Member Profile, Bradley White

EMERGING LEADER

BRADLEY WHITE

Brad White is a Civil Engineer with over 28 years of experience in both the public and private sectors. He has broad experience with a diverse and wellrounded set of skills and is a people-focused leader.

Brad started his career with an engineering cadetship at Brisbane City Council, working full-time and studying an Engineering Degree part-time at QUT in Brisbane.

Following small stints in waterways policy and a private consultancy, Brad joined Logan City Council as the Capital Works Engineer, where he undertook further studies gaining qualifications in project management.

Over the next 13 years, opportunities were presented to work as a program leader in Road Maintenance and then management opportunities in Waste Management and Plant & Fleet Services. He was also the Chair of the Infrastructure Recovery Sub-Group during the 2017 Floods.

Brad has participated in a number of formal leadership development programs at Logan City Council and the Propeller Program through the LGMA.

He is currently the Parks Manager at Logan City Council.

Brad is married and with two children and is a keen angler. When he isn’t working, you’ll find him fishing offshore on his boat or kayak in the southern Gold Coast waters.

Doug Larsen BMX Skate Park.

Who or what has contributed mostly to your career progression to date?

Good mentors and maximising on opportunities.

I am privileged to still have a few good mentors that I have previously worked for either directly or indirectly – they’ll remain anonymous, although they will know who they are when they read this article.

I suggest you don’t limit yourself to one mentor either, mentors have different strengths and it’s important to see different points of view as you develop through your career.

Opportunities can come when you least expect them and potentially have the worst timing. When I first moved into a role as an operational leader, I progressed from leading one staff member to one hundred staff members. The weekend before I started in the new role, my daughter had been very sick in hospital. I was tired, selfconfidence was plummeting, and I remember looking at my new organisation structure thinking what I have got myself in for.

Funnily enough, it all worked out. I think self-doubt is a natural human response to change and challenge. In my experience, most people rise to the challenge and are always better as a result.

What have been your career highlights?

This is a great question and encouraged me to reflect on my career. It’s interesting to consider how your own definition of a highlight changes over the years.

When I first started my cadetship program it was a tough way to get qualifications, as full-time work and attending lectures at night meant long days with weekends studying. I wasn’t partying like I had envisaged at that age. The part-time course through QUT was six years. It was a major highlight to get that piece of paper and be presented with my qualification in front of my family.

Reflecting on my early years as an engineer, highlights seem simpler. In one of my earlier roles as the Capital Works Engineer, I was part of a team delivering the Roads Capital Infrastructure Program. This role allowed me to lead a project to transform business systems around how the program was managed and reported. It involved the re-framing of programming and project management data, planning information and

Flagstone Waterpark.

Logan Gardens Water Play project.

finances. While at the end of the day it was a beefed up excel document, it created a userfriendly system that resulted in significant savings in operational costs. I was proud of this result as the management team would outsource the work to a consultant, but I stubbornly lobbied for the task.

Many years later I moved to an operational area and looked after a larger number of staff. Highlights start to then move towards more peopleoriented achievements with the development of a Health and Safety System and a Culture Journey project. These projects were significant pieces of work for change management and people management. I am proud of this work, they were longerterm projects that delivered a safer, happier and more productive workplace.

In more recent times, highlights arise from the opportunity to lead Logan’s Parks Branch as the Branch Manager through an exciting year of diverse challenges.

Our year involved challenges associated with a very large operational and capital budget and significant weather events. Logan was under Interim Administration and one of our depots was in the process of being redeveloped with a new building displacing 100 staff over numerous temporary locations. The branch was completing a total review of its Service Portfolio - a whole of network asset capture – with tight timelines associate with interim amendments to the planning scheme deadlines and then COVID decided to rear its ugly head.

It was a challenging year; however, I have a fantastic team and am well supported by Logan City Council’s executive team.

What do you enjoy most about working as an engineer in public works?

Giving back to the community and job diversity are the two most enjoyable components of my career to date.

Logan Gardens Water Play project.

As a young engineer in a local government, I was proud of the opportunity to be involved in delivering on-ground projects for the local community. It allowed me to have a sense of making a positive difference in the community, which should never be taken for granted or overlooked.

In more recent times I enjoy the diversity of my role. On any given day I am involved in or leading areas of engineering, leadership development, mentoring, workplace culture, HR and IR matters, policy, budgets, planning, politics and business strategies.

It keeps me on my toes and I’m never bored.

What inspired you to join IPWEAQ and what services are of most value to you?

I was given an opportunity to attend an IPWEAQ conference and it was a fantastic experience. I made great contacts and was very impressed with the information being shared. I was keen to become part of that cohort.

In terms of the services, I have always looked forward to the conferences and I value reading the Ask Your Mates forums and sharing of knowledge and experiences.

The Institute also provides great services such as training and publications relevant to the local government environment which can be difficult to locate otherwise. There is a wealth of knowledge out there and it collectively brings this together.

What advice have you received and/or would you give to others coming into our sector?

Never turn down an opportunity to learn something new. Be humble, be self-reflective and surround yourself with good people that can provide mentorship.

I would recommend that while you focus on technical skills. Also, ensure that you balance this with broader skillsets around people and culture. As young engineers work through their careers, communicating and working within a team is invaluable. As you grow as a leader you will need complement your technical skills with a completely different set of skills in the people space.

The sooner you start the better.

What challenges have you encountered in your career to date and how did/do you overcome them?

Albeit a bit of a cliché, my work/ life balance has increased in importance to me in more recent times.

As professionals, we will always be faced with too much work and never enough time. It’s important to focus on the job at hand but also to take time for yourself and family.

My natural way of working can mean that I can get a little too focused and caught in the vortex of work and not take to time to come up for a breath.

Clearing the mind to reset and manage the diversity of work is critical. To do this it’s important to plan and allocate time for work and your personal life but more importantly being disciplined enough to follow your plan.

I am currently working with an excellent group of driven and committed people, however we do take time to focus beyond our projects and integrate shared discussions around how we are also focusing on work/life balance.

I believe a balanced approach improves our workplace’s culture with a net positive result to output and quality of work.

Is there anything else you would like our readers to learn about your journey which would benefit others?

I recommend grabbing hold of any opportunity provided, sometimes you need to move sideways to move forwards. Saying yes to opportunities is daunting but the growth you experience personally and professionally is rewarding.

Several the opportunities provided to me over the years tested my nerves and selfconfidence. I jumped in and gave it a red hot go and managed to come out the other end with good experience and lots of new knowledge. Get out there and push yourself!