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How to ask better quality questions
Leaders will discuss legacy leadership, systems thinking and strategy. They'll learn practical tools for making difficult decisions, planning long-term, managing the governance-management dynamic, navigating bureaucracy and regulation and engaging with the community and other stakeholders.
The outcomes of our time together:
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Greater role clarity within and between elected and executive leaders
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Confidence applying decision-making tools and frameworks
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A sense of shared strategic purpose.
“It’s difficult to find a facilitator who understands local government. Alicia was a perfect fit. She was really on top of our issues. She is someone from local government, who understands what is happening for us. She handled things beautifully at exactly the right pace and the right level. There were no jarring moments.”
- Mayor Heather Holmes-Ross, City of Mitcham Council
FORMAT
Workshop structure and style
Alicia’s style is open, fun, and challenging. You will benefit from:
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Practical examples and case studies.
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Access to exclusive resources and templates.
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Best-practice strategic leadership frameworks.
Time and agenda
Each workshop day runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. We break for morning tea at 10:30 a.m. and lunch at 12:30 p.m. Workshops include interactive exercises, individual work to apply your learning to real-life challenges, and lively group discussion.
“Alicia’s strategic framework is an empowerment tool. It reminds us to ask critical questions of ourselves before we come to meetings so we can identify pitfalls and make good decisions. Having a common framework and language has changed how we talk about these things.
- Martin Hawsdon, Chief Executive, Mildura Rural City Council
PROCESS
Session planning
Once your workshop dates have been confirmed, we will liaise closely with you to tailor the experience for your Council. Steps include:
Workshop runsheet
We’ll confirm a workshop run sheet with you about a month from the workshop. The run sheet confirms venue, timing, catering, contact details, etc, for the workshops.
Briefing call
We’ll schedule a call for 2-3 weeks before our workshop. This call takes about 20 minutes and ensures we are on the same page. You can update us on your political and organisational context, and we can make sure the logistics are sorted.
Attendee survey
Two weeks before the workshop, we send out an attendee survey. The anonymised survey gathers valuable baseline data to inform workshop planning.
“I thought I'd be challenged, but I didn't realise we'd have so much fun. Alicia made us laugh. She also constantly lifted us to that strategic level and made us realise we were operating in the weeds. And it felt relevant to Mitcham. It wasn't a cookie cutter programme rolling out a model she'd presented a hundred times.”
- Matthew Pears, CEO, City of Mitcham Council
Case studies