Coach and trainer Kylie Holyland will be the facilitator at the APS6 – EL1 Women in Leadership Masterclass, at the Hyatt Hotel Canberra, from 30 April – 1 May. Photo: Supplied.
Women in Leadership Summit 2025
Date: 28 – 30 April
Time: 9 am – 6 pm & 9 am – 4:30 pm
Location: Intercontinental Hotel, 117 Macquarie Street, Sydney
Email: [email protected]
Overview
Make 2025 your year. Be inspired and blaze your trail!
- Learn to lead with passion and purpose.
- Embrace diverse perspectives to overcome obstacles as a unified team.
- Lean into challenges, manage wellbeing, and sustain high performance.
- Build authentic relationships that support lasting, transformative change.
Speakers include:
- Chief People Officer, NSW Education Standards Authority, Emily Pfitzner
- Group Executive, People & Corporate Affairs, Sydney Airport, Kristen Sweeney
- Chief Digital Officer, Service NSW, Christine Igasto
- General Manager, Customer Contact & Distribution, NRMA, Nicole Dollin
- Chief Marketing Officer, eBay, Rebecca Newton
- People & Culture Director, Communications, Diversity & Inclusion, The Coca-Cola Company, Jude Batrac.
QLD Public Sector Women in Leadership Masterclass
Date: 29 – 30 April
Time: 9:30 am – 4:30 pm
Location: Meanjin | Cliftons Brisbane, Edward Street
Email: [email protected]
This transformative program is designed to enhance and accelerate your leadership development. Take charge of the next phase of your career. This is a watershed moment in your career, and the skills and behaviours that you cultivate now will become the cornerstones of your senior leadership in the years to come.
This intimate and engaging masterclass is designed to provide you with these skills and behaviours so you can grow and scale your senior leadership for what comes next.
Specifically designed for women in public sector leadership roles from all jurisdictions, this two-day course will give you the key tools to thrive as a senior leader and set yourself up for success for the rest of your career.
One of The Hatchery’s most seasoned and highest-rated facilitators, Eleanor Groat, will take you on a journey of light-bulb moments and strategically grow key skills so that you walk away refreshed, inspired and more confident in your leadership and the path ahead.
Maximising Regulatory Enforcement & Compliance Outcomes
Date: 29 – 30 April
Time: 9 am – 4:40 pm
Location: Batman’s Hill on Collins, Melbourne | Naarm & Online
Email: [email protected]
Learn strategic approaches to strengthen enforcement for modern regulators. The inaugural Regulatory Enforcement & Compliance Outcomes Conference offers an unmissable opportunity for regulators to address the demands of today’s complex regulatory landscape.
With rising pressures to deliver transparent, effective, and better compliance outcomes, this conference will connect you with regulatory peers and experts from across jurisdictions to explore how they set their regulatory priorities, use enforcement tools innovatively, and when alternatives to enforcement work.
The Hatchery’s Annual Regulation Conference Series has attracted more than 250 regulatory professionals from various federal and state-level regulators, agencies and departments across Australia and New Zealand. Attend this leading industry event to learn how you can improve your approach to compliance and enforcement.
Forget the Apologies & Learn to Lead with Confidence
Date: 30 April
Time: 10 am – 11:30 am
Location: Online
Email: [email protected]
Through this complimentary online seminar with sociologist, author, TedX speaker and confidence-builder Professor Maja Jovanović, you will understand what gendered communication habits, thought traps and social biases are holding you back.
Apologies are confidence killers. So, why do women apologise all the time? From managers to CEOs, Professor Maja has heard women at all levels of leadership apologise for absolutely no reason, making themselves seem weak and lacking confidence. It frustrates her so much that she has dedicated her career to helping women speak with confidence to hold their power and credibility.
Professor Maja is on a mission to turn our apologetic communication styles into confidence-building lingo. Apologies have become a habitual way of communicating for many women and it’s intimately linked to deflection of praise, humbleness and gender stereotypes.
Professor Maja is in the sixth year of her global study on women’s confidence. So far, she has collected more than 2000 hours of interviews, with over 400 women, across 26 countries. This talk has been designed to enlighten and engage you on the gender differences in apologies, alternatives to ‘’sorry’’, and strategies for how to say ‘’no’’.
Learn how to forget the apologies, claim your credibility and lead with confidence.
APS6 – EL1 Women in Leadership Masterclass
Date: 30 April – 1 May
Time: 9:30 am – 4:30 pm
Location: Hyatt Hotel Canberra
Email: [email protected]
This transformative program is designed to enhance and accelerate your leadership development. Lift your APS career by becoming an inclusive and trusted leader who delivers with impact. Choosing to lead at the APS6 – EL1 level is a watershed moment in your career, and the skills and behaviours that you cultivate now will become the cornerstones of your APS senior leadership in the years to come.
This intimate masterclass is designed to provide you with the crucial skills and behaviours to step out of being a technical expert and ready yourself for more senior leadership.
