Senior Leader Development

Since the decentralisation of the Public Service with the State Sector Act 1988, there has been no successful collaborative, whole-of-system approach to Senior Leader development.

Over the years, individual agencies have been successful in developing their own Senior Leaders, but the decentralised nature of the Public Service means there have been few incentives for chief executives to develop senior leaders for the wider system.

The continued worldwide economic turmoil, and resulting national fiscal restraint with reduced budgets, is a driving force behind the Better Public Services Advisory Group.

As is the Government's priority, we have to work out how to deliver better public services in this constrained environment. Thus a new type of leadership is required in order to meet the challenges being faced.

This has led to the requirement for chief executives to focus on whole-of-system transformational and strategic leadership.

As a result there is now a critical requirement to develop a wide, deep pool of Senior Leaders who can ascend to and succeed in system-critical and future chief executive roles.

Key Outcomes

1 To enable the Public Service to be better positioned to deliver on the Government's key priorities.

2 To strengthen individual career and senior leader capability across the Public Service whereby senior leaders can develop both breadth and depth of experience in multiple roles, across multiple agencies.

3 To ensure senior leaders are in the right roles, with the right skills, ready to succeed to system-critical and Chief Executive roles - now and in the future. In particular to have bench strength for all Chief Executive, Senior Leader and large tier three roles.

4 To collaborate with key stakeholders and chief executives across the Public Service to deliver a common infrastructure to make this happen.

Key Messages

• World-class organisations spend a lot of time identifying, developing and managing their promising leaders. We want to be a world-class Public Service.
• Chief executives and the SSC are using our unique view of Public Service to identify and develop a pipeline of promising Senior Leaders and future chief executives.
• We are committed to providing opportunities to senior leaders to fulfil their potential. We think by working in a more collaborative and coordinated manner we can leverage the variety and scope of roles in the Public Service.
• We also want to provide appropriate opportunities for individuals to develop their career and leadership capability across agencies. This will ultimately raise organisation and sector performance, and deliver tangible shifts in New Zealand's economic and social well-being.
• The 2012 framework and process for Senior Leader Career Development is the starting point.
• The collation of Senior Leader career information in March and April is part of a more comprehensive programme that will be conducted in October and November 2012.
• This is an opt-in process and we encourage you to participate.
• You are free to make your own decision about this opportunity for developing your capabilities and skills across the system.
• We will be seeking your feedback along the way to evaluate and improve upon the process as it evolves.

Key Principles

• We are doing this in a manner that is consistent with the State Sector Act.
• Agencies and the system must benefit from a collaborative approach to Senior Leader Development and resourcing priorities.
• Every person has the responsibility to do the best for themselves in advancing their career.
• We will do this in as transparent manner as is possible.
• We will use a common infrastructure:
  • Tools, Metrics, Language, Protocols
  • The current Senior Leader Development process is using a web-based tool to collate information across agencies. Senior leaders who have been invited to participate can access the website here.
• We will work to a common timeline.