A "visionary" outlook, willingness to collaborate and being "influential" are three of the key attributes the public service is set to look for in its future leaders, one of the APS' senior executives told a conference in Canberra Thursday.
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Secretary of the Department of Social services, Finn Pratt, was one of several speakers at the Institute of Public Administration Association ACT's conference on "thinking big" at Hotel Realm on Thursday.
The long-time executive sits on the Australian Public Service Commission's Talent Council - a key central body that has been scouring some of the private sector's top consulting firms for strategies to attract and develop promising young public servants.
Mr Pratt told the packed conference room that work had led the council to come up with a list of five key attributes it would be looking for in a potential "talent management" strategy that will be shared with a "very senior, very small group of senior executives" over the next six months.
He said the APS would be looking for potential future leaders who were "visionary, influential, collaborative, enabling and entrepreneurial" - attributes he said were "the crucial additional capabilities for the future".
"And of course our leaders need to be self-aware, courageous and resilient., (but) having said all that, can I assure you that we don't expect leaders in the future to be super-human," he said.
Mr Pratt said the council's work with a select group of firms that were "exemplars" of private sector talent management had shown the public service had not was not making such large investments in managing "talent", despite having a huge amount of talent and creating "good leaders".
Mr Pratt said the firms the council spoke with all used rigorous processes, from the very start of the appointment process of all staff - whether entry-level positions or senior management - as well as incremental check-ups on talented staff at least every six months.
"Many use 360 degree feedback, simulation exercises, psychometric assessments and behavioural interviews in their talent management process, it's very sophisticated (and) they've learnt not to rely on gut feel," he said.
Mr Pratt also said some firms had also been surprised that by using such rigorous processes, that they were finding "hidden talent" already within their organisations.
"They spoke about how they were surprised at the potential that was hidden from view because of their gender or their current life circumstances, they are convinced that their talent management strategies are critical to their organisation's successes."
He said the strategies that emerged from the process would be discussed at the most senior levels of the APS over the next six months, before wider consultation among lower management levels, with a view to cementing the "talent management framework" being developed.
"The real secret in this area is the level of commitment, the investment of time and effort by senior managers and the systematic, robust and data-driven recruitment processes," he said.
