Deep insights, frank advice: Deputies Leadership Program returns for 2025

Promotion to a Deputy role in the public sector brings new responsibilities, a more politicised role, a greater need to delegate and empower staff and the personal pressures that come with being a highly visible senior leader. 

Since 2021, ANZSOG’s Deputies Leadership Program (DLP) has provided a unique space for deputies to reflect on the challenges of their new role, and have frank discussions with a range of experts who can help them understand the opportunities as well as the pressures. 

Led by Kathryn Anderson and Martin Stewart-Weeks, the ANZSOG DLP uses guest practitioners and academics for sessions that encourage deputies to build an understanding of their leadership style and how they believe they are evolving as leaders. 

For more information on how Kathryn and Martin approach the DLP, this conversation with them explores the philosophy behind the program, which combines academic thinking on public administration with current and former public servants who have ‘been there and done that’ and can help new deputies deepen their understanding of the role. 

The DLP aims to extend participants’ understanding of the broader environment they and their agencies are operating in. The 2025 program includes sessions on: the changing context for government and the public sector; adaptive leadership – leading and navigating through times of transition; integrity and ethics in public leadership; efficiency, accountability and stewardship; and leading in a digital world. 

Presenters will include: 

• Departmental Secretaries from Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand 
• Dr Rachel Bacon, deputy commissioner Australian Public Service Commission 
• Jay Weatherill, former SA Premier, Executive Director of Democracy, McKinnon
• Dr Matt Beard and Sarah Shephard, Cranlana Centre for Ethical Leadership 
• Jody Broun, CEO of the National Indigenous Australians Agency 
• Margaret Crawford PSM, former NSW Auditor-General 
• Wayne Eagleson, former chief of staff to the New Zealand Prime Minister 
• George Megalogenis, journalist and author 
• Professor Janine O’Flynn, director of the Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU 
• Sharyn O’Neill PSM, WA Public Sector Commissioner 
• Professor Sharon Pickering, vice chancellor and president Monash University 
• Danielle Wood, chair of the Productivity Commission 

One of the guest presenters in the 2025 DLP is Margaret Crawford PSM, a recently retired public servant who served in senior roles in a range of jurisdictions and policy areas, most recently as the NSW Auditor-General. She will bring her expertise to a session based around the themes of efficiency, accountability and stewardship. 

Ms Crawford said that Deputy roles were complex, requiring deputies to navigate a range of political and other pressures while keeping their focus on the things they could control. 

 “When you’re a deputy you have your area of responsibility, where you have full accountability. But you’re in this weird position where you’ve usually got a secretary and a minister, sometimes not on the same page, and you’re in the middle. You’re trying to run your show and set your area up for success, while also navigating how to respond to your boss and the government of the day,” she said. 

“I think the trap some people fall into is playing favourites, investing more in one of those relationships than another. My advice to anyone in a senior leadership position in the public service is don’t get distracted by the noise, just put your head down, do a good job, and make sure you’re leaving your area better off for the future.” 

Ms Crawford said that while public servants needed to be responsive to their elected governments, they needed to maintain their integrity and respect for process. 

“Being responsive to the government of the day is so important these days, but that doesn’t mean to say you have to be a cheerleader. When I became the Auditor-General one of the takeouts for me, looking across the public service, was that people at the most senior levels of government, were getting caught up in the rhetoric and the excitement of whatever agenda the government had,” she said. 

“Too often people were told, just cut through, don’t worry about following good processes and systems, just get it done. But what I found was that often the best way to achieve good outcomes was to follow good systems and processes. 

“Really good senior public servants are brilliant at working a path through that is both responsive to government and their minister, but does not cross over any line to breach their own integrity.” 

Ms Crawford said that with the wide range of pressures on them, deputies needed to learn to delegate and empower their staff, and to make sure they build their own connections and avoided being stuck in a silo. 

“Make sure that you recruit and train great people to work with you. Make sure they understand role and purpose and then step back. You should be behind your people rather than in front of them. Back them in, rather than doing things for them,” she said. 

“It’s really critical as a deputy to stay connected. The broader your network the better. Networking to me has never been about standing around with a glass of wine chatting. It’s always been about working effectively with others, and thinking outside your own area. Where is there a similar challenge? Where is there somebody else working on something like what I’m working on? How could I connect with that person and both help them and get some help myself?”  

She said that after decades of outsourcing and commissioning, there was a shift back to governments doing more things themselves. 

“I think that’s going to be an interesting shift for the public sector to actually be a little bit more hands-on again, and tricky at a time when it’s also being asked to do everything with reduced budgets,” she said. 

“Efficiency is something that we’ve lost a little bit of over the years and I think it may become a bigger issue again. There will be more emphasis on trying to work out smarter, better ways of doing things rather than just continuing on the same journey.” 

 Ms Crawford said that the Deputies program provided a unique opportunity for participants to step back from their work and get a broader understanding of the pressures, and possibilities, of their role. 

“That opportunity to reflect is fantastic. They also get to understand that they’re not by themselves, that all the other deputies are going through the same thing and how much they’ve got in common and can learn from each other.”  

The ANZSOG Deputies Leadership Program is designed for deputies with up to two years’ experience in the role and is co-led by Kathryn Anderson, a former Deputy Secretary in the Victorian Public Service, who draws on thirty years of public sector experience to help organisations solve complex problems and deliver greater impact, and Martin Stewart-Weeks, ANZSOG Practice Fellow for Digital Government and Leadership, who has worked as a strategic thinker, organisational consultant, policy analyst, facilitator and writer, and draws on over 35 years’ experience spanning government, the “for purpose” or social sector and the corporate sector.  

The 2025 Deputies Leadership Program will be delivered in two in-person three-day modules – both in Melbourne on the 10-12 September and 15-17 October. Registrations are now open 

The learning experience will be highly interactive, with small group discussions and reflection forming a central part of the program. Places are limited to about 30 per cohort to ensure a positive peer learning experience.