Department of Veterans' Affairs
Transcript
An emotional last day in the Army
I often reference the fact that transitioning from military service can be quite challenging. After 31+ years, to know that I was about to leave Russell Offices, as that was my last place to serve, for the last time in uniform and it was my choice to leave, but it was quite confronting. I knew I was ready because I was coming to DVA into my first public service position, but to hand back your pass and someone to sign a piece of paper and say, "I'll let you out of the building, goodbye," it wasn't the best experience, I'll be honest … I went into a small office with a lovely lady who was responsible, she was a public servant, responsible for transition. A very sterile office, just a table, a few chairs, and she went through a checklist to ensure that I'd handed back all my things I needed to hand back and that I'd paid my mess bill and she signed it off and she said, "Well, thank you, Liz. Can I have your pass and I'll escort you to the barrier," and zapped me out of the building. It was very lonely … I don't think I really anticipated how emotional I felt when I walked out and I knew that was the last day that I'd be in the military.
Becoming First Assistant Secretary at DVA
I applied for the position as the First Assistant Secretary at the Executive Division, and then I was shortlisted and I went to interview and it was actually Shane Carmody, who was the Deputy President at the time here in the department, interviewed me with some other panel members and I was selected for the role and then I went to Lovett Tower and met the Secretary of the day, which was Ian Campbell, and he offered me the role. So, I was very excited about that opportunity because I did actually see that coming to DVA was an extension of my military service, but not in uniform, but as a civilian … I took leave, just a month. Took a month's leave, and then started my job as a civilian.
The role of First Assistant Secretary
The role I was expecting when I met with the Secretary, Ian Campbell, and he talked me through what his expectations were of the role, he was quite clear. So, I was excited about that but the role included the Executive Division that he wanted to ensure that we had a team there that was supporting what I believe was the start of a significant transformation. Ian was very conscious of the culture of the department and he was very conscious of the fact we had been starting to deploy our forces into the Middle East. He had incredible foresight and vision to say, "Well, we should be preparing for that now." and Ian indicated to me that one of his key areas he wanted me to concentrate on were contemporary veterans, as he called them, and the families of contemporary veterans, knowing we'd lost our first veteran on operations and how we were looking after his wife, and he really wanted this division. This new division that he was employing me to lead, was very focused on that, to set the department up to look after the future veteran but he also had me leading the commemorations and the team under Tim Evans as the Assistant Secretary to prepare for the centenary. He was about to set up a new board, the Anzac Centenary board, and he said, "Right, Cosson, that's your responsibility. We're going to have a board planning for the centenary of Anzac." So, I was very excited about that opportunity, and he had a very clear mandate for me and, I think, when I started, it was above what I'd expected and I was very excited to be going into that role … and just being able to speak to the minister of the day, which was Warren Snowden, about potential board members and who was going to be the chair and, of course, it was Sir Angus Houston we selected. Well, I didn't select, the government selected, to be the chair of Anzac Centenary board and we had working groups reporting to the board to make sure that that Centenary was once again reinforcing the importance of all Australians, remembering the Prime Minister Billy Hughes commitment in 1918, that when they returned from the Great War, that we would look after them and to have that focus again and that purpose to make sure that we continue to remember and reflect on that service and sacrifice.
Leadership
What we learn in the military is all about leadership. I was a logistician and I remember very early in my career being told that decisions you take as a leader can actually put someone's life at risk. So, whenever you are making those decisions or considering outcomes and considering your decision, remember the soldier on the ground. Remember the soldiers on the front line because those decisions will have an impact on them and learning about leadership and having the opportunity to work out who I was as a leader was really important to me throughout my military service and I think one of the key lessons for me is being a female in an army of less than 10 per cent females, I wasn't going to be one of the boys, I'm just not that type of person. So, who was I? How was I going to shape my leadership? And you learn so much about yourself as a leader being put into different environments when you're in the military, that when you then transition into a public service leadership role you bring all those lessons, those learnings and those skills to your public service leadership.
