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  • 01 Understanding governance
    • 1.0 Understanding governance
    • 1.1 The important parts of governance
    • 1.2 Indigenous governance
    • 1.3 Governance in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations
    • 1.4 Case studies
  • 02 Culture and governance
    • 2.0 Culture and governance
    • 2.1 Indigenous governance and culture
    • 2.2 Two-way governance
    • 2.3 Case studies
  • 03 Getting started
    • 3.0 Getting started on building your governance
    • 3.1 Assessing your governance
    • 3.2 Mapping your community for governance
    • 3.3 Case studies
  • 04 Leadership
    • 4.0 Leadership for governance
    • 4.1 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership
    • 4.2 The challenges of leadership
    • 4.3 Evaluating your leadership
    • 4.4 Youth leadership and succession planning
    • 4.5 Building leadership capacity to govern
    • 4.6 Case studies
  • 05 Governing the organisation
    • 5.0 Governing the organisation
    • 5.1 Roles, responsibilities and rights of a governing body
    • 5.2 Accountability: what is it, to whom and how?
    • 5.3 Decision making by the governing body
    • 5.4 Governing finances and resources
    • 5.5 Communicating
    • 5.6 Future planning
    • 5.7 Building capacity and confidence for governing bodies
    • 5.8 Case studies
  • 06 Rules and policies
    • 6.0 Governance rules and policies
    • 6.1 What are governance rules?
    • 6.2 Governance rules and culture
    • 6.3 Running effective meetings
    • 6.4 Policies for organisations
    • 6.5 Case studies
  • 07 Management and staff
    • 7.0 Management and staff
    • 7.1 Managing the organisation
    • 7.2 The governing body and management
    • 7.3 Managing staff
    • 7.4 Staff development and training
    • 7.5 Case studies
  • 08 Disputes and complaints
    • 8.0 Dealing with disputes and complaints
    • 8.1 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous approaches
    • 8.2 Core principles and skills for dispute and complaint resolution
    • 8.3 Disputes and complaints about governance
    • 8.4 Your members: dealing with disputes and complaints
    • 8.5 Organisations: dealing with internal disputes and complaints
    • 8.6 Practical guidelines and approaches
    • 8.7 Case studies
  • 09 Nation building and development
    • 9.0 Governance for nation rebuilding and development
    • 9.1 What is nation rebuilding?
    • 9.2 Governance for nation rebuilding
    • 9.3 Governance for sustained development
    • 9.4 Networked governance
    • 9.5 Kick-starting the process of nation rebuilding
    • 9.6 Case studies
  • Glossary
  • Useful links
  • Acknowledgements

4.0 Leadership for governance

 04 Leadership
Copy of WayneQuilliamPhotography1663

NPY Women’s Council Co-ordinator Andrea Mason and chair Yanyi Bandicha. Image, Wayne Quilliam

Effective leadership is important for achieving better social, economic and cultural outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Governance is about more than just leadership—but without visionary and accountable leaders your governance can quickly become ineffective and can lack credibility.

Today, many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups are working to rebuild their leadership and decision-making authority; develop better ways of selecting, supporting and mentoring their young leaders; and establishing more effective governing bodies.

To revitalise their leadership, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are tackling fundamental questions such as:

  • What is leadership and why is it important?
  • What kind of leadership contributes to effective, legitimate governance in nations and communities?
  • How can you evaluate your leadership for governance?
  • How can you develop the next generation of strong leaders?

This topic gives you information and ideas about developing and strengthening your leadership. You will also find several tools to help you support, sustain and evaluate them.

Topic 5 includes more detailed information about the work of leaders in the governing bodies of incorporated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations.

4.0.1 What is leadership and why is it important?

There are many definitions of leadership, and many different kinds of leaders.

“Leaders are essentially creatures of habit. They don’t really do extraordinary things that often.
They do ordinary things often and consistently and persistently …
Good leaders keep turning up, they’re there, … at the coalface, they want to take on the challenges,
they want to fight the fight, regardless of how overwhelming the opposition seems, from both in and outside.”

