Interview: Robert Costa

Position: Director, Workplace Relations

Education: Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Industrial Relations. University of Western Australia, 1975.

Questions

1. What prompted you to follow the vocation you have chosen to follow?

I always have been fascinated by I/R and the government. Before my current role, I worked for centerlink for quite a substantial amount of time placing people back into employment. This work was close to my heart as I saw the struggles my parents endured finding employment when they first migrated to Australia from Italy in the 1950’s.

2. What would you say is the most important ingredient to the success of our department?

Teamwork. I believe you are only as strong as your team. I recognise that I currently run a department which has many skill sets within it, from lawyers to IR specialists. I know most of you know more than me when it comes to certain topics so I see my job as fostering this knowledge within this team and getting everyone working together to achieve the best possible outcome.

3. What do you do to foster this?

Honesty and communication. You have noticed that in a meeting I will tend to sit back and let you all come up with the answer which you all agree is the best answer. I do this, again because you all are the experts in your relative fields.

4. What would you say your strengths are as a leader?

My biggest strength, and correct me if I am wrong – is that I am very approachable. I believe it is important to build this with your staff. Again the way I build this is through honest open communication.

5. Any weaknesses you can observe?

I try and get involved to much in small aspects of the department which are already taken care of by you all. Force of habit I must admit.

6. What do you like most about you current role? Any thing you dislike?

I love the ever changing area of IR currently. It seems – and you would agree – that there seems to be a change every week in IR currently. This is very exciting, and also quite different to what I have experienced government to be. I can not quite think of anything I don’t like. I am quite content with my job currently.

7. In the past year, we have gone through incredible change within our department due to changes in the government’s industrial relations policy. How have you been able to manage this change successfully?

Communication, Communication and Communication. In my experience as a manager I have seen some disastrous change management scenarios. I have come to the conclusion that whenever there is a change put in place you will always have two types of people, those who embrace it and those who are terrified by it. Some people simply don’t like their cheese being moved!. In my experience, the first reaction to people have towards change is, “what’s in it for me?” As long as you can tackle this concern by being completely open and honest you will do ok.

Leadership Characteristics Displayed by Rob:

After interviewing Rob I believe he displays some relationship oriented leadership qualities. This could be simply because of his senior position within a government institution and not by choice. Working with Rob from day to day I can see he wants to be involved in some more micro-level operations of the department but I think he recognises this is no longer his role. There is a saying within the government, and that is That the APS level conduct all the work and the EL level of government go to all the meetings. I believe Rob has recognised this and really has stepped back and become a relationship oriented leader.

Rob also displays very high levels of morals and ethics. Through his honest, clear communication styles he displays this. It is very important for a leader to display ethics as through this the leader will generally develop trust. This has been particularly important in the past year since there has been so many alterations to our department in terms of government legislation change. This has resulted in many areas within Workplace Relations been moved around and in tern has meant many worried staff in terms of job security etc. Through Rob’s open, honest communication of every step of the change process, he is able to calm worried staff members down in order to continue business as usual. The trust he has instilled in his staff makes this approach work as you know, as a staff member, that what ever Rob expresses is what is really happening.

Another very strong leadership trait which Rob demonstrates is extreme passion for his work. He has dedicated his life to IR. His fascination started as the topic was close to his heart, as Rob explains, because he saw how hard his parents had to work to find employment when they first migrated to Australia. Rob then went on to study IR at university and also dedicated much of his working life to finding jobs for many less skilled members of the community through his work at Centrelink. Due to the fact that IR was close to his heart, an incredible passion for his work can be observed when working alongside Rob. Rob always displays this and always gets you really thinking of what you are doing within your role.