Southern Grampians Shire Council participant Rachel Munro, CFA acting operations manager District 5 Richard Bourke, Glenelg Shire Council participant Ryan Weissel, Inspector Paul Hargreaves from Victoria Police
A DISCUSSION panel of police, CFA, State Emergency Service and the Department of Human Services (DHS) has given Warrnambool leaders an insight into leadership through difficult times.
Last week's Leadership Great South Coast program at Warrnambool was focused around communication in a variety of difficult circumstances, as several guest speakers and sessions engaged group participants last Friday.
Leadership Great South Coast executive officer Amanda Hennessy said it was interesting to learn that each emergency service panel member viewed communication in similar ways during crises.
"They were quite uniform and what we discovered was in the past they might've had different approaches but they have come to a common point now where they're working across agencies routinely," she said. "It was good to see the DHS coming into crisis situations a lot earlier, so emergency services understand the need to bring in those kind of agencies."
Ms Hennessy said participants were able to engage with the panel through questions, which were centred around communication in crisis.
"The questions were around the style of communication in those crisis situations and how it varied from general leadership style. They discussed the attributes you need, the skills and knowledge in that situation, and the theme of communication kept coming through.
"Of course in crisis situations they not only have to be co-ordinated in their approach, but there's a communication they need to have with the general public."
The leadership program participants, each from groups accepted through an application process, meet every two weeks with different topics relevant to the south-west region.
j.pech@standard.fairfax.com.au
