Pragmatic Leadership:
national principles: local practices
Tom Short
Research Fellow – CRC for Rail Innovation
University of South Australia
Established and Supported under Australia’s
Cooperative Research Centres Programme
About the research
Workforce development program
Leadership and management development
in the Australian Rail Industry
• Two year CRC project (2009-2011)
• Six organisations
• Five States
• 75 percent of industry
• Mixed methods – comparative date
• Case studies, interviews and surveys
• Identify a capability framework
© 2012 CRC for Rail Innovation
CRC Program
E-learning
Mentoring
& Coaching
ARA
Workforce
Development
Skills
LEADERSHIP
CAPABILITY
Attraction/
Retention
Recognition
Incident
Investigator
Training
© 2012 CRC for Rail Innovation
Leadership in Australia
CIPD, 2011
• 40% of Australian firms have increased their
leadership development budget – the highest
global performance outside of Asia
• But … Australian firms have the lowest number
of talented leaders able to fill senior leadership
positions – in comparison with other economies
• 43% of leadership development initiatives are
only moderate in terms of achieving results
• 72% of internal hires are successful in
comparison with 68% of external hires
© 2012 CRC for Rail Innovation
Background in rail
•
Pressing need for industry to
develop leadership talent
•
No unified approach
•
Aspiration to harmonise
•
Misalignment – need/solution
•
Limited post-training evaluation
•
Unknown ROI or cost-benefit
© 2012 CRC for Rail Innovation
Leaders in rail
Senior
Middle
FLM
1. 73% percent of all leaders are
located in front line roles
2. Of this 73%, almost 38% have no formal
qualifications in management
3. High level of technical expertise, but low level of
capability in people management
4. Front line leaders have longer service and are less
mobile than middle/senior leaders
5. Front line leaders have less access to IT than
other groups
6. Front-line roles are context-critical in relation to
‘being able to do the job
7. Training is largely undertaken on-the-job
© 2012 CRC for Rail Innovation
Leading practice
Global
National
Sector
Pragmatic construction
GLOBAL
KNOWLEDGE
AUSTRALIAN
FRAMEWORK
RAIL
ORGANISATIONAL
NEED
© 2012 CRC for Rail Innovation
Research findings
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
Leading
Self
1
Leading
Others
2
Leading
Leaders
3
Leading
Business
4
© 2012 CRC for Rail Innovation
Analytical model
1. Capability
Frameworks
2. Frontline
Management
Initiative
3. Feedback
from leaders
© 2012 CRC for Rail Innovation
Development framework
Global
competencies
Establish competencies
from other frameworks
Rail sector
priorities
Identify the pressing needs
of the industry
Unified
approach
Align these needs with the
AQF national framework
Leadership
framework
Establish a pathway to
focus development on need
© 2012 CRC for Rail Innovation
1. Capability frameworks
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Popular, widely available
Generic, but related to context
Selected 20
Public sector, Australian focus
200 capabilities/attributes
Reduce to 30 key areas
Identified meta-competencies
Arranged in order of frequency
© 2012 CRC for Rail Innovation
Leadership capabilities
Stress and worklife balance
Commuity environment awareness
External awareness, global environments
Understand diversity and differences
Plan and organise
Motivate, inspire and empower
Manages projects
Takes risks
Continuous improvement
Mentor, coach and role model
Innovation and creativity
Customer focus
Performance management
Self awareness
Conflict resolution
Negotiates, influences and engages
Effective management of resources
Knowledge and information management
Working with teams
Development of others, learning culture
Communicates vision and mission
Goal setting and recults orientated
Values, integrity, ethics
Personal attributes
Strategic thinking
Compliance with structural
Change management
Decision making and problem solving
Communication Skills
Relationship building, collaboration, partnership
Generic
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
2. Frontline Management
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Aimed to up-skill front line managers
Australian Focus – Created in 1995
Aligned with AQF competencies
Staged at Level III, IV and V
Work-based assignments
11 units – 6 core and 5 elective
Aligned with leadership capabilities and
rail themes
• 5 core units = 50% of capabilities
• Cert III = 60% of capabilities
• Cert V = 80% of capabilities
© 2012 CRC for Rail Innovation
3. Feedback from leaders
•
•
•
•
Survey - over 200 managers
7 major organisations
700 responses
33% from middle mangers who provided
insight on front-line leader performance
• Six key themes of development:
− Strategic leader
− Organised leader
− Results-drive leader
− Caring leader
− Inclusive leader
− Authentic leader
© 2012 CRC for Rail Innovation
Caption
Descriptor
Vision and purpose
Provides direction towards long-term aims and objectives
Take intelligent risks
Able to evaluate the upside and minimise the adverse effects of the downside
Innovative
Develops ideas and fresh thinking on how to create new opportunities
Inspires
Creates a sense of belief and inner passion towards the purpose
See the big picture
Able to relate shorter term activities and issues into a broader context
Shows insight
Can deduce the inner nature of things and relate to experience or context
Comparative analysis
Rail Leadership Capabilities
Priority
Leadership Theme
Frontline Management Initiative
Strategic
1
Relationship building, collaboration
2
Communication Skills
3
Decision making and problem solving
4
Change management
5
Compliance with structural
6
Strategic thinking
7
Personal attributes
8
Values, integrity, ethics
Results
Caring
Authentic
Inclusive
Manage people
Managing information
█
Managing operations
█
Manage change and innovation
█
Manage operations
█
n/a
█
█
n/a
Leadership
9
Goal setting and results orientated
Managing work priorities
10
Communicates vision and mission
Leadership
11
Development of others, learning culture
Manage people
12
Working with teams
Building teams
13
Knowledge and information management
14
Effective management of resources
Manage work priorities
15
Negotiates, influences and engages
Manage people
16
Conflict resolution
Manage people
17
Self-awareness
18
Performance management
19
Customer focus
20
Innovation and creativity
21
Mentor, coach and role model
22
Continuous improvement
23
Takes risks
24
Manages projects
25
Motivate, inspire and empower
26
Plan and organise
27
Understand diversity and differences
28
External awareness, global environments
n/a
29
Community environment awareness
n/a
30
Stress and work life balance
n/a
█
█
█
█
█
█
Manage information
█
█
n/a
█
Develop people
█
█
Manage customer service
Manage change and innovation
█
Manage people
█
█
Continuous quality improvement
Manage work priorities
█
Building teams
█
Leadership
█
Manage work priorities
█
Manage people
█
█
█
Rail references
© 2012 CRC for Rail Innovation
Organised
Number of references in analysis
Position
8
5
3
5
3
3
238
151
113
106
99
87
1
2
3
4
5
6
THANK YOU - QUESTIONS
Tom Short
CRC for Rail Innovation
University of South Australia
Established and Supported under Australia’s
Cooperative Research Centres Programme