The best leaders combine a strong sense of confidence and self-belief with humility and active listening, according to Michael Manthorpe PSM, former Commonwealth and ACT ombudsman.

This piece is adapted from comments Michael made in response to the question ‘what makes a great SES leader?’ at the first session of the IPAA ACT Senior Executive Leadership Conversations program.

There are countless books and endless conversations about leadership generally and Australian Public Service leaders more specifically.

Lately, for good reason, everyone has been talking about integrity and stewardship; and it’s easy to examine the selection criteria for senior executive leaders for the sorts of skills SES officers need.

If you look closely, though, you will find that there is a leadership paradox.

To be a great SES officer you need a considerable ego. You need to have self-confidence and self-belief. You need to know you belong in the large, important role you occupy. If you don’t, how will you confidently provide your minister with frank and fearless advice? How will you tell your boss or one of your staff or your workforce things they don’t want to hear? Why will anyone want to follow a leader who lacks the confidence to lead?

You need to believe in yourself to drive for results, engage strongly with stakeholders, innovate and take risks, come up with long-term visions and strategies amidst change and ambiguity, engage with the parliament, and have all the other forms of accountability mechanisms that exist. You need an ego to lead.

Yet, the paradox is that to be a great SES officer you also need humility. You need to be quiet and listen to others. You need to hear advice. You need to be alert to problems and risks with courses of action that you might passionately believe in.

You are there to lead, yes, but you are also there to serve. Serve the government of the day. Serve your boss.  Serve your staff, the parliament, the people, and the stakeholders who have a place in your subject matter area.

The great SES leaders I worked for knew how to lead. The best ones were uniformly strong and smart. But they also knew how to serve.

And to me, a defining quality that both strong leaders and humble leaders bring together is that they are curious about what is going on around them. If something is going wrong, they genuinely want to know why and get real feedback about what needs to happen next. If something is going right, they still wonder – are we missing something? They ask lots of questions – up, down, sideways, and outside their workplace to constantly refresh and grow. They are never, ever complacent, or smug.

In summary: the paradox is that great public service leaders have healthy egos but are also humble. They lead and they serve at the same time every day, bringing all that together with the exercise of curiosity.

Interested in hearing more leadership insights such as these? Make sure to check out our Senior Executive Leadership Conversations program.