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Water Leadership Program & New Blog The Leadership Stream

Author: Dr Brian McIntosh, Education and Training Lead

“Management makes a system work. It helps you do what you know how to do. Leadership builds systems or transforms old ones.”
― John P. Kotter, Leading Change

Leadership skills are core to driving change or transformation, to innovating and adapting. They underpin effective team, project and program performance, and are responsible for enabling water leaders to participate in the collaborative, social processes that create Direction (shared goals), Alignment (of work to achieve those goals) and Commitment (to achieving those goals) (read more on this, the DAC model here). We need to do much more to build those skills in water professionals, and to grow water leaders at every level in organisations if we are to be able to effectively adapt to climate change, to protect and restore our catchments and waterways, and to ensure universal access to clean water and sanitation.

Luckily, we know quite a lot about different leadership roles that are involved in driving change in the water sector (read more here) and, crucially, how to go about developing leaders able to play those roles. There is a rich body of research into leadership development – what works, and what is needed to effectively build the skills and behaviours to participate as a leader in the process of leadership. Leadership development requires careful, evidence based program design if it is to be effective.

The IWC is committed to using research and evidence based methods for everything that it does. The Water Leadership Program incorporates many of the key principles and practices that we know from research are required for effective development of water leaders:

  • Design and content (e.g. conceptual models and leadership tools) should be informed by sound research that is relevant to people playing different roles in the water sector.
  • Consistency with the ‘70:20:10 rule’ of leadership development which suggests that approximately 70% of leadership development occurs through conscious practice, 20% through developmental relationships (e.g. coaching, mentoring and feedback), and 10% from structured training which plays an important amplifying effect.
  • Be transparent in program design, content and evaluation (e.g. communicated through journal papers, conference papers and websites).
  • Use a feedback-intensive design – these are most likely to generate positive behavioural change and a positive return on investment to participants and their employing organisations
  • Help participants manage their own development as a leader over the long term as leadership development is a lifelong, challenging activity.
  • Include numerous opportunities for participants to build self-awareness, challenge themselves, get frequent feedback from their colleagues, receive support from colleagues, and deeply reflect.
  • Ensure there is a clear aim to build the individual capacity of water leaders to influence and drive change (leader development), as well as their capacity to work with other leaders to collectively drive group-based leadership processes (leadership development).
  • Prepare emerging leaders for current and future challenges in the water sector, as well as the ability to play different roles in the water sector. These roles include, but are not limited to, the champion leader, enabling (adaptive) leader, cross-boundary team leader, thought leader, strategic leader and trusted advisor roles.
  • Minimise the use of ‘lecture style’ presentations and maximise opportunities for interaction, discussion, self-assessment, peer-to-peer information sharing and reflection.
  • Comprehensively evaluate the program each time it is run, focus on continuous improvement, and be subject to a major review every 10 years (which was last done in 2021 for the IWC Water Leadership Program).
  • Include ‘accountability mechanisms’ to ensure that participants fully commit to the program.

To help uncover what leaders and leadership looks like in practical terms we’ve launched a new blog series, The Leadership Stream. We see water leadership as absolutely fundamental to all of our water management ambitions and needs. Our hope is to encourage more employers and future water leaders to invest and to embark on the development journey themselves. Episode 1 of the blog was based around an interview with Lisa Andersens from New South Wales Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water and can be read here. Episode 2 was based around an interview with Mark Lawrence of CMP Consulting and can be read here.

If you are based in Australia or NZ and interested in stepping up and embarking on a journey to develop your water sector leadership skills, then the Water Leadership Program will provide you with a program that contains all the major elements of effective leadership development. We have Scholarships available until 14th September and direct program applications until 31st October.