When hiring politicians, we need to look for leaders not just policy

A member of parliament is comparable with an employee of our country; by default, they are employed as managers with the capacity to make rules and administer budgets. And when thought of in that light, an approach to recruitment might be different than choosing the person who has the most signs on display, who you remember from high school, or the one with the most name recognition.

Those involved in human resource management would attest to the importance of a balance between knowledge, skills, and behaviours when recruiting new staff.

That is, we ought to ensure that our future employees have the knowledge required to do the job (or the capacity to quickly acquire it), the skills needed to achieve in the role, and the behaviours expected of a good organisational citizen.

Knowledge in a position description for politicians might be knowledge of the political system, governance expertise, and their proposed policies. System and governance knowledge can be taught, and often is through organisations like the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Their proposed policies are typically presented as their platform for election, or in the case of the Lambie Network who "don't do policies".

In the desirable skills of the role 'Member of Parliament', the Australian Government's Parliamentary Education Office suggests communication, decision- making, and negotiation skills alongside a willingness to work long hours and general interest in current affairs in politics.

The skill of current members is much easier to assess, but with any effective interview panel, it might be useful to make inferences based on past experience. A school teacher or presenter has experience with public speaking, a writer enjoys written communication, and a nurse requires good negotiation to achieve quality patient outcomes.

Knowledge and skills are often easiest to assess for. They are usually tangible and related to a person's previous experiences - professional and personal. Attempting to assess accurately human behaviour is the age-old question that psychometricians have spent decades trying to unpack.

What we should look for in our prospective representatives is those who will deploy positive leadership practices during their term. Policies often change, human character is a slower moving beast. So, what might we look for in our leaders?

The Centre for Creative Leadership argue that a political leader should be socially astute, be able to generate their own interpersonal influence, good networkers, reflective, and sincere. As a leadership scholar, I look for political leaders who are true to their values (even if I sometimes disagree with them), sincere, empathetic, passionate, resilient, and consistent.

It can be easy to generate popular policies and budget promises, it is much harder to deliver them and remain true to self. The behaviours of a good leader offer a safeguard against corruption, avarice, and ego; and leadership is what we should look for.

Dr Joseph Crawford, University of Tasmania