How the program is taught

A fresh approach to leadership development

Sydney Leadership introduces you to an innovative leadership development model which offers new ways to tackle the challenges leaders face in increasingly complex environments.

The Social Leadership Australia model

Sydney Leadership is an intensive, highly experiential learning program, not a theoretical course.

One of its core aspects is the Adaptive Leadership model developed by Professor Ron Heifetz and his colleagues at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Adaptive Leadership distinguishes between 'technical' problems—which can be solved by management—from 'adaptive' challenges—where changes to values, beliefs and attitudes are required to make progress. The Social Leadership Australia (SLA) model understands leadership as an activity that mobilises groupos to participate in solving their own problems.

Taking you beyond your four walls

Sydney Leadership offers a different learning environment and a different experience from other programs.

Program days are delivered in real-life situations, in real-time—not in a classroom—because we believe the deepest learning comes from experience. We also know from our work that many of the challenges leaders face today lie beyond the four walls of their office—as do the answers.

Immersing you in a diversity of challenging community environments such as prisons, schools, Aboriginal communities and public housing estates, brings you face-to-face with the reality of the complex issues and creates a space to explore the issues, dynamics and complexity that characterise the work of modern leadership.

There is nothing off-the-shelf about the program. Each component is designed to develop your practical leadership skills, increase your understanding of organisational challenges, improve your negotiation, problem-solving, communication and team-building skills and build enduring relationships with other, different leaders.