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

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.

Cohort 83

Applications close: Friday 25 July 2025

Kick-off date: 18 September 2025
Cultural capability session: October 2025 
Residential: 25-28 November
Peer learning groups (facilitated): 28 January 2026, 17 March 2026, 5 May 2026 and 16 July 2026.

Cohort 84

Applications close:  21 November 2025
Kick-off date: 29 January 2026
Cultural capability session: March 2026 (to be confirmed)
Residential: 24-27 March 2026
Peer learning groups (facilitated): 6 May 2026, 17 June 2026, 4 August 2026 and 20 October 2026. 

Cohort 85

Applications close: Friday 6 March 2026

Kick-off date: 26 May 2026
Cultural capability session: July 2026 (to be confirmed)
Residential: 28-31 July 2026
Peer learning groups (facilitated): 15 September 2026, 17 November 2026, 26 January 2027 and 2 March 2027.

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, 251 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

  • 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.

“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)”

Register you interest

If you work for one of our member agencies, please login so you can fill out the form below.

Note if you belong to one of our member agencies but haven’t created an account, you can easily sign up here.

If you do not work for a member agency and would to register for a programme, email ldcprogrammes@ldc.govt.nz