We caught up with one of this year’s Emerging Leaders Program cohort, Amanda Holden, Senior Systems Accountant at City of Mitcham to find out how she's finding the program so far.

What made you sign up for the Emerging Leaders Program?

I am always interested in self-improvement, I have social anxiety, so I wanted to join this program to help push myself into situations that push me out of my comfort zone. This helps me develop more confidence in myself. I also wanted to build my network in local government, I have only been in local government for around 4.5 years and have only worked for one council. I thought this would be a great opportunity to meet others from different councils. Also, I wanted to learn more about leadership skills to help with career progression.

The most recent module focused on Culture – what was your biggest take away from this session?

I really enjoyed the speakers from the modules, in particular it was great hearing from Tony Piccolo who gave insight into local governments interaction with state government and his experiences in local government. It made me think about how council can use local MPs to help bridge the gap between local and state government on important issues. 

I really enjoyed hearing from Paul Di Iulio the CEO of Campbelltown, in particular the focus on innovation and how the ARC came to fruition. It was great to see big picture thinking happening in council and how innovation can have a positive impact. It was great having a tour of the ARC to see what facilities they offered.

What are you most looking forward to as the program progresses?

Learning more about leadership skills and putting them into practice. I am looking forward to the module on Leading Change as this subject is very valid in the ever-changing world and in my short time in council I have been a part of some really big changes so far. I have found the modules delivered by UniSA very interesting and have allowed for a lot of self-reflection. In particular looking at the way I interact with people around me and how I my perceptions of interactions, could be perceived differently from those around me. I am excited about the group project, I think that my team have picked a really interesting and relevant subject and look forward to December to see all the group project.

We caught up with one of this year’s Emerging Leaders Program cohort, Rupinder Singh, Project Leader at City of Port Adelaide Enfield to find out how he's finding the program so far.

What made you sign up for the Emerging Leaders Program?

I wanted to participate in the Emerging Leaders Program as I have progressed in my local government career from a graduate Civil Engineering role to a Civil Projects Leader which requires sound leadership and project management skills to plan, lead and manage resources involving office and field staff to deliver design and construction projects. I previously participated in my Council’s own Emerging Leaders program which was quite helpful and shed some light on the key areas of leadership and I wanted to explore that further with the Local Government Professionals Program.

The most recent module focused on Culture – what was your biggest take away from this session?

I enjoyed the module focused on Culture and got to know why an organisation’s culture is so important and the extent of influence it can have on the overall health of the organisation, their people and customers. It’s often not discussed but it decides the way employees interact and the way we do things. The biggest take away from this session was to realize that a positive workplace culture of respect and trust increases employee engagement and productivity, health and wellbeing and retains quality staff.

What are you most looking forward to as the program progresses?

I like to make the most out of this learning and development opportunity as I grow and evolve in my new position. It has been a good journey so far by networking with fellow participants from other SA Councils. Completing my first individual assignment on the TMP provided a good insight of my strengths and weaknesses at a leadership and managerial level. I hope to use the information and experience gained to develop a more transformational style of leadership as I feel this style resonates with me and is a more effective approach within the workplace. Subsequently, I am looking forward to working collaboratively with fellow participants on a group project and utilising our combined knowledge to explore and develop the role of Local Government within the community.

We caught up with one of this year’s Emerging Leaders Program cohort, Michelle Gibbs, Senior Records Officer at The Rural City of Murray Bridge to find out what drew her to the program and how she’s finding it so far.

What made you sign up for the Emerging Leaders Program?
I have wanted to participate in the Emerging Leaders Program for some years now, particularly more so since I have been in the position of Senior Records Officer, but timing just hasn’t been right. Then last year I partook in the Rural Management Challenge, which was something else that I wanted to do for a long time. So, after doing the challenge, I was even more keen to follow this experience with the ELP. I feel I know and do my job as a Records Officer extremely well, however, there have been times where I have struggled with the leadership requirement of being a Senior, therefore this has led me to the Emerging Leaders Program.

What are you most looking forward to as the program progresses?
Although scary, I am keen to push myself out of my comfort zone to improve my leadership skills by networking with my fellow emerging leaders and drawing from my individual assignment in particular as my TMP (Team Management Profile) has provided me insight to my existing strengths but also to areas that I need to improve to become an effective leader.