(Mick Dodson, Chair, Indigenous Governance Awards, presentation to Mt Isa Sharing Success Workshop, September 2007)

“Ultimately, a genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus …”

(Martin Luther King Jr, Speech, ‘Remaining awake through a great revolution’, 31 March 1968)

Definition: Leadership is the art of motivating a group of people to act towards achieving a common goal. Leadership is about providing guidance and direction. It doesn’t always have to be done from the front; and it’s not an easy thing to achieve. A leader is someone who has the style, personal qualities, values, skills, experience and knowledge to ‘mould consensus’ and mobilise other people to get things done together.

Leadership and management are not the same thing. These days, nations, communities and organisations need to have both—but not all good leaders are good managers and equally, not all managers are good leaders.

Depending on how they exercise power and use their authority, leaders can either undermine their nation or organisation, or they can inspire people and foster commitment and cooperation. So the qualities and skills of your leaders are critical to the effectiveness of your governance.

But remember, leadership is not just for people at the top. Everyone can be a leader by using his or her talents to make a difference each day. Building collective leadership is an important part of nation building and community development.

4.0.2 Effective, legitimate leadership

Every society has its strong, visionary leaders, and its weak leaders.

Effective leadership is about the wise use of power. The legitimacy of leaders is stronger and more sustained when they gain the respect and trust of their members, and when there is open communication with these members.

To do that, leaders need to:

  • act with a set of shared values and standards of behaviour in mind
  • be accountable, and commit to being fair and inclusive in representing their members and followers
  • understand and carry out the responsibilities given to them
  • inspire people to work together
  • recognise their weaknesses and strengths
  • understand the limitations to their role
  • know when to seek further knowledge or expertise
  • help their nation, communities and organisations achieve their goals.

This kind of leadership better enables a group of people to achieve the things that matter to them.

Gary Banks, Chairman of the Australian Productivity Commission reports on ‘Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage’ for Australian governments. He suggests that solving the issues confronting communities and nations is not just a matter of money—legitimate and effective leadership plays a vital role:

“Community leadership and the legitimacy of this are absolutely essential.
How leaders marshal resources, engage partners, mobilise assets and generate support to
enact their visions is at the heart of effective governance.”
(Gary Banks, ‘Elders bring new hope to the Kimberley’,Reconciliation Newsletter, No 25, page 9, December 2012)

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Case Studies

NPY Women’s Council – strong culture, strong women, strong communities

  NPY Women’s Council (NPYWC) was set up in 1980 and incorporated in 1994.  The organisation was founded in response to the concerns of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women throughout the APY lands.   The women were concerned about the …

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Murdi Paaki Regional Assembly

Self-determination and community control The Murdi Paaki Regional Assembly (MPRA) is comprised of the Chairs or representatives of 16 Aboriginal Community Working Parties (CWP’s) across the Murdi Paaki Region of NSW. MPRA see self-determination as the key success to their …

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NPY Women’s Council: Building your cultural guiding principles into your rulebook

The NPY Women’s Council became incorporated under new legislation in 2008. The council undertook a significant period of consultation with its members—spread across a large geographic region—in the lead-up to lodging its new rulebook (formally known as the constitution) with …

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News

ORIC Top 500 Report 2014-15

The Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations (ORIC) released the 2014-2015 top 500 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporations report in December 2015. This is ORIC’s seventh report on the top 500 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporations. It collates and …

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Social Justice Commissioner launches 2014 Social Justice and Native Title Report

Mr Mick Gooda is the current Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner. The Commissioner has a unique role at the Australian Human Rights Commission, responsible for advocating for the recognition of the rights of Indigenous Australians. As part …

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Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage: Key Indicators 2014 Report

The Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage report: Key Indicators 2014 (OID Report) was released by the Productivity Commission in November 2014. The OID Report measures the wellbeing of Australia’s Indigenous peoples. The report provides information about outcomes across a range of strategic …

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The Australian Indigenous Governance Institute

The Australian Indigenous Governance Institute is a unique Indigenous led national centre of governance knowledge and excellence. We know that practically effective and culturally legitimate governance is the staple building block for delivering real change.

We assist Indigenous Australians in their diverse efforts to determine and strengthen their own sustainable systems of self-governance by identifying world-class governance practice, informing effective policy, providing accessible research, disseminating stories that celebrate outstanding success and solutions, and delivering professional education and training opportunities.

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