New Water Policy and Practice Volume 1, Number 2 - Spring 2015 | Page 15

New Water Policy and Practice Table 2: Key leader competencies and leadership strategies typically associated with the champion leader role Leader Competencies Leadership Strategies • A willingness to challenge the status quo by promoting alternative approaches and taking some personal risks. • Using pilot (trial) projects to test new ideas, generate some small ‘wins’ when tackling large challenges, build credibility, influence others, strategically build important relationships, and ‘learn by doing’. • Strong communication skills both verbally and in writing. • The ability to frequently use transformational leadership behaviours, when appropriate (e.g., displaying energy, enthusiasm and confidence). • Taking the time to work with others to build a genuinely shared vision for new initiatives that are clear, compelling and reflect shared values of key people and groups. • Anticipating, planning for, and using windows of opportunity to exert influence and drive change. For example, a severe drought may create an opportunity to persuade politicians to adopt a new water recycling policy. • Monitoring their work environment to identify trends, opportunities and threats. • Political savvy (Braddy and Campbell 2013) and a thorough knowledge of the institutional system they are working in in order to identify opportunities to exert influence. Finding, altering or creating ‘venues’ in which they can successfully exert influence (e.g., river basin organisations, professional associations or expert panels). • Personal credibility that is built over time by delivering successful initiatives, setting a positive example, demonstrating expertise, building relationships and trust, keeping promises, and always acting in accordance with espoused personal values. Not leaving a change initiative until it is fully delivered. In other words, displaying the selfawareness and self-discipline needed to resist moving on to the next initiative until the job is fully done. • Using a combination of bottom-up (emergent) and top-down (formal) leadership strategies to drive change and institutionalise new approaches. • Using narratives to strategically frame issues (e.g., a crisis involving water resources) and thereby justify change and attract supporters. • Persistence and personal resilience. +