2017 President's Award for Leadership Winner - Kate Morton

“Less talking, more listening and more action” was the mantra that won Kate Morton the CDAA 2017 Presidents Award for Leadership.

Kate was recognised for her volunteer work as Learning and Development Coordinator of the Queensland Division in 2016.

During her tenure, she organised several high-quality professional development events, including ‘Labour Market - Making sense of all that data’ and ‘Good Theory Good Practice’.

Kate said she was proud to have provided members with opportunities to expand their knowledge, grow their skills and increase their professional confidence.

“I am proud I was able to deliver a variety of regular PD events for Queensland as part of my volunteer role,” Ms Morton said.

“I have been told I ‘raised the bar’ and that my shoes might be hard to fill, but maybe that bar needed to be raised.”

While there were various challenges in her role, Kate pushed past these to achieve the division’s goals.

“My biggest challenges were allocating time to coordinate these events, getting registration numbers and finding suitable speakers,” she said.

“But I used the same leadership behaviours we use when working with clients – being curious, looking for opportunities, and less talking, more listening and more action.”

Kate has now taken on the Deputy Chair position for the National Learning and Development committee, helping to contribute exciting new initiatives for the association.

As part of her new role, she has developed a National L&D Survey and is encouraging members to complete it.

“Some members believe that CDAA hasn’t been providing them with value or sufficient PD, which has challenged me to continually ask them – ‘have you let us know what you want?’,” she said.

“Members can now complete the current national survey. But we need to reiterate that we need more people involved. Not making suggestions or taking part in the solution doesn’t help.”

Impressed by her nomination, the Excellence Award judges wrote that Kate ‘has lived this passion at the local level and is now spreading it nationally by enthusiastically engaging with the L&D needs of all CDAA members’.

They also believe she has learning and development and member engagement ‘at her heart’ and ‘demonstrates drive, energy, commitment and innovation’.

“The encouragement of other CDAA members and leaders has helped me in my journey with the association, but it is also my personal desire to understand the world of career development,” Ms Morton said.

Kate was presented her trophy at the CDAA 2017 Excellence Awards Dinner at the Pullman Hotel Brisbane on May 18.