This month we chatted with Jamie Dunnicliff, Strategic Procurement Lead, Cities of Charles Sturt and Marion about being recognised as the Emerging Leader of the Year at the recent Leadership Excellence Awards, and his career thus far.

What is your role and what does it involve?

My role oversees the Strategic Procurement function at City of Charles Sturt and City of Marion. Both teams operate as one larger team across the two councils to support and facilitate procurement activities. I split my time across the two councils to oversee the teams and support the business functions.

What do you enjoy the most about working in local government?

I really enjoy the tangible outcomes of the projects and processes you get the opportunity to be a part of, knowing that the community can directly benefit from these initiatives provides a high level of satisfaction.

Joining a sector where there is a high level of collaboration and support from employees within the council and across other councils is an added benefit of the sector.

Congratulations on your recent award for Emerging Leader of the Year at the LG Professionals SA 19^th Annual Leadership Excellence Awards. What does this award mean to you?

Thank you, it’s quite a humbling award to win, I’m greatly appreciative of my leaders taking the time to nominate me for the prestigious award. From my personal perspective, I’m thankful for the terrific opportunity to have such a diverse role. My team have been terrific to lead over the past 19 months, which has made the assimilation into Local Government very easy. Having two closely aligned organisations has also assisted in being able to work seamlessly at each office. The Executive Leadership at each council have also been incredibly welcoming and supportive of the new role.

What do you think makes a good leader?

I believe good leadership is a mix of many different attributes. Most importantly it’s about the connection to your team members, the understanding and open communication with them to all be inclusive and supportive in our roles. Being able to lead by example is another key element.

A strong focus on the emotional intelligence aspect of leadership has been an important focus for me personally, whereby my staff and I can enjoy a very healthy working relationship, whilst also having a strong foundation of care and well-being, this has been especially important over the past few months during COVID.

Finally – what do you enjoy outside of work? How do you spend your leisure time?

Now that I’ve retired from cricket, I enjoy playing golf each weekend, I’m also President of the Golf Club, which takes up a bit of my spare time. I also coach my son’s Under 8’s football team at Flagstaff Hill Football Club, which is terrific fun.