New Water Policy and Practice Issue 4, Number 1, Fall 2017 | Page 9

New Water Policy & Practice Journal • Volume 4, Number 1 • Fall 2017
Growing as a Water Leader: Beware of Six Traps
André Taylor A
Abstract
This paper describes six leadership-related “traps” that develop-
ing leaders in the water sector commonly fall into, as well as ways
to avoid or escape them. It draws on the experience of the author
who has worked as a leadership development specialist over the last
10 years to build the leadership capacity of water practitioners so
they can initiate and drive positive change. This experience includes
working closely with several hundred developing water leaders from
around the world through a variety of leadership development pro-
grams and short courses, and conducting over 500 coaching sessions.
A consequence of this experience has been the identification of a
number of common patterns of behaviour that emerging water lead-
ers exhibit as they seek to grow as leaders. These patterns are surpris-
ingly similar given they occur in people working in different geo-
graphic locations, organisations, professional roles, and cultures. In
this paper, these patterns are referred to as leadership-related “traps”,
as they represent barriers to growth.
This paper describes six of the most common traps that can signifi-
cantly hinder the ability of water leaders to grow their leadership
capacity and improve their leadership effectiveness. It also explains
why these traps are a problem and provides practical advice on
avoiding or minimising the impact of them using guidance from the
leadership development literature as well as the author’s experience
of working closely with these people and evaluating the results. This
guidance should assist developing water leaders directly, as well as
people who nurture such leaders such as supervisors, mentors, and
leadership development specialists.
Keywords: Developmental traps, leadership, leadership develop-
ment, professional development, water leadership.

A
International Water Centre, Brisbane, Australia; Australian Graduate School of Management,
University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Monash Sustainable Development Institute,
Monash University, Melbourne, Australia; and André Taylor Consulting, Port Macquarie, Australia.
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doi: 10.18278/nwpp.4.1.2