Time for you to work on your Leadership craft

By Nicole Murphy, Leadership & Graduate Development I APS Academy

We all know what it takes to improve in anything we do in life: get better at the things we do well, and improve the things we don’t do so well. Often APS staff are finding their ability to develop their leadership craft being impeded by either the culture around them, or the way leadership training can be delivered.

For a long time, the concept was to send people to leadership experts. These leadership experts would tell them the latest in leadership concepts, talking to them about its application, and really to inspire them. The issue becomes when people return to the workplace. Either they’ll start with good intentions, but then it will fall by the wayside or they’ll get back to work, be unable to see how to apply what they learnt to their workplace and then forget about what they learned because they cannot see the relevance.

This is why the APS Academy developed the Continuous Learning Model, and why programs such as APS Leadership Edge are being run. The APS Continuous Learning model reflects how people learn in the workplace and APS Leadership Edge embraces these adult learning principles.

 

Pictorial of 4 hexagons in which are the words, Work; People; Resources: and Courses. These hexagons are surrounded by 4 illustrative images of a person at a desk; a group of 4 people standing together; a chart; and a stack of books with an academic mortar board on the top.

The Continuous Learning Model acknowledges the place of courses, but it’s just one of four ways people can learn. You can learn from People (e.g. by shadowing someone, or having people with particular skills in your team teach others how to do things). You can learn from Work (e.g. by taking on a new opportunity, or trying a different way of doing something). You can learn from Resources (e.g. by listening to a podcast, or subscribing to a newsletter).

Then there are programs like APS Leadership Edge. It pulls together all four aspects of the continuous learning model (courses, people, work and resources) into the one program.

  • Courses – this involves undertaking 4 learning sprints, dealing with topics and capabilities important in the APS. In 2024, the learning sprints covered integrity, psychological safety, adaptive leadership, mentoring skills and good work design. In 2025, the Academy will be introducing Stewardship into the mix to help develop this new value of the APS.
  • People – within the learning sprints, and through the Masterclasses, you will be constantly learning from experts and practitioners from across the APS. This includes through activities such as ‘Peer Pods’ – small groups where you develop relationships with participants from across the APS to share your experiences, your shared understanding and help each other.
  • Work – because APS Leadership Edge is delivered virtually, and mostly asynchronously, you aren’t being removed from work to do something artificial. You learn around your work and then within your work, as you are work through applied practice exercises between learning sprints to develop your new leadership capabilities.
  • Resources – the program provides a range of resources, and also brings together currently existing resources into one place so they are easy for you to find and use.

In 2025, the Academy is looking to expand APS Leadership Edge. We will offer a core program, and an extension program. We will offer more Masterclasses and great resources. This will provide participants with greater flexibility to learn with on-demand learning sprints as well as time-boxed learning sprints.

The aim is for every EL2 in the public service to have the opportunity to participate in APS Leadership Edge. And to ensure that we are developing the next group of EL2s, we will also be opening the course to EL1s in 2025. Want to ensure you don’t miss out on taking part in APS Leadership Edge in 2025? Contact the team to be put on the mailing list.

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