This highly engaging two-day course has been specifically designed for women in APS 6 – EL1 leadership roles to build your understanding and capability to deliver more of what your SES requires of you. It will help you navigate the APS context, be more influential, find your voice, have greater confidence leading diverse and hybrid teams, and set yourself up for success for the rest of your career.
Seasoned Commonwealth public service leadership coach and facilitator Kylie Holyland will take you on a journey of light-bulb moments and strategically grow key skills to excel in the APS. Carve out your own leadership plan, network with peers at the same stage as you and walk away refreshed, inspired and more confident in your leadership and the path ahead.
SES Orientation Program
Date: 30 April – 16 May
Duration: One two-day workshop (30 April – 1 May) and one three-day workshop (14 – 16 May)
Location: Australian Capital Territory – MoAD (Old Parliament House)
Email: https://apslearn.apsacademy.gov.au/user_login
Working at the SES level will be a little different to what you’re used to if you’re being promoted from an EL2, or if you were working outside of the APS and are newly appointed to an SES position (Band 1 to Band 3). The APS Academy designed the SES Orientation program to help you establish the essential skills, partnerships and networks required for effective SES leadership.
The program enables SES personnel to step up to the higher strategic accountabilities of the role, step out to take a broader systems view and engage more effectively with a diverse stakeholder group, and ‘’step forward’’ to develop more capable teams.
The course will support a new SES to take up the leadership (stewardship) and management (accountability) dimensions of their APS SES role.
This content is suitable for SES Band 1 – 3. Consideration will be given to long-term acting EL2s (more than six months).
APS6 to EL1: Managing Performance & Difficult Conversations
Date: 1 May
Time: 9 am – 4:30 pm
Location: Online
Email: [email protected]
Overview
Learn the essential communication and conflict resolution skills to effectively and proactively manage performance.
- Understand the risks of employee disengagement and identify its signs.
- Deliver performance feedback that is proactive, effective, and actionable.
- Prepare for and navigate tough conversations with the right tools.
- Learn essential skills for resolving conflicts constructively and positively.
QLD Public Sector AO6 to AO7: Management Essentials Workshop
Date: 1 – 2 May
Time: 9 am – 4:30 pm
Location: Brisbane, Q:D
Email: [email protected]
Overview
Learn the essential management skills to strengthen the connections between strategy and results.
- Address changing expectations facing management in the Queensland Public Service.
- Strengthen your resilience through emotional intelligence (EI).
- Manage KPIs, set expectations and monitor outcomes.
- Develop a focused yet flexible strategy to guide your development.
Inside Look Webinar Series
Date: 5 May; 16 June
Location: Online (via Teams)
Cost: Free, bookings are essential
Kim Vella Coaching’s free Leadership Strategies Series will equip leaders with insights into leadership challenges and teach them how to close the gap.
In today’s volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world, public sector leaders face unique challenges that demand more than traditional leadership approaches. The Inside Look Webinar Series is a monthly opportunity to explore one key “gap” holding leaders back from thriving in their roles.
Each session focuses on a specific leadership challenge, offering insights into why it matters and how leaders can begin to close the gap. Topics include:
- The Wellbeing Gap: Balancing performance with sustainable leadership.
- The Confidence Gap: Leading with clarity, courage and conviction.
- The Collaboration Gap: Building partnerships that create meaningful change.
- The Expert to Orchestrator Gap: Transitioning from technical expert to leadership orchestrator.
In each webinar, you will:
- Gain clarity on the leadership challenges unique to today’s VUCA environment.
- Reflect on your own experiences and begin identifying ways to bridge the gap.
- Connect with peers and explore insights that empower leadership growth.
The Inside Look Webinar Series is your chance to step into a community of reflective leaders and savour a taste of the transformative insights offered in the Leadership Strategies Series 2025.
Leadership Strategies Series 2025
Date: 13 – 14 May; 24 – 25 June; 29 – 30 July; 9 – 10 September
Location: Online (via Teams)
Cost: Ticket prices vary; find out more at Kim Vella Leadership
As a leader in the public service, do any of these statements resonate with you?
- I feel overwhelmed all the time, like I’m spinning plates that could drop at any moment.
- I’m always under pressure with competing priorities, limited resources, and an ever-changing geopolitical landscape.
- I’m worried the hard work I put in isn’t recognised.
- I walk into meetings and feel anxious about what to say.
- I don’t usually think about my wellbeing. I just want to make it through another week.
- I feel like I’m never enough, and don’t know what could change that.
If any of these do resonate with you, you’re not alone.
The skills every public sector leader needs to thrive in today’s environment are next level – yet they’re rarely taught. Instead, we rely on outdated leadership models that will leave you feeling stressed, exhausted, and helpless.
Join respected executive leadership coach Dr Kim Vella, with the support of esteemed industry professionals, for a new leadership skills pathway: The Leadership Strategies Series.
