Sam Sader, a Senior Project  Manager in our Sydney road sector team reflects on his experience as a participant in the 2019 Roads Australia Fellowship program.

Good leaders place a higher emphasis on how they are perceived than how they perceive themselves. This is the single most significant learning I took away from participating in the Roads Australia 2019 Fellowship Program.

TSA Management, along with another 150 companies, is a member of Roads Australia – an industry group that provides a platform for industry, government and communities to focus on the planning, design and delivery of Australian road network. Ensuring that it is operated and maintained to meet the current and future demands as part of the overall transport system.

Each year Roads Australia invites applications from individuals with 10 to 15 years of experience (Fellows) to participate in the Roads Australia Fellowship Program – an exclusive national mentoring initiative pairing industry executives (Mentors) with Fellows. The Program is limited to just 30 Fellows Australia wide, and I was fortunate to be part of the 2019 Fellowship Program.

My Fellowship journey saw me paired up with the Transport Chief Executive of a multinational facilities services company. My Mentor and I met every six weeks over breakfast, lunch or sometimes for an after-work drink. The mentoring sessions were often frank and open and provided me with the opportunity to hear firsthand the key elements required to becoming a successful leader. I can see the relationship I have with my Mentor continuing for years to come.

Another perk of being a Fellow was having access to a 2019 Roads Australia ‘Golden Ticket’, allowing me to attend any of the 2019 Roads Australia events (approx. 100 annually) for free. I took advantage of this and attended numerous Roads Australia luncheons, dinners, and industry events. I not only learnt a lot at these events, but my attendance enabled me to expand my professional network. It also conveyed a further recognition of TSA’s commitment to positively contribute to the future of the Roads Industry.

Another big part of the Program was the Team Project with each team delivering a project report and presentation contributing to a topic from Roads Australia policy areas. I formed part of Group 2, and after several late nights, our team was proud to present our project – ‘The Connecting People Experience’. We recommended Roads Australia build upon the work our team completed to promote careers in the transport sector as desirable to year 9 and 10 school students.

Graduation from the 2019 Fellowship program was held at the Annual Fellows Dinner & Workshop in Melbourne in November. At the dinner, our team was ecstatic to learn we won best team project and earnt ourselves a Golden Ticket for all 2020 Roads Australia events.

I want to thank TSA for the opportunity and wish Richard Hughes from the TSA Melbourne team, the very best for his 2020 Roads Australia Fellowship Program.

In years to come, I will look back at my time fondly and look forward to what I can deliver for the roads sector in the future.