Te Putanga
Leadership in Practice
Our flagship 9 month development programme for experienced Public Service leaders who are ready to transform their leadership impact and grow strategic influence across the Public Service.
Te Putanga | Leadership in Practice is an immersive, whole self development experience that challenges you to deepen your self-awareness, mindsets and skills to unlock your leadership effectiveness and impact. We draw on leadership practices from te ao Māori, the Pacific and the world to support you to reflect on who you are as a leader and what is emerging from within you.
Te Putanga means to appear or come into view. It is inspired by the following words which are often uttered by Māori orators as they rise to speak:
“Ka puta ki te whaiao, ki te ao mārama”
To emerge into the dawn light, and into the world of light.
The words refer to a world constantly emerging from darkness into light, as the orator’s words offer guidance and wisdom, that brings the listeners out of the night of the unknown, into the dawn of knowing.
Learning objectives
Te Putanga includes individual coaching and peer learning to help you leverage your natural skills and talents so you can step into your authentic leadership. This programme would suit those who have experience leading others and want to:
- develop greater self-awareness and deepen your sense of purpose
- broaden your leadership impact, presence and strategic influence
- fine-tune your leadership and influencing skills
- reflect on and build a plan to fulfil your career aspirations as a Public Service leader
- build your professional profile and grow your peer network with other Public Service leaders across the system
Eligibility
Offered to senior Public Service leaders/managers. Applicants need approval from their manager and organisation to apply. Non LDC members may apply.
Cost
LDC members rate: $12,950 + GST
Non-member rate: $17,500 + GST
Programme overview
1st month
Kick-off session – In this 2-hour session you’ll gain an overview of the programme and have a chance to connect with the other participants.
Māori Capability session – We have people from all backgrounds attend Te Putanga with various levels of experience and understanding of te ao Māori (the Māori world view). To support your learning experience in a bicultural learning environment, this virtual session covers some aspects of tikanga Māori, cultural practices. When you understand more about these practices it can enable you to participate with confidence, awareness, authenticity and respect. This session will specifically cover the cultural practices of karakia and pepeha.
Leadership Circle Profile Assessment – You’ll complete the Leadership Circle Profile (LCP) Assessment and invite your manager and others you work with to also provide feedback.
LCP debrief – Discuss the results of your LCP assessment with an experienced coach to identify key areas where development is needed. You will reflect and plan next steps.
Pre-reading and reflection – This programme takes a blended learning approach, videos and readings are given before the workshop to help prime you for discussions with other leaders.
Months 1-8
Residential – The four-day residential allows time away from the workplace to focus on your leadership and yourself, and to reflect, think and plan the impact you want to have as a leader. You will build trusted networks with colleagues from other agencies who will support your learning and development.
Peer learning groups – Following the residential, you’ll participate in 3 facilitated peer learning sessions and 3 self-led peer to peer learning groups to deepen your transformative leadership work. These provide opportunities to strengthen your personal leadership as you coach and support one another to meet challenges, develop your personal leadership and practice using the people around you to navigate challenges.
Coaching sessions – You can schedule up to 5 hours of individual coaching with your programme coach over the programme.
Month 9
Final peer learning group and graduation – Meet with your cohort for your last peer learning group and celebrate your progress and achievements.
Upcoming programme dates
Cohort 81
Applications close: Friday 6 December 2024 (this has been extended from Wednesday 20 November 2024)
Kick-off date: 10 February 2025
Cultural capability session: 11 March 2025
Residential: 1-4 April 2025
Peer learning groups (facilitated): 29 April 2025, 10 June 2025, 5 August 2025 and 21 October 2025
Cohort 82
Applications close: Friday 14 March 2025
Kick-off date: 26 June 2025
Cultural capability session: 29 July 2025
Residential: 12-15 August 2025
Peer learning groups (facilitated): 18 September 2025, 30 October 2025, 10 December 2025 and 12 February 2026.
Cohort 83
Applications close: Friday 20 June 2025
Kick-off date: August 2025 (to be confirmed)
Cultural capability session: October 2025 (to be confirmed)
Residential: late October 2025 (to be confirmed)
Peer learning groups (facilitated): December 2025 (to be confirmed), February 2026 (to be confirmed), late March 2026 (to be confirmed) and May 2026 (to be confirmed).
Apply
To apply for this programme complete the application form below and email it to ldcprogrammes@ldc.govt.nz
We suggest you download and save this form to your files before you begin filling it out. Allow 20 minutes to complete this form.
Application form [PDF, 326 KB]
Application closing dates
See page 2 of the application form for programme dates and application deadlines.
Agency and manager endorsement
Your application must be supported by both your manager and agency general manager human resources. Some agencies have their own internal selection process. Before you begin your application, check with your agency general manager human resources or equivalent
Benefits
- Opportunities for experiential learning, reflection and practise in the workplace.
- Experience learning and leadership models from both Western and Māori world views.
- Time to build high trust networks with leaders from other Public Service agencies and enhance cross-sector collaboration.
- Insights from chief executives and senior leaders as guest speakers.
- Highly experienced and respected facilitators who understand the content and direction of the Public Service Act 2020 and the priorities for all chief executives.
Testimonials
“The residential opens the door to the leadership journey – this is invaluable to the programme. The ability to reflect on leadership from a te ao Māori perspective adds a richness and depth to traditional forms of leadership.”
“A very worthwhile programme… will remember fondly. I loved how open and honest people could be due to the environment we were in and the trust in the facilitators”
“The coaching has been invaluable and I really appreciated the authentic engagement... I felt equally valued and held and pushed and challenged. The opportunity to completely focus through the residential was also an amazing opportunity, along with the great speakers and fantastic facilitation. And most of all, the way that the process enables the development of a supportive leadership network is something that we will all benefit from for years to come.”
“I am more focused on having impact as a leader, stretching into new/scary opportunities, and being more balanced (including through modelling better work/life balance)”