The path to veteran-centric reform in DVA
When I came back to the Department in 2016 under Simon Lewis' leadership as Secretary, we were starting on what we were calling veteran-centric reform and what that meant was putting those individuals at the front of mind and how we did that was to establish some focus groups of volunteers, randomly selected female veterans and veterans from past and recent operations and we asked them, what was their experience with us? And there were two things that were watershed moments for me. One, where we had a focus group with a group of female veterans and Kate Pope, who is currently the Deputy President of the Commission, and I, we participated in this focus group and we heard a veteran say, "Getting a letter from DVA is like finding a tarantula in your letter box." And that was very confronting, but it was a moment that we recognized what we were doing in DVA, we were impacting on those lives and the second moment was, when we sat with a group of male veterans and they said to us, "We've served in the military. You trusted us. You gave us weapons. You sent us onto the front line. We then left. Why don't you know me? If I've worked in the Australian Defence Force, enlisted, why does DVA, who is there to serve us, not know who I am?" And that really shaped a lot of what are we doing for the future to understand not only today's veterans, but the future, the next generation of veterans. And, so, understanding that decisions that we took in DVA would impact on the lives of individuals and their families, that was front of mind every day to me, Ian. We didn't get it right all the time and I did worry about that, that sometimes we did make mistakes and I wished we could have done it better, but we never lost sight of why we were here and those individuals and the lives of those individuals, is really important.
Who is a veteran?
We didn't think about what did it mean to be a veteran after service. I mean, a lot of people when you say, "What does a veteran mean to you," they think of someone who has served in the Great War, the Second World War, Vietnam, an old man. Sadly, that's how a lot of people think of veterans, an old gentleman who's wearing his medals very proudly and marching on Anzac Day. That's not your typical veteran today, and I'm a veteran and, sadly, a couple of times in recent years where I've attended the War Memorial and I've worn my medals, and it was not that long ago, getting out of my car and I was putting my medals on and it was a lovely gentleman and his wife getting out of their car a couple down from me, and he didn't mean to hurt me, but he said to me, "Are they your father's medals?" and I said, "No, they're my medals." And still trying to let Australians know, what does service mean? Who is a veteran? What does a veteran look like? And so, when we're in service, we don't think of that when we leave and we need to do more in educating when you're in service that you are a veteran, and you need to then wear it proudly when you leave, that you are a veteran and to bring that to the forefront of Australian thinking as well, that veterans look like me. They look like a young woman, they look like a young man and to embrace that … I certainly didn't consider myself a veteran when I was serving and a lot of those that are wearing their uniform, when you ask them, "Are you a veteran," they'll say, “No.” I remember asking a recent Minister for Veterans Affairs, I asked his ADC, "Do you consider yourself to be a veteran?" and she said, “No”. So, despite all of our efforts in recent years to help those that are serving recognize and acknowledge they are veterans, they don't. They don't. So, what we need to be doing is preparing men and women when they're serving for their transition and to wear the word veteran proudly during service, during transition, and then post-service.
Working, listening, and adapting
When I graduated as a second lieutenant and I marched into my first military unit down in Bandiana, and it was a huge warehouse and I had a warrant officer working with me and a sergeant and corporals and privates and craftsman and I was quite confronted with that as a young officer to say, "You are expected to lead." But you also needed, I needed, to listen and I listened very carefully to the warrant officer and learned a little bit about our team and what was important to them and you learn not only from education, through reading of books and through your formal training, but I learned a lot from those that worked with me and listening to the warrant officers, who'd had that years of experience in leadership, and they had served in Vietnam, and to understand that just walking into a warehouse and saying, "Right, I'm your leader," that doesn't fly. You have to learn and you continue to learn and adapt your style throughout your military service and I had the great privilege to not only listen to my warrant officers and sergeants and corporals, but also those officers that mentored me and led me, to work out what does a leader actually mean and what works well and what doesn't and certainly being directive in a style of leadership did not suit me, and so, therefore, I had to learn, “Well, what was my style of leadership?” And I remember a leader once, a bit later in my career, talking about values-based leadership and that really resonated with me and who I was, based on my values, and to ask the question, "If I make this decision, what is that impact on that individual? What is the impact on the soldiers on the front line? What am I basing my decisions on? Is it the best decision that I can take?” And leading, as we've talked about, in sometimes very complex, uncertain environments, you learn and you adapt, but you listen and that was really important learning for me throughout my career … Most of my leadership, I believe, was through learnings, not formal learnings, but through working and listening and adapting and I often talked about, when I was in the military, having to make hard decisions when your heart wants you to go one way, but you have to use your head and you have to then base that decision on taking all of the evidence, taking all of the information that's being provided to you, taking that on board to say, 'Well, what is the right decision?" And then knowing that that right decision may not be popular, but you've made that right decision, you believe, based on all of your considerations and a textbook doesn't teach you that. A textbook will never really teach you the difference between your heart and your head and that came to the fore as well during COVID where I had to make some hard decisions that I knew may not be popular to everybody, but I had to consider why we were here and never lose sight of why DVA was here during COVID and remembering some of our veterans, our most vulnerable veterans, particularly when they went into lockdown in Victoria, working out how did we best support them while supporting our staff who had to continue to deliver important support and services during a really challenging time for our nation. The heart and the head and balancing all of that, you don't get that through reading, you get that through a lived experience and through judgment and through making sure that you never forget the people that are right at the centre of the decisions that you are taking … I learned early, and I read a book from a US general and it always resonated with me, about the fact that to be a leader you do have to make those tough decisions and you can't always be popular and as a person though, yes, you do feel that and I look at social media where it can become very personal and it can be confronting where people don't like your decisions and they don't understand necessarily why you made those decisions, but you know that you made that decision with the best interests of individuals at the heart of those decisions and you do the best you can with what is available to you at the time but, yes, Ian, it can be hurtful but I know every decision I've taken throughout my over four decades of a career were always based in the interests of the individuals and I never put self above those individuals … When I've had to make difficult decisions, I've always tried to present it back to staff and as best I can to the individuals to say, "Thank you for everything that you've provided to me and your arguments, but this is the way I have decided." and the majority of people will then follow. They'll trust, to say that you have listened and you have taken on board the arguments, but some people won't and that's their choice but those that do trust are those that I have had the great privilege to work with and I believe we have then taken organizations forward and improved outcomes for the majority.
Values based leadership
I'm probably not the best reader, to be perfectly honest, but I did read a little bit of General Powell's, the US general, his book when he released it as a strong leader and his lessons and what I found really interesting about his book, he talked about his top 12 lessons and that always resonated with me about working out what is important to me as a leader and how do I shape myself as a leader. So, that was one book I did read but mainly I have been a student of looking and learning and listening and the other person that I often talk about is Sir Angus Houston, because I heard him speak on many occasions where he talked about values-based leadership and how he applied his values to his leadership and he always gave practical lessons and when you listen to stories of leaders and how they've applied their leadership skills, that always resonated with me a lot more than reading a book. But there was someone else who I did read articles, and that was Dr. Allan Hawke and he was the Secretary in this department, but he was also a secretary in Defence and he was the Secretary of Defence when I used to listen to him speak and I used to listen to his articles and read his communication and he talked about people. People matter and those two words resonated with me more than any book I've read because I knew that at the heart of everything that I did, it was about people and then you look at Sir Angus Houston, about values and values-based leadership and that the people matter and then General Powell talking about his lessons of leadership, about knowing that you have to make right decisions but they're not always going to be necessarily the most popular decisions. Putting all of that together for me, Ian, was how I believe I shaped what was important to me as a leader throughout my career.
Selection and maintenance of the aim
One of the key lessons, I think, from our leadership that you learn in the military that translates really well into any leadership role, whether it be in the public service or the private sector, it was all about what in the military we refer to it as selection and maintenance of the aim and for me that translated into, what's your purpose? Why are you serving? Why are you leading? What gets you up in the morning? What inspires you? What drives you? And never losing sight of that and so, throughout my service in the military and now my public service, I will always apply that and I use that every day now. Why am I getting up this morning? So, that selection and maintenance of the aim or that purpose was a really important lesson that I believe will always shape my life regardless of what I do next but the other important lesson that we learned in the military and I believe translates once again well to any public service or private sector, is having a plan. What is your plan? Where do you want to go? So that you've got that direction and others know where you want to go and I was asked this question recently about, "Well, how do you lead and how do you deal with complexity and things that might be happening day-to-day that might be distracting?" It was all about knowing our purpose, our aim, where are we going? And then if the staff are connected with that, they will take you there. As a leader, you don't have to be doing everything. You can't be doing everything and you have to trust and inspire your staff to know where you're going and that's probably the third. And the third one I'll talk about is about trusting your staff, and when you are in the military as a leader, you had to trust your troops. You had to be able to trust them and inspire them and giving them an environment that you know that sometimes they're going to make mistakes but you've created an environment that they know where we're going, so that aim, that plan, and then they get on and do it because others' lives could be at risk if they don't understand where we are going. So, those three key lessons from our military service I believe translate into anything I do, whether it be public service or private sector or in my own life, just knowing where we are going, but I often used to reflect on command versus leadership. In the military there are times when you are required to command, but most of the time in the majority of your roles it's about leadership and command has its place and as a commander you understand the difference and when you then transition into the public service, what you're bringing is more of that leadership and the skills you've learned as a leader and a manager. So, I've reflected, the three are quite different, command and leadership and management and when I came into the public service, I recognized there were some individuals that didn't respect leadership. They didn't respect leaders, they felt that they were individuals and that they could do their own thing. They don't belong in any organization. I believe the majority of people who work in an organization, if they truly feel connected to that organization, they naturally follow leaders. Not directive, commanding leaders, but leaders who inspire them and leaders who help them know, what is the direction we are on? Where are we going? And that was a really important lesson for me, that I had some individuals when I first transitioned that I could not understand what it was that they didn't want to be part of that. They just wanted to do what they wanted to do and that's not a good public servant because if you look at the public service, the public service has its values. Military has its values. The services have their values and as a public servant, if you don't relate to those values, you actually don't belong even in the public service. So, I did find that confronting, but they were individuals. It was not the public service because I find the public service is an incredible institution whose values align to my values and the public service values align to our military values because ultimately what it is, it's all about service to our nation. We are all here, whether we be in uniform or the public service, to serve Australians and to keep them safe during times when we want to protect our values, our freedoms and that is such an important profession that we are in and now, as I leave the public service, I can proudly say that the public service was a continuation of my military service to our nation and that's something I'm very proud of.
Challenges for the Department of Veterans' Affairs
There've been many challenges during my career. It's not always been highlights as we've talked about but I think the most challenging period for me, there are two probably, two significant events during my time at DVA. Firstly, the pandemic, and leading an organization that is distributed across our nation. It's across Australia in every state and territory and when you go into lockdowns and you have different jurisdictions and different health requirements, and making sure we never lost sight of why we were here, what was our purpose, to support veterans and families but to look after your staff. I mean, if you look at how we as a nation came together, went into the lockdowns, worked from home, a lot of our staff were still serving veterans, serving the community, doing homeschooling, working off kitchen benches, working with remote access and they did that. I will always be proud of how DVA staff just continued to deliver to veterans and families during that time and look after themselves, be kind to each other. What a remarkable time and that was extremely challenging for many reasons but the second most challenging time for me was when the Governor General issued the Letters Patent for a Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide. That was a time for me where we knew it was going to be confronting for all of us. We knew that the Royal Commission is so important because suicide in our community is something we need to address and we've known that, and we know that the work of the Royal Commission is going to be so important to find ways to reduce or to eliminate the risks and the suicide in our veteran community, but to make sure that we put in place all the support we needed for our staff and worked very closely with Defence because it is a very confronting issue and I know that anybody who might be listening to this can be confronted by suicide, but I just want one message, and that is there is support available and to never give up and to know that there are others in the community who want to support you if you are struggling and please, know that that support is there. So, those two significant events during the time as a leader in the DVA were really significant and important, that we never lost sight of our community and the reason that we're here.
Anzac Day
Anzac Day to me is one of our most sacred days in Australia and it's a day of significance where all Australians should come together and say thank you. Thank you for your service. Thank you for keeping me safe. Thank you for protecting our democracy, our freedoms, and our values. Anybody that is wearing a uniform or anybody that is wearing the medals of a family member, because as someone who is a family member myself and a veteran, families make sacrifice as well to support those who put a uniform on to serve our country and Anzac Day, to me, is such a special day and I love the dawn service where it is a quiet moment of reflection and it's never about celebration, but it's about commemoration and it's about mates then coming together to share their stories of service because it's the mates that will reach out to someone who might just need that little bit of extra respect and support just to remember that service. It's such an important day, and let's protect